One Weekend One Ride

I finally made it through a weekend without being stung by yellow jackets! Yahoooooooooooo, if you want the full report on where the stinging beeatches are in and around Pisgah, take a look at this thread. I hope most of them are gone before the Double Dare!!!

I did something that I hadn’t done in a long time this past Sunday. I rode alone. I used to spend 95% of my rides riding alone but that just doesn’t seem to happen very often anymore.

Kristin and I drove up to Dupont and she took off hiking while I went out for a ride. My route was the following from the Fawn Lake parking area:

Reasonover, Lake Julia Road, Camp Summit Road, Airstrip, Corn Mill Shoals, Longside, Twixt, Rock Quarry Road, Buck Ridge Road, Micajah, Wilkie, Corn Mill Shoals, Burn Mountain, Corn Mill Shoals, Shoals, Laurel Ridge, Mine Mountain

There were only a couple highlights as I felt sluggish. When I got to the first creek crossing on Reasonover, I slow rolled the 40 feet through the river and when I rolled out the other side I could hear a ton of air leaking out my front tire. Somehow the combination of having the tire submerged and going so slow in the water broke the seal on my tubeless setup. I stopped for a second, realized air was coming out from the sidewalls, so I just took off and in about 50 yards the tire was sealed back up. I lost a lot of pressure but just rolled with it because I didn’t have a pump and didn’t want to waste a CO2.

As I was coming down the backside of Reasonover I passed a lady and then came upon her husband. He was rolling quickly so I just sat in behind him just enjoying the downhill. After the rock turn he heard my bike and yelled “Holy &*% Holly” as he looked back and realized that I was not Holly. He pulled over to let me pass and made a comment on how he had thought I was his wife.

The only other noteworthy piece of the ride was taking the Rock Quarry extension up to the top of the Rock Quarry. I had never done this before and Valerie had told me it is a great view. It was and I wished I had my camera.

If you want to read a great recap from the Shenandoah 100. Read Harlan's story of racing neck and neck with Floyd Landis.