Well, earlier this year, reading Bike Magazine, I stumbled over a small sidebar article about the Great Divide Race. Well, I seemed to have remember reading about it the previous year and remembering about it catching my attention. Mainly the part about no entry fee.
Then I remembered back even further, early in my cycling career reading about John Stamstad and how he had done the ride, etc.
Well, while looking at Namrita O's blog, I read a note about the race starting soon, I don't exactly remember what it said.
But I stumbled across the site, and read, and read, and was hooked for days. And since then I have continued to investigate and ultimately I have the desire to do the Great Divide Race. I set a self goal of 2010. But, it may not be realistic. We will have to see what happens.
Fast Forward about a week to October 17Th where I received an message from Luis, fellow MTB'r and adventurer, asking if I was interested in heading towards Pisgah for the weekend of the 27Th.
Now I had planned to go do my first 12 hour race at pine log that weekend. But, since I had broken my finger, and the thought of riding in the mountains vs. riding laps on a flat trail, had me really leaning towards Pisgah. In the end it was a no brainer and I told Luis that I was all in.
It was a Renegade Run. Meet at his place around 9pm on Thursday, drive all night, a straight ten hours to Pisgah. Find a campsite by the luck of the Irish, set up camp, rest, and ride in the afternoon/evening.
Short Ride Friday, Epic on Saturday and a short ride Sunday Morning.
Now the creator works in mysterious ways. Riding in those mountains takes some serious climbing and some serious navigating. Not only that, but depending on your route, it takes some back country riding skills as well. All skills I need to start developing if I ever desire to undertake the GDR.
Well, Luis is apparently well versed in all these skills and it turned out to be a very productive and educational weekend for me.
Turns out, Luis' Birthday is the 23rd and mines is the 24Th. So this was turning into a birthday celebration getaway for each of us. The drive to his house was smooth and the drive up to Pisgah was smooth as well. With the exception of me being unable to keep awake for the entire ride and feeling a Lil guilty that I was not an acceptable co pilot, the ride went perfect.
We were going to stay at Mills River, but turns out, just for the heck of it, he wanted to check out if Davidson River would have any available spots. Luis shared with me a tale of him arriving to that park at 5am only to find a line halfway around the base of the mountain. He says Lima, His wife, didn't get them a spot till 12 hours later.
I told Luis I felt good about getting a site, and sure enough we pull up and there were plenty of sites available. Despite a Lil mix up at the beginning we ended up in a pristine spot. The campgrounds were super nice and I would definitely stay there again.
We set up tents, and got some sleep. Woke up and went shopping, came back, got ready and rolled out.
Now, to me, this was all new, but after some searching and some speaking, this is actually a very familiar destination to alot of people. I guess, in many ways, I'm still a virgin MTBr. We started with a long fire road climb behind the horse stables up Black Mountain.
I don't know exactly how long the ride up the road was. But I do know that from the camp site to the fork near the top ended up being seven miles. Now, we started Hiking. Which is not a Florida rider tradition, but from what I later learned, a common practice amongst Pisgah locals. And we hiked and Hiked till we reached the top. The view was spectacular but dark was approaching. Now Luis tells me, "O yea, that's it from hear on out, its downhill,". Well the downhill lasted about 10 seconds before we made the turn and hit the steepest section of hike a bike that we had encountered all afternoon.We stopped, put on our lights, and kept going. Eventually we started downhilling. My finger at the time, was still in its process of healing as it is now. But it was much more tender at the time. And although I had 100% grip on my left hand, my right hand was only about 60%. Usually, I'm a unstoppable downhill assassin. But, before I departed, my mother, gave me the most Ides of march warning I have ever heard from her to be careful. And it kinda stuck with me the entire weekend. Not only was I a Lil crippled, but I was now being extra careful on every descent. So, poor Luis, was not only having to wait on the uphills, but on the downhills as well.
We eventually made it back to camp with 13 or so miles under our belt thus completing our day one adventure.
Day one rounded off with a campsite cooking extravaganza workshop. Luis, utilizing his small portable burner and fluid, made the best Angel Hair pasta spicy marinara mushroom sauce combo I have ever had. It was tasty and although we both ate till we were full, there was still left overs. Not long after we both went to bed and I got terrific rest, whereas Luis, spent the night cold.
The next day we got up and got ready early. Ate breakfast which consisted of a couple of cheese sandwiches for me and prepared our packs for the epic. Now I got my Epic pack done up pretty good, I can carry on my person and my bike 3 water bottles and a 100 oz camelbak. On my bike in the fanny pack:
2 tubes
4 inches of chain
2 powerlinks
4 CO2 cartridges
1 Multitool
In my camelbak:
1 Roll Of electrical tape
1 Lighter
1 LED Headlight
1 Long Sleeve Rain Jacket
1 Full Polar Water bottle
3 Granola Bars
2 Gels
1 Cell Phone
1 wannabe Leatherman tool
What I need to get for the future is a map and a water filter.
Regardless, I was ready for anything and anxious to get the days adventure started. We roll out and start with the same climb we did the day before up Black Mountain. The plan, was instead of forking right at that spot we would go left pass the infamous Gingerbread house and along the ridge to a route that Luis had been plotting.
Well, I made it up the climb way quicker on this day then the previous day. We paused momentarily and continued happily on our way. The day went great. We got lost climbed and descended many, many miles. And the Vistas were spectacular. My climbing legs had really come in. Sometimes we would climb together, others he would ride away. Same with the downhills. There were some downhills you could really cut the bike loose, but since I was concerned with crashing, on the technical downhills I really took caution and care to not harm myself. It was a real bummer not to be able to unleash an assault on the downhills like I usually do, but regardless, the mission was to make it one piece. I had two forced dismounts, but no serious crashes. One was on the ridiculous boulder filled descent on Bennett Gap, where I started to feel the bike going into an Endo and chose to push away the bike and bail then trying to ride it out. On that particular crash I panicked gripped with my right hand so hard, that I actually bent the splint I was wearing on my broken finger. On the dismount the back of my testicles got rubbed by the back of my seat which caused quite a bit of pain, but I survived.
Some of the spots we came down, I would lose my Momentum and be forced to walk. But it was all good. Close to mile 34 or so, I ran out of food, and I was low on sugar. If I had a coke or something I could of mustered more motivation. But Luis could see on my face my motivation loss and we made our way back to camp. That completed our ride for day 2 and it was another fantastic epic ride in the mountains.
We had Burrito's for dinner, fire at the camp and plenty of beers. The night ended shortly after before the fire started dying down. We had some good campfire laughs and conversations and shortly crawled our ways into our tents and spent a really cold night. I Had to completely submerge my head inside the bag to stay warm since my bag was only rated to 40 degrees. Luis, was even worst off then I was and said he barely slept cause of the cold.
The next day we wanted to ride, but we both decided to just pack up and roll out. We packed up drove another smooth 10 hours back to Tampa. I packed up my car and drove home. Thankful and grateful for the great trip and weekend I had out in Pisgah forest. I have some more plans for that place. I'm plotting a little overnight 100 mile trip across the mountain and maybe even a race or two out there. We will have to see.
Check out Luis pictures.
Till Next time,
Laters....
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