DoUbLe DaRe PiX & GaRmIn

Let's start with this, Im waiting on a couple of things before I do the official write up, for now enjoy this:

Double Dare Stage One.

Double Dare Stage Two.

All data is off by an mph or two or a mile or two or a feet or two, garmin does not do an accurate job on the little twist and turns.

And now CAPTIONS: WRITE UP WILL BE UP TONIGHT DO OR DIE!Check out the great artistic shot of Bess and myself, this dog loved me so much, she would come up and rear up to me and sit, I hear tell this means a dog likes you and trust you when they do this?




This is the shots of the back yard 3 in the series, very nice 80 acre property that Steve's in Laws own close to Ashville NC, 20 minutes from the race venue.


The main house on the beautiful property I stayed at.
We had the option to camp Saturday night of the race, but I suggested we come back shower up and sleep in beds, this is the house we stayed at, I had my own room and bathroom, It was such a treat!
The ride and our rides, Steve was super generous and an excellent rider.
Steve, selp portrait! This was Steve's first Endurance event, he definetely has the skills to pay the bills.
My bike set up on Day two, on Day one I used my handlebar bag, on day two I put it all in my Ergon BD1 pack. I tell you what, its alot harder pedaling an 38 lb bike uphill then a 25 lb bike, I have to train harder for the GDR.


This picture is hilarious, cause I thought we had actually hit a checkpoint, so I told him to take a picture of me spanking it.In retrospect we should have taken Squirrel Gap to our checkpoint, Mills River was a HUGE and TIME costly mistake, 13 or 14 creek crossings in the cold, not very fun. Super technical trail with rocks and roots and dips, Fun, but time consuming.
Another chekpoint nabbed, I tried to be funny in all the shots, got to be silly I figured.

Hike a bikes are REAL up in this Place!

Weird Walking shot, photo cred to Steve and the early shots in the blog were from my camera phone.Squirrel Gap, had to be one of the funnest trails we rode that day, although I thought they were all fun, this was an edge of the mountain rolling roller coaster of pure fun with all the stuff you would want a real Mountain Trail to have.
Me at another checkpoint, in the dark, headless.

Me at the Last checkpoint for day one, trying to be funny.
My reward for climbing on day two for 18 to 20 miles straight, excellent views of the land from the blue ridge parkway and from balsam rock road.




On day 2, it took us 5 hours to make it to checkpoint 1 the mandatory checkpoint and the spot were we got our passports for the race. On our way to attempt to nab two more checkpoints, Steve and I got split up. Here I am waiting at 477 for Steve, hoping he would figure out what happened cause I was not about to turn around and pedal uphill for 11 miles, more on that and the rest of the story later.

enjoy,
LOS