PmBAr RePort: ThE Dear MuCaro series....ThE FuLL WrItE Up

TALE OF THE TAPE GPS DATA

In Order to properly tell this story we have to start with a some information.

People really want to know.... What is a Mucaro, Pronounced Moo ka'r Ow is the Native Taino Word for Owl.


But it also represents this guy who I have attempted to PMBAR partner with for two years now, and I am thinking it will probably never happen.

Luis aka Mucaro was surely missed so I decided to dedicate many aspects of the trip to him and at the same time poke a little harmless fun at him, I missed him what can I say. Luis is like the equivalent of Moses to me, he brought me out of the desert and introduced me to some Real Wilderness which is exactly what I needed.

However, the Mucaro played an important role not the actual person but the actual animal for me during the whole trip. Flashback to a week or so ago when the Bird and I did our first bikepacking trip, the Mucaro Sang us a symphony when we were by the fire. Well the same thing happened the first night I spent in Pisgah. That Thursday evening they sang me another symphony. The next morning I asked if anyone else heard it, but apparently they didnt, the owl also visited me on my hike a bike practice on Friday up Black mountain to turkey pen, even found a Feather on my hike a bike. In fact every night I got a visit, right up until the morning off, whene I found a second feather not even 100 feet from the camp site. Interesting how things happen and I am not one to believe in coincidence, I knew the day would be special to say the least.

My Partner, 12 hours of Santos 2008 Single Speed champion Brett Wycoff was racing PMBAR for the first time, as was I. Yes I had raced the Double Dare, somehow convinced Eric Wever to let me race it, but never a PMBAR. The plan stayed Fluid like Bruce Lee's Jeet kun do Philosophy, we were like water the entire race.

Reflecting back, I am 100% sure I did not understand the point of the race. Seems after some careful analysis, the point was to get 4 checkpoints at least and get back fast, with getting a 5th checkpoint to best your finish time. I thought the point was to get as many as possible and then that time would be a second factor. Ok, so I got some comprehension issues. Anyhow.

That morning started early for me. 5am to be exact, I got up to make some food, eat and prepare my packs for the days trip. I know from enough solo and long rides that I like to have particular food stuffs, so I made some special items to take with me and prepped well. I felt my bag was packed perfectly and the bike set up was done in such a way to limit the off the bike time.

The morning went smooth and I was surprisingly calm. It was nice to see Eric, he is such a nice guy and humble person and Erinna as well, both remembered me from the Double D and both treated me as If I was an old friend coming to visit. The riders meeting went down and he discussed the rules and such. Maps were given and we were told to wait till the word go to look at the map. We decided to that we would look at the map before taking off and plan an attack, then attack the plan. He said go, we glanced, literally glanced at the map, and decided we would do the exact same thing we did yesterday and head over to the Turkey pen checkpoint. To me on the map, the Turkey pen trailhead was circled and to both of us, we understood it as, that is where the checkpoint is.(we later found out we were wrong)

As we are making our way up the mountain, I catch up to Eric, I guy I met at Cohutta about a year ago, and he tells me how him and his partner are taking a the least hike a bike option. This interested me, because we wanted to do the same, we figured we didnt want to get caught up with all the pilgrims heading towards Turkey pen, so as soon as we hit Pressly Cove, I asked Brett to stop and I told him what I had just heard on the way up the mountain. We quickly,(as quickly as non locals can) hatched a plan. Bomb pressley fire road, to Clawhammer fire road, to 477, to the legal section of 276 to 475 B to 225. And we did it, as a matter of fact we were the second team there 2 hours after the race started, we in my mind were doing well.

Then like a bad Missy Elliott song, we reversed the route and headed back on 225 to 475b to the legal section of 276 to 1206. We decided to take 1206 over to the Pilot Rock trail, we knew were gonna go up and we knew we had to move. Coming down 475 we saw a couple of teams, on Clawhammer we passed a team, on Pilot Rock, was another team. And then as we went up we saw several come down. Turns out Pilot rock was our first feat of the day as we scaled that giant in less than an hour. Got to the Laurel connector checkpoint and we commenced to figuring out the next part of the plan. We decided to head over and do the FR 5000 checkpoint. This was my favorite section of trail of the day as we literally went downhill for miles and miles, seeing many riders along the way and carefully observing there confused faces as we were coming in the oppossite direction.

We get to 5000 and start climbing and make the checkpoint, when map analysis reveals that I have to go UP that screaming fire road towards Laurel Mountain to take 5015 over to get to Laurel Creek. I was not happy about this and going up that road was my first "pain cave" moment of the day. But, it turns out the climb was not as bad as I remembered, and although I was a little tired, I recovered well by the top and we bombed down to our next destination. Our goal was to make Squirrel Gap by 3pm. We had an obstacle with Brett Flatting coming down Laurel, but I thought we could still make the target and we only missed it by 10 minutes. We then headed down Laurel creek trail, then up to Squirrel gap to snatch our next point. It took some time as Squirrel Gap is a technical trail that needs lots of attention, and Brett "the hammer" broke his half link chain of which is suppossed to be unbreakeable. We looked at the map and decided Cantrell to S mills to Turkey pen would be the move and we did it. We rode as fast as we could only to discover the checkpoint was not there. Closer looking at the description of the checkpoint said S mills and Bradley creek, so we bombed the downhill we just climbed and headed off either way on Bradley creek to find it, found it, then climbed back up to Turkey pen.

With the Flat, the Chain, the route miscalculation, my slow ass, we were not not in the same time frame we were hoping to be and had 2hours and ten minutes to ride all of Turkey pen, over 5 or 6 peaks to get to Black mountain, to get to the finish. I suggested we take the road, take the penalty and count our finish, but then thought better of it, and said there was no honor in that finish and we started the ridiculously steep hike a bike after we strapped up our shoes and put on our lights.

It was a slog for several miles, with some downhills thrown in, very little flat, and even more hike a biking. And I watched as the clock ticked away, and we made the Last Black Mountain hike a bike back at pressley cove at 955pm. I thought, MAYBE we got a chance, MAYBE the race started a little after 8am, MAYBE we could do it. 15 minutes, a headlight adjustment, a small crash and bash to my knee on Black Mountain later, we made it to the lot, to a crowd of cheering racers and picture flashing and congratulations and hand shaking. I was SPENT and smoked. We had just done a Reverse Turkey Pen time Trial in 2 hours and rode our asses off in hopes of getting the finish. Turns out our efforts were not without reward.

We managed to Snag the REd Lantern award, got a free pair of Tifosi sunglasses, some tri flow lube, AND free entry into next years PMBAR.

The ride was Epic, and Im sure if both Brett and I would of understood the point of the race better we would have gone for a quick 4 and headed back, we were riding strong and regardless of our poor final placement we rode a heck of a race and performed some amazing feats.

Truly a great day to be in the woods, a great epic. As I sat there leaning against a truck tire by the scoring table, drinking a cold beer and eating my burrito, just reflecting on the day, I marveled at the grand day we had both experienced and thought of all the ways we could have shaved off some time to make it back before the cut off. O well, such is life, we will be back next year, with an even better understanding of the race.

Eric, go ahead and sign me up for Double Dare. And thanks to you and Erinna for Everything!

Laters,


LOS