Getting the "Sweet Down" in Pisgah Part 1

Wow, whew, wee!!! There was some whoop ass riding that went down this past weekend in honor of Mr Maleski's 38 years on this planet. He is the guy just to the right of center in the above photo with the groovy gray camo shorts on grinnin' like a Cheshire cat. The group in attendance was gathered from all points as near as the Asheville vicinity where the rides took place and as far away as Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories. All in all it was just about as perfect a weekend of riding as anyone could have asked for.

It was cool to see some different cats out on the ride. Pro photographer and all around bike maniac Bill Freeman came out from Los Angeles, rode like a beast and regaled us with tales of various pro riders. Daniel, a NORBA pro/expert from Whitehorse and friend of Ray and Elaine (great couple we met during last summers Swiss blitz) came down dealt with the ATL airport misplacing his bike and still rode like a fiend on one of Mark's rigs. Good folks all around.

I started out early Friday in order to make it down in time for the 1 PM Bent Creek ride. Six plus hours later after getting slightly lost, I blazed into the parking lot to find the gang already suited up, itching to go. I have gained a reputation for making everyone wait and rolling in at the last minute was not going to help improve matters. I am not proud of this but, oh well. We took off up the miserable climb up to Green's Lick trail which was steep, muddy and slick. My blood sugar was fucked up, my adrenaline was in the red, and I went terribly hypoglycemic 3/4's of the way up to where I felt I was going to pass out from becoming so winded and dizzy. This was calamity number one. I stopped and caught my breath, ate some energy goop and finally made it up to the trail head. I took off down the run that is a whoop-de-doo plastered, bermed and rocky roller coaster. Less than a minute into the craziness I flat on some rocks so mishap number two ensues. I get down to the bottom and was starting to feel pretty good and then followed the gang around to the next climb. As I was bringing up the rear a nice glob of mud flew into my left eye and blinded me long enough to lose the entourage and go up the wrong trail before I turned around and found everyone. Goof up number three was on me. At this point I was just biding my time I figured before I wrecked. I would not have wait long as ditched the bike off a small jump and caught a branch on my face giving me a small scrape that looked like some kind of retarded war paint next to my left eye. I guess four is a charm. It may sound like I had a bad time, however quite the opposite is true. It was all still fun and I would and will do it again in the future. Big thanks goes out to Malcolm from http://canecreek.com/ for showing us around and working with the cats who put out the best shock in the biz http://www.canecreek.com/double-barrel-shock.html . Stay tunned for Part 2.