Getting the "Sweet Down" in Pisgah Part 2

So Friday at Bent Creek I had just about everything go awry that could and decided that it only could get better from there. Fortunately, it did. Friday evening the bulk of our group crashed at Mark's swingin' Saluda cabin, which is just about perfect (throw in a hot tub, a go-cart track, suana, steam room, etc. and it will be perfect-HA!). A nice pot-luck dinner with spagetti, lasagna, cup cakes, brownies, assorted deli-meats, cheeses and tons of beer helped me forget about my less than great luck during the afternoon's ride. We watched bike videos like The Collective the Earthed series, talked bikes, looked at bike magazines, and could not have done more bike-related stuff save taking baths in chain lube. BTW, being the music nut/snob that I am I could not help but notice how impressive the soundtracks that accompany the Earthed videos are. I certainly would never expect to hear Fang and Television in a bike video, but needless to say it rocked. A few more brews, my earplugs (buncha snoring creeps!), a lil' reading and I was out.

The next morning we were up early for our rendevous with the rest of the group at a Whole Foods-like market closer to the trail. After some milling around we caravaned off to the trail parking area. Our guides Marty and Christian, Asheville locals from Pro-Bikes http://www.pro-bikes.com/ felt that we would all prefer to end the ride with a descent back to the vehicles rather than a five mile fire road climb and we all agreed. Thus we began the ride up to the Heartbreak Ridge trail head with the aforementioned climb. I will characterize the ride overall as a death march as the bulk of it is climbing; up to an elevation of close to 5200' with over 4000' of climbing during the 20-some odd miles of riding. It was easily the most climbing I have encountered since last summer's rides in Switzerland with the two characters in masthead picture. I was hurting something fierce but managed to climb and descend all of it, albeit slowly. The last 5-6 miles of the climb was nothing but rocks. It was like climbing up poorly made steps which maybe would have been easier aboard smaller lighter-weight bikes, but I was thankful to have that extra stability when we began bombing down the sketchy descent. Heading down was pretty damn fun and included some gnarly rock sections, rooty off-camber exposure and some hectic switchbacks. Overall, and I am not complaining, I thought it was a bit too much work for the descent, which was fun but not as mind-blowing as the climb was heart-breaking. I am glad to have taken part and pleased I kept the rubber down, but I do not have any burning desire to do that one again anytime soon. I love the idea of big epic all-day rides so in that sense it fit the bill. I guess I just prefer more downhill or at least close to equal with the uphill. I learned a long time ago that I will never be a great climber or all that fast, so I have set up my bikes to maximize the parts of the ride I enjoy the most (the technical and the downhill) and tolerate (survive?) the rest. We all finished the ride together and cruised back into town for some pizza and beer. We then bid farewell to Marty and Christian (y'all kicked ass, thanx!) and retreated to Che-Mark. I took off the next morn after some breakfast and got home in time to chill followed by a nice dinner with my honey. I look forward to getting back soon if not for the Homers in Pisgah ride coming up in May. I will likely get back before that maybe for just a day blast with the fellas.

Afterword: I thought a lot about how I was feeling weak during both rides, as if nothing I could do gave me any energy. It is highly possible that my bloodsugars were outta wack and I was having insulin pump problems. I did some research and found some websites that deal with type 1 diabetics and exercise concerns including some specific info on mountain biking diabetics. Granted I may not have a great atheletic make-up, but I know I can at least not have any diabetic side-effects slow me down. See ya out there.

Totally unrelated and f#%*d up: The all-time most weird ink I have ever seen was a tattoo of Priscilla Presley riding a unicycle nude, juggling pills. I wish I had a picture, but you can use yr noodle on that. This is a close second in pure wrongness. Yuck.