It's like going back to college for a day- I get to ride with many of the guys who I rode with when I was in college, and I get to ride one chosen trail of many that take me back to why I love riding in the first place...
It's not an easy day by any means- it's usually cold, and the start is always the same: from the Briery Branch Community Center, we ride about 4-5 miles of slightly ascending road, before the real climbing starts. From there it's about 8 more miles of undulating climbing, followed by 2 miles of fire road climbing. Sometimes the fire road is mud, sometimes it's dirt, and sometimes it's ice, snow, and slush. Sometimes it's all of those. Yesterday, it was all of those.
Everyone starts at different times based on the ride they're doing, but it's also based on ability. Slower riders start earlier than faster riders... the goal being to get everyone to the top around the same time. Somehow, Ethan and I were the first to the clearing at Flagpole Knob (4360 feet), which is most everyone's high point of the ride, despite having left a little later than we'd planned. Not everyone rides to the top of Flagpole- some people stop at an earlier trailhead and ride a shorter trail back down.
People arrive over the next 45 minutes or so... It's looking like it's going to be a long day on top, and Ethan and I are cold and wanting to get going again. I talked to a lot of people I don't see often, and some I do... But the chill was setting in, and we got our plans together and started towards Meadow Knob on the ridge with Travis, another Richmonder.
We rode to Hone Quarry on the Meadow Knob trail (I wanted to ride all the way to Oak Knob, but that may have been a longer ride than we were prepared for, and also longer than we had time for.)
The trail is a very fast descent- possibly only about 2 miles. But it's technical in spots, very fast in spots, and also completely leafed over this time of year. Reading the trail was the biggest challenge, because sometimes your brakes worked too well, putting the rear tire into a slide with the lightest touch of the lever... Our hands hurt, but you can't stop descending in the middle for minor discomfort, when the adrenaline is pushing your body at 20+ mph over mossy rocks and through laurel-lined chicanes...
Once the singletrack descent ends (with a 20 foot steep descent onto another fire road), it's time to start the pedaling again. The fire road is probably 2 miles long, and it's rocky and wet and muddy at times... But it's very very fast. Some of the water bars are enough to launch you a short distance- not hard, but still very fun. And the corners were slick! Then it's onto pavement, then gravel (yesterday it was ice-covered... a little bit of a surprise considering it comes after a paved section...) Then we finally reached the road again, the road that takes us back to the car...
It's always a good time. The weather isn't always 50 degrees at the bottom (probably between 38-42 at the top), and the trail isn't always even rideable near the top. But it's always epic, and it's always a good challenge both for fitness and ability.
Photos from Ethan's camera.
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1 comment:
It was good to see ya out there.
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