Life really can be wonderful.....

Today I sit and try to fight the urge to go back to bed. The last two days have been truly stupendous. Friday I worked up in Barntown with Sally and we moved along fairly well. Then, I came back to town and did an old-school style road ride with Andy and Travis. We pedaled from Biltmore Forest along the Parkway up past the first tunnel, then made a downtown parade lap. Town and life was good at that point.



Yesterday things got even better. The Most Horrible Thing Ever was going on and a bunch of folks (16 in total) decided it made a good excuse to pedal in the woods and sit around a camp fire to chill. Eric and Erinna are truly amazing people that I believe are making the Asheville riding scene better through competition. Most towns and a typical XC race is only going to make people fast for about two hours. Well, Pisgah doesn't really have two hour rides. We move toward the three and four scale as a quick day and can be out upwards of seven or eight hours in a ride. Throw E&E's event into the mix and you have people that are now punishingly fast for four to six hours and can healthily cruise all day (ten hours literally). Thanks guys Pisgah Productions rules.



Okay, the ride. We left the White Pines campground with a huge crew and socially meandered up Avery's to the connector over to Clawhammer. From there the group split. I wanted to ride with my PMBAR team mate on Black Mountain as he had never really done it. We split off with Kyley (local ripper chick) and her roommate Mike (also ripper) they will certainly create "the house that fast built". The plan originally was to go down Black and hit Trace or Sycamore and keep cruising, but they were out of water and my tire had decided to imitate a sponge in the air department. The rest of the group went towards Bennett with a few bailing onto Avery's. We rocked down Black Mountain (one of the best for sure) and I snagged a picture mid hike-a-bike. In Pisgah seems you ain't bike'n less'n ya hikin'. So we popped out at the bottom of Black and headed back over to the camp ground to see how the event was coming along. Things were getting interesting so Van and I slipped out for a bite of "The" Chapala.

Upon our return we were ready to do some more pedaling so with a very small amount of coxing, Van, Gordy, Sissy, and I all spun around North Slope. THAT TRAIL ROOOCCCKKKKSS. The whole time it pitched just enough down that I kept thinking "I can go faster" and pedaled and flowed in ways I haven't in a long long time. I am becoming a good dancer again and I have a lot to acredit to my partner...Salsa Ala Carte. Pick your poison and she certainly has been delivering. This bike rips.



We did our cruise and the rolled back and changed clothes to head back into town after saying our goodbyes. Today things are chill, it is raining and life feels like it steamrolled me a bit. So maybe some rollers and a good bit of stretching to sooth the gremlins, then it is on with the work week. I hope everyone got to smile as much as I did this weekend.