New Years Eve Ride

The celebratory ride at Norris was gritty and rainy. It couldn't have been a more beautiful scene. The fog rolled through the forest and brought gust of rain on a mid 50's winter rain day.
The looting continued on a second day as we banged out some tuff descents. Given the wet and cruddy conditions, the ride became a perfectly executed thing of beauty. Flowing through the woods like water it self.
This is the end of a great year of riding. I can only hope the next will be as great.

Misty Mountain Winter Rain

Over the stretch of trails ridden today, I had plenty of time to conceive a way to express the perfectly damp and cold conditions of the day. After ruling out the pirate talk, I am left with nothing. There are slew of words I can describe the days revelry with. Words like cold, wet, muddy and slick are at the forefront. And those words weighed heavy on my mind as we headed ever deeper into the forest. But like a bitter sweet winter rain, the worry washed away and revelry set in.
In the clouds and raiding the trails, we climbed up Clawhammer Cove and over the gap to the Pink Beds. We rolled a high elevation loop that flows along Mills River then made our way back over the ridge, up Club Gap, to the Avery Creek downhill. Avery Creek descends from rocky and slick in the rain, through laurel tunnels and ledges dropping back into the horse stables where we refueled and climbed back up through Maxwell Cove.
The climb to Presley Gap moved at an accelerated pace. From there was only one last push to the high point of the day. The Black Mountain descent was a blast down Hickory Knob at 3700' to 2100'. From ridge-line exposure to laurel-lined trails, rocky ledges then further down to water bars and berms. With a muddy face, cold wet and happy with a cooler full of Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale in the car, this ride embodies the reasons to ride. And the answer is to make it to the cooler.

Tanasi

Saturday’s ride at Tanasi had all the elements of an epic, but it was just me and the dog. It was a perfect day for a long ride, sunny and warm. I had the i-pod loaded and the dog wanted to run. This was a day where everything aligned for a ride with endless amounts of energy and I had plenty of time to stay gone for a while. So I packed a lunch and headed up the trail, riding all of the trails there and some of them twice.
Tanasi is one of the IMBA epic rides. Helping to earn that designation must come from descending Thunder Rock Express, a favorite for its bermed turns and water bar jumps. By the time you make it into Thunder Rock campground you forgot the long steep climb up to the top.
Tanasi

Bent Creek

I made another trip to western NC for a run down Green's Lick trail in Bent Creek experimental forrest.
There are several routes to the top, all taking about an hour (as measured by a guy who doesn't wear a watch). At the top of Green's Lick trail its 1,200' ft. of vertical drop over 2.5 miles. Fun.

December

Stanley Gap
Blue Ridge, GA
The drive from Knoxville took us on winding back roads, through the mountains and past Coker Creek then Ducktown and into Blue Ridge, GA. From there you take Aska road to Deep Gap trailhead.
We started the ride on Flat Creek, which proved to be anything but flat. The trail winded through rhododendron and crossed Flat Creek several times. After a technical descent through baseball-sized rocks we had a steep climb back out of the creek. From there we started up Stanley Gap. This was a long climb with several steep sections that pushed my heart rate to the max. Managing several tricky rock climbs, we made it to the top, which had a great view thanks to the fallen leaves. The long downhill trail started narrowly hugging along the ridge. When it finally opened up a bit, the trail became a slalom course, diving in and out of trees. It was one of those downhill’s where you stop and take a rest, smiling ear to ear, then continue on. It felt like we dropped forever.
After climbing up and over the mountain, the return trip followed the same trail back. All that we descended, we would now climb back up. The trek to the top was a struggle, which assures an awesome downhill ahead. The Stanley Gap Descent into the Deep Gap trailhead proved worthy.

Tennessee Valley

Windrock Mtn.
Last weekend Jeff Murray and myself made the drive up to the top of the mountain and parked at the windmills, where we went out exploring routes. We started out G7 and took that to a trail which was off the map (trail 25). We got a good look around and I enjoyed exploring. Even though we didn’t find any great trails, the terrain is beautiful and promising in terms of potential rides.

This is the view from the top of Windrock Mtn., looking over Oak Ridge at Mt. LeConte, which is over 50 miles away.