Harvest The Ride

The definitive farmers tan suggest I have done something fun. I spent the better part of the 4th of July cleaning out my car and gear from a 4-day shred-fest in West Virginia. Like a sunshine day-dream, here I sit in the garage, drinking a beer and blasting the Grateful Dead, recounting memories of what can only be described as the perfect bike vacation.

I made it into Snowshoe village by early Saturday morning, after staying in Beaver, WV (outside of Beckley). It was a misty morning as the sun broke through the fog, but the trails were a long way from dry. I ran into the rest of the Knoxville crew as I geared up and I was on the trail just after 10:00am.

As I barreled into the race course, I had serious doubts of the trail and conditions. Sliding into steep turns knowing I had almost no control of where the bike went, I was just along for the ride. And after surviving the first trip down the mountain, I needed to make a tire swap and Ben Rams came through loaning me a better suited tire for the day.

Traveling light, and free to wander, I made it all over the mountain, meeting all kinds of people from all over. I made a run down Powerline with the Kona “Dude” and his dog Jake. The Canadians loved Powerline, they were stoked to find the flow trail that could be ridden after a few beers with lunch. I had a few good routes to Powerline, mostly I went Cupp Cake to Sport Course to STP to Ball-N-the-Jack to Powerline.

By mid day the trails were drying fast, and everyone was amped to realize this fact. The clouds moved out for good, and sun prevailed for the next few days. Race day was perfect and I had a blast hanging and riding.

I cranked out runs all morning leading up to my race run. I was a little worried I would wear myself out, but I was there to have fun not to win a race, so I kept pushing it. I was key'd up before my race, and I was talking to myself like Elvis would before a show. I was certain I was ready to kill it as I steeped into the starting gate, and came out in between gears and couldn't clip in. But I quickly pulled it together riding a perfect run, just trying to get a good flow going. It wasn’t until ¾ the way down that I was convinced I could win if I just kept riding smooth. That thought set off a series bad moves. I came into a drop that gave me no trouble in any practice runs, but managed to put my front wheel in a wash-out pitching me to the ground. I got up quick and jump back on the course but couldn’t gather my wits and hit a tree. At this point my run had fallen apart, and I rode sloppy all the way down from there. But as I crossed the finish line a huge weight was lifted, and I knew I had the rest of the day to hang out, drink beer and ride. And that what I did.

Fun in the sun continued in the perfect low 70’s day on Snowshoe mtn. I rolled down the mountain with Ben as he got his flow together for the race. Rapping on the way back up, I knew he was consumed with the mission. He pulled it together to stomp the road gap in his race run, pulling a fast time, but in the elite class it wasn’t enough to win. In the end, I think his goal was the same as mine: have fun and push yourself. I would say the goal was accomplished.

I stayed on the mountain for the next few days riding some big loops covering nearly every trail in the 11,000 + acres of Snowshoe. I also made it over to the Monongahela National Forest for a trip down Props Run trail.