The Full Biscuit; Windrock 25

The Windrock 100 evolves into a 25 mile XC loop. This will be much more fun. Hope to see you there, for a ride and a beer!

Southern Cycling presents: Windrock 100 (25)

Walden Ridge

Windrock

The rocky ridge-line descent of Walden Ridge is the trail I have been looking for. A local-technical-rocky-long-descent and a heinous climb to get there is my version of heaven. Thanks to all those that did the work building this trail! I am stoked!

I have been out there 3 of the past 4 days. I had to go back tonight because I left some tools on top of the mountain, yesterday. FYI, I found everything right where I left it.

Here's a few pics from the climbs: I will post some of the ridge-line singletrack pics when they become avialble, or when Eric or Matt emails them to me.

Clean climb


Pump Springs Road, you gotta get up to get down.

North Knox Neighborhood Ride

I took my father-in-law out, with two xtra-cycles, and participated in this city-organized-ride. He had a blast!





All good rides end this way!

The Biscuit Burner

Windrock and it's Full-Biscuit loop.
Finally, I got a chance to get out and explore the new trails at Windrock, with Drew and Eric. Cross-Country singletrack is a relatively new thing to these mountains, which are know for downhill mountain bike trails, strip-minig and atv trails. So I was hopeful that a local gem was a possiblity. My expectations were exceeded, and the possiblities are endless. The campground loop flows through a mixed hardwood forrest. The trails traverse some very steep terrain and occasional views of the surrounding mountains remind you of the rugged woods that surround you. However, the trail provides excellent momentum and you can breeze through this section without tapping into the reserves needed to finish the full biscuit.

Walden Ridge trail starts out following a river bed, and eases you into the massive climb ahead. The long arduous climb ascends some of the steepest logging roads I have ever seen. But the pay-off is huge, and the ridge-line trail delivers in full. Awesome views, challenging rock sections and fast flowing descents make this section my favorite! I am going back tommorrow!

....and the circus leaves town.

The sideshow of football Saturday; UT vs Florida, cleared out of Knoxville by Sunday and I broke away for a great ride at Haw Ridge with Brian.




PHOTO DUMP:

Wednesday evening "weenie-ride," a Knoxville tradition of ending a ride with a tail-gating party.


I left the car parked for 3 days, and did everything by bike. Including meeting a few folks out on a Friday night.

Urban *Caress; *the opposite of assault

unrelated grocery-run; demonstrating the awesomeness that is "everyday adventure!"

Second Session

We met a photograper in the UT Gradens for a family photo session. Rain began to drizzle about halfway through, and Macie got upset.
Erin was dissapointed so we took our-own family photos at home; although minus Hank.

Blowin' in the wind with the answers

Photos from a Saturday-morning-epic-road-ride; to the foot of the Smokies and back. 90 miles.





Hurricane Ike blew through the gulf, and gas prices sky rocketed. Eric and I were planning to head to North Carolina and ride Bent Creek trails in Pisgah; instead I will leave the car parked.


Rolling out in the morning dew






Porterfield Gap


Walden Creek


Finally, a candidate worth voting for!







Panther Creek



Miller's Cove




Nails Creek


downtown


Game day traffic


Eric, Drew, Jonathon, Jeremy, Mark and myself ran into some fellow mountain-bikers on road-bikes in Walland; Alex and Nathan. We rode back in a big group.

The longest mile, heading home:

Lively up yourself

Pour Judgement on Raccoon Mountain

Me and Brian headed south for the day, to Raccoon Mountain, where SORBA hosted a gathering. It was a beautiful, blue sky Saturday with an occasional cool breeze. Perfect for grilling and riding, and pouring pints!
The future of trails on Raccoon Mountain is bright. This SORBA group is continually building killer trails, and has big plans for way over 100 miles on the mountain.



tumbling on a sketchy line; Chunky trail

Wednesday at the 'Ridge

The Virginia Highlands

With a large group heading to set up camp at Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, we realized Jeff had reserved the Gazebo picnic area, not the camp sites. It would have been a great 3-days of cake, but we needed to set up about 10 tents; and it was a busy holiday weekend in the woods. We piled into a couple of small sites and tragedy was narrowly averted.
Erin and I knew it would be tough with a 7-week old. Macie enjoyed being in the woods and being around all the happy people. The first night was tough on Erin, since I was over-served and slept tight. She struggled tending to Macie with the constraints of camping.
We spent Sunday biking, hiking and made a trip to town for ice cream. After dinner we pulled a red eye back to Knoxville.
Our only regret was not being able to go with the group on the Virgina Creeper trail ride. Since Macie is still too young for a bike ride, we opted for an awesome hike on Whitetop Mountain.
We are already looking forward to a return to Damascus. The mountains are beautiful, and the town was full of bikes. Hundreds, maybe thousands of bikes filled the small town.