Monster X Mash

  We did the Mash, we did the Monster Cross Mash......

                                                               Happy Halloween

  To celebrate Halloween and my Birthday, Joel and I, once again, headed west for another cross bike adventure.  We had almost decided to take it easy this weekend and do a nice local ride, but Friday night I was looking over an awesome course I had mapped out and was suddenly inspired to go for it.  I checked with Joel and he was in.  We both agreed we needed to try harder to get out of town earlier.  We were loaded, gassed up, and rolling by 8ish.  We reached the parking lot in record time.  It was basically all interstate and a smooth roll.

  There was a nice fall chill in the air when we got out and Joel built his bike up for the ride.

Here is the course:



  The ride is a metric century covering right about 62 miles taking us through the counties of Alleghany, Botetourt, and Rockbridge.  I decided to alter the starting point from my original map.  I figured we would dive right into the biggest climb while we were fresh, and also this was the nearest and most convenient point to pick up the course.  Why drive another 20-30 minutes when we could be riding?  The parking lot is right off of I-64 at the Goshen exit, a little west of Lexington.  There is a nice scenic drive that goes up and over North Mountain with some of the best views in VA.  I had driven past this treasure for years on my way to Douthat State Park and didn't even know it was there. 
  Anyway, once Joel finished building his bike, we started grinding up the scenic gravel climb.

  The grade was fairly steep, but after a few miles we had reached the ridge line and were treated to awesome views to the north and south.  We found a path that led to a sweet overlook.

                                                       Lake Robertson to the southeast.

Big House Mountain.

  A little further up we picked up some single track, North Mountain Trail.  This is one of the sweetest rocky ridges in the state. (perhaps the world).  I had hiked this with the family before so I was already aware of the rocky cliffs and endless views. 

  We were tempted to ride the whole trail through to Longdale Furnace, but with lots of hunter trucks parked in the area and in the interest of time, we only rode a mile out and back on the rugged rocky ridge.  It turns out riding rocks on the cross bike is a blast.

                                         

                                     

After saying goodbye to the awesome ridge, we descended the northwest face of North Mountain down to the Longdale furnace area.  This was a crazy fast, curvy descent on relatively smooth gravel and we passed a car on the way down.

  At the bottom, we rolled the flat pavement of Rt. 60 for a few miles past Longdale Furnace.  The traffic wasn't bad and you couldn't miss us in our hi-vis jackets.  We had fooled around quite a bit up on the ridge and decided we had better knock out some miles.  Our next turn put us on a nice paved back road that crossed the Cowpasture River and had a couple of short, steep climbs and descents.  The Cowpasture joins the Jackson about a mile or so downstream to form the mighty James River.  We crossed over Rt. 220 and followed the James for the next several miles.  The scenery, which started out great, remained that way for the entire ride.  It was very quiet with almost no traffic.  If not for a few hunters wandering around, we would've had the place to ourselves.  The terrain varied greatly and  after climbing a bit, we were always rewarded with a nice downhill.  In fact, we always seemed to come out on the better end of the deal.  A brief roll down 220 brought us to a nice store where we took a break and re-fueled.  After our stop, it was back to dirt and gravel for the next several miles with a few long and steep climbs followed by fast descents.  I entered a couple of turns a little hot on the gravel and did some drifting.  Nearly ate it but kept the rubber side down.  The scenery remained excellent and we always seemed to be following an awesome stream.

Big House and Little House Mountains.

                               A really cool steel bridge and old mill brought us back to pavement.

A few miles brought us past Collierstown onto Big Hill Rd.  The name of this road concerned me a bit.  Soon enough, of course, we got to see where it got its name.  A super steep climb had us standing, barely turning the cranks.  It was tough on 50 mile legs but we both stuck it out and made it to the summit.  We were rewarded once again with the steepest, fastest downhill of the ride.  After turning onto the final leg of the ride, we were met with one last grueling climb to the truck.  This one got pretty steep also and it took some will power to stick it out for a few miles. 
  Aside from ending on a climb, the ride went extremely well and we both really liked the route.  This is definately one to do again and again and I would like to drag along some more company to share this awesome ride.



Gravel Grinding

This past Sunday, Joel G. and I decided to head out to the Blue Ridge for a little mountain cross riding.  We had been looking over the forest map and picked out a ride combining some gravel fire roads and the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Our route was to cover 50 or so miles.  We wanted to get an early start, but early for me and Joel usually ends up being after 9.  It was noon before we found our parking spot and started getting ready to ride.  It was a really nice fall day out and the gravel road that we parked along leading up to the Appalachian Trail at Hog Camp Gap was surprisingly busy.  We dove right in and started with a climb up to the gap. 

After crossing the AT, we had a nice downhill then some rolling up and down until we crossed the AT again at Salt Log Gap.  After that, we enjoyed an incredible 6 mile descent following the Piney River.

The Piney River is perhaps the nicest mountain stream I have ever seen.  Crystal clear water cascading over huge boulders.  Rock slides.  Beautiful foliage everywhere. 

There were lots of great campsites along the Piney.  I definately plan to return and spend some time there.
The scenery along the road was great.

At this point the ride was going great and we were making good time.  The next turn changed things.  I take full responsibility since it was my idea.  The map shows a jeep road that goes  up and crosses the AT then joins FR826 above Crabtree Falls.  I had been up 826 a few times to park for hikes on the AT to The Priest and Spy Rock, so I was familiar with that.  The jeep road from the Piney River up to the AT was new and unfamiliar.  We thought "how bad can it be?".  It was pretty bad.  The Jeep road followed Shoe creek and crossed it several times.

The climbing was managable for the first mile or two, and most of the creek crossings were do-able.

The grade started to get steeper and the loose rocks eventually became too much for the 40c cross tires and 39/18 single speed gearing.The going got rougher and steeper and at times hard to even walk.  This type of thing isn't exactly new to me and Joel and he was a good sport about it.  We usually just endure it and try to push through it.  The worst part really is that we killed a lot of time. Along the way we encountered some folks on dirt bikes(which looked like fun) and some good ole' boys doing completely ridiculous things with huge jacked up trucks. We must have pushed a mile or two before we finally got to the top and crossed the AT for the third time.

 
Finally, it was time to go down for a bit.  The first half mile or so was crazy steep and rocky.  We wished we were on the mountainbikes.

I had only been on 826 in the Pathfinder and didn't realize that we had more climbing to do.  Eventually we descended down to Rt. 56 near the Montebello fish hatchery.

We took a little snack break and even though we brought lights, decided we had better shorten up the ride since we lost so much time.  We decided to just ride 56 up to the Blue Ridge Pkwy. and head south.

We had ridden this section of parkway before and new that we would be treated to a long fast descent down to Irish Gap.  First we had a few miles of flat spinning and slight climbs, so we took in the scenery.

The descent didn't dissappoint.  We coasted for miles at 30-35 mph.  With bigger gears and skinnier tires I imagine one could almost reach the speed of sound here. 

Once at Irish Gap, we picked up Clarktown Rd. which descended a few more miles along the origin of the Pedlar River.  A climb up past Staton's Creek Falls, followed by a crazy steep climb then descent on Coffeetown rd. brought us to the final climb up to the car.  It was pretty much dark as we loaded up.   All in all a great day in the mountains.   There is a bunch of great cross riding out there and I'm already mapping out the next ride.

Simplify

  So, the older I get, the more I realize that I like things simple.  Lately I've been simplifying a lot of things.  Mankind seems to have a way of overcomplicating just about everything.  The motivation or reasoning is usually to make things better or easier.  Is this always the result?  Maybe sometimes.  But other times complicating things just creates more stuff to deal with.
  Here are a couple of examples of how I have attempted to simplify certain things:
a)  My mountain bike- Lately I have been running my mtb single speed and fully rigid.  A fully rigid bike requires next to no maintenance.  There is not much left to break or adjust.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with fancy, clunky, rattleing pieces and parts, but to me there is something appealing about a simple, clean, basic machine.

b)  Another area that I have simplified is camping.  I have been camping for a long time.  I camped for years in a deluxe RV with every ammenity you can imagine.  This was mainly for the family.  With all the fanciness comes a lot of hassle and complication.    Over the last few years I have gotten much more basic with camping, and even got the family to go along with it.  I even got them to go backpacking a few times.  Hard to beat the simplicity of carrying everything you need in a pack on your back.  Also, this summer I got a couple of hammock tents.  A couple of friends  already had hammocks, so I was able to check them out and get input.  Hammocks are the ultimate in simplicity. 

c)  On a smaller scale, the real santa (in a brown suit) brought my new bike light today.  When picking out the new light, simplicity was a major factor.  There were brighter lights and even cheaper, brighter lights, but the one I got is completely self contained.  No wires or external batteries to mess with.  It doesn't even have a seperate charger just a usb chord that plugs into the computer.  It is super light at 130 grams.  I can leave the helmet mount in place all the time and just pop on the light when necessary.  Nothing to mount, no wiring to rig up.   Always ready, day or night.  Since it is on the helmet, I can use it when riding the mtb or cross bike.  Its small enough to throw in the pack or jersey pocket.  Simple.

Busted Ribs

So, a couple of Sunday afternoons back, I had one of those off rides and managed two pretty good crashes.   The second one I managed to beat the crap out of my right side rib cage.  I had parked at Powhite Park, rode over to Buttermilk West, did a full lap around the JRPS loop, then returned on BM west back to Powhite.  My first crash was heading west on Buttermilk down near 22nd St..  It was on the little rooty step up section with the turn where the trail splits and you have two trail options.  This section has given me a little trouble in the past, but lately I have had it handled.  On the single speed, I usually hit it pretty fast and muscle through it.  Well, on this ride I somehow managed to plant the front wheel and endo.  Wasn't a full endo and I kind of caught one of the trees.  The worst  of it was that the end of the Mary Bar jabbed right into my left hip joint.  It hurt pretty bad, but I walked around a few minutes, brushed myself off, and tried the section again.  It took me two more tries to make it through.  Just one of those days.  It did seem that the recent rain had washed away a little loose dirt that had accumulated during the dry period making a little bit of a hole before the first root.
Anyway, slightly discombobulated and battered, I continued on.  Surprisingly had no problems on the techy Buttermilk Heights section.  On to Buttermilk West.  There is a section where the trail goes through a narrow passage between a rock cliff and a big boulder.  Cliff on left, boulder on right in the westerly direction.  As you pass through you are also climbing on rocks.  I managed to spin the rear wheel and fall right over the jagged boulder.  My rib cage took the full hit and I nearly had the wind knocked out of me.  Me and bike continued over into a bunch of vines and stuff.  It took me a good while to crawl out of there and I had to walk around for a few minutes.  I was finally able to get on and limp it back to the truck at Powhite. 
  I didn't realise at the time how bad I had busted the ribs.  Now, going on three weeks later they still hurt.  At first, everything hurt them, even breathing.  I was able to work and function but with lots of pain.  A sneeze or good cough may have killed me.  I sneezed a couple of days ago and it felt like getting stabbed with a big knife.  Now, the worst part is trying to get comfortable and sleep at night.  Trying not to abuse Ibuprofen too much.  I still fear sneezing and laughing still hurts pretty bad.  I've only been on the MTB once since and it was a non technical ride on fire roads.  I have gotten in a couple of rides on the cross bike. 
  All injuries suck, but these sore ribs are a nuisance.  I have heard that it can take several weeks or months to completely heal.  I had busted my ribs several years ago up at one of the Lodi 12 hour races.  It took about a month then. 

The Road Less Travelled

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The Autumn weather was perfect this past weekend, so my son Steven and I headed out to the mountains for some adventure.  We ended up in the George Washington National Forest west of Harrisonburg.  I had always wanted to camp on the awesome  mountaintop lookout of Flagpole Knob.  We bounced up miles of rough and rocky jeep road to the 4300+ ft. summit.  When we got out, we realised there were winds gusting at 30 mph and it was really cold. 

Sadly, we had to retreat to lower ground along the North River.  This was an awesome campsite nestled amoung mountain laurel with a huge stone fire ring.

We couldn't resist a drive up to Reddish Knob to catch the sunset.

We returned to camp for a nice fire and some dinner.  Shortly after turning in, we heard something walking around outside the tent.  Deer?  Bear?  Whatever it was eventually worked its way upstream.  We fell asleep to the sound of the water cascading over rocks about 15 ft. behind the tent.  Very quiet and peaceful.  Ahhhh.

  The next morning we awoke to a perfect, crisp and clear fall day dawning.  After some breakfast and breaking camp, we hopped in the truck and set out to decide which of the many lakes in the area we wanted to fish.  Since we were only about a mile from West VA, we decided to head west down into the Sugar Grove Valley of WVA and work our way to Brandywine Lake.  Lots of nice fall scenery along the way.

We arrived at Bradywine Lake and tried our luck with the fish.  We saw several large golden trout swimming around in the clear water as well as several nice bass but nothing wanted to bite.  Oh well, it was to nice a day to care.

  We moved on up and over Shenandoah Mountain and back into VA to Switzer Lake to see if our luck would be better with Virginia fish.  Switzer was an impressive lake but the water level was way below normal.  The wind had kicked up again and our thoughts turned to Mountain Biking.

  I got out the trusty forest map and Steven and I decided to ride from Switzer Lake up to Flagpole Knob and back.  The ride would climb over 1,900 feet in elevation over about 8 miles on Jeep roads.  This would be Steven's first "real" mountain ride.  We grabbed everything we thought we would need and started peddaling.  The road started to climb pretty quickly but not too steep.  We crossed Skidmore Fork a few times which was dry, then started up Dunkle Hollow.  The jeep road started to get more rocky, rugged, and steep as we ascended but Steven was doing great.

   As we were nearing the top, we were treated to a bear hopping across the trail.  The bear quickly disappeared down over the mountainside into a laurel thicket.  We soon reached an intersection and familiar jeep road and new we were almost to Flagpole Knob.  One final push and we were there.  What an awesome spot!  I was really impressed and proud that Steven stuck out that tough climb.

  After some snacks, pictures, and admiring the views, we started the 8 mile descent. 

  It was getting late and we had to race the sun as we rolled back down the rugged descent.  We were treated to our second bear of the ride about halfway down.  A little cub this time.   We both thought we heard others in the fading daylight.  We arrived back at the truck right as it was getting too dark to see.  What an awesome ride.  It was great to share such a great experience with my son.
  We pitched everything in the truck and headed off to Harrisonburg in search of some grubb, then started the long journey back to reality.