Sonya Looney Picture Friday (again on a Monday) and I actually rode a bike

So it's not a hottie photo... whatever. Sure, Sonya face announced that she's down in Brazil getting tan lines in her new bikini, but the best thing I could find was a picture of her with a joey in her pants.

I've been on three mountain bike rides since Thursday. First I got in a ride with The Boy... a pleasant but short ride at the Backyard Trails in CLT. Saturday I got out for a couple laps at Sherman, and since I was wearing a watch I tried to see just how fast I could go on the Superbeast. I've never paid close attention to my lap times before, so I have no base line to compare it to, especially a time from when I'm in shape and on my much lighter single speed. So it was basically a pointless pursuit.

Sunday I was in the Dirty Little Box headed up to Warrior Creek with Leyonce and Wirun when I mentioned to them I was really anxious to see the Federally funded contracted "work" that was done on Kitsuma (one of the major parts of ORAMM). I had read the thread on MTBR, and I wanted to see for myself if it was as bad as reported or if things were being blown out of proportion. Since we were headed in the right direction and we just wanted to get a ride in we rerouted and planned for three loops up and down Kitsuma.

I should mention that I had no idea I'd be going to Kitsuma when I left the house. Had I known I woulda brought a camera or the HD GoPro to document what we saw. Also keep in mind that I grabbed the Meatplow thinking I was going to the buff Warrior Creek trails, and I hadn't been on a single speed since Crank the Shield in early September.

When we got to the parking lot Wirun laid his bike down on the blacktop. He heard an unexpected noise and then started grumbling. Apparently the nut that held his top pivot bolt in place had rattled free, and the bolt fell to the ground when he set the bike down. We went to work looking through the Dirty Little Box for anything that had a similar nut. When that failed I popped the hood and we looked inside to see if we could borrow one for the ride. Although we found many suitable candidates we had no wrench with which we could retrieve said nut, so we loaded back up and spent the next hour and fifteen minutes driving around looking for a hardware store, auto parts store, Family Dollar... anything that might be open on a Sunday morning and might have a metric nut. Eventually we found a auto parts store that was open, did have the nut, and allowed us to borrow a socket set. In the interest of discussing Kitsuma I'll skip the part about gas reserve lights coming on, missing exits, and very apologetic store owners who seemed very disappointed that they could not fulfill our hardware needs.

After making quick work of the four mile paved climb while enjoying the leaf free views of the surrounding area we got to the bottom of the climb up the back of Kitsuma. I've been up this trail a couple dozen times, many of those on a single speed, and I can say it is quite difficult for how short it is... or I should say "was quite difficult." Normally I'm walking all but three or four of the many switchbacks on the way up. I can honestly say that the entire first climb on Kitsuma is now totally rideable on a single speed (32X19), although maybe someone like Will Black was already able to ride a single speed all the way up (I wouldn't know, I was way behind him at this year's ORAMM). The switchbacks have all been improved, and I would say that the work done looked solid, although I was looking forward to trying to tackle the old lines on the Superbeast.

Coming down was a different story. This line at the top used to be super gnarly and steep.

photo cred: Cathie Docherty

Now it is just plain steep. I wonder if the work done will matter in a few years. This section is so steep I can't see how it won't end up rutted and nasty again. Won't matter much to me. I liked it the way it was... a nice skill filter early on for ORAMM competitors.

A little further down the trail we came to a switchback I stopped trying to ride many years ago. It was washed away, steep, and exposed. Now it looks like this:

photo cred: Tony Moll

That photo was ripped from Tony's blog. I actually think this is the second exposed and washed away switchback, but the work done was similar. I have no idea how long that wood will last or how that section will hold up to water. I also wonder when the government is paying a professional contractor to do the work just how long it should last. Although I'm sure the 1% of the riders who could negotiate the turn before the work are pissed because it's been "dumbed down" the work really needed done. Maybe not done in this manner, but time will tell.

Then came the "deep death wheel sucking holes" as I would like to call them. Think rolling grade dip on steroids. They pretty much eat up a wheel 26-29" in diameter and try to stop all forward momentum. The way they were built they are hard to negotiate using any skill I've ever acquired. I couldn't manual, pre-jump, or just roll them at speed. Horrid. Dangerous for a new rider to attempt? Sure. They're hard to see, they're on a FAST section of trail, and Kitsuma sees a lot of traffic (we saw a few slightly more novice riders while we were out there). They came up in sections that made absolutely no sense (to me) and a couple of them were 3/4 of the way through some tight downhill turns. Not sure what to say about that.

I'll agree with a lot of what was said on MTBR. There was work done where nothing was wrong with the original trail. Some of the work has actually made the trail appear to be less erosion resistant and pointlessly more dangerous. I've seen quality work in Pisgah before. I don't think this is it.

BTW: I am not a professional trail builder... far from it. Maybe this is how things are done and in a year everything will be ridden in and perfect. Maybe buried logs last decades, and we'll all be super stoked about this work at some point in the future. For now... meh.

Another BTW: Leyonce said he's getting a new bike for the 2011 ORAMM:



Should be perfect for Kitsuma.