Fish in the water

This weekend was pretty much everything I want in a weekend. Great weather, good times, good people.

I talked Fajita into joining me for some trail work. It was her first time out with the loppers on a big work day, and she was digging it.

Although as the day dragged on she spent more and more of her time up in trees, we (as a group) managed to get a lot done.

Photo cred: Frankie

Of course the first thing I tried to do that day was hack a shortened sapling down. On my first strike the sapling struck back and smashed my thumb against the Pulaski handle.

Meh.

That makes two days of trail work in two months. I'm thinking that maybe I need to make it a trend and try to get out at least once a month. I always feel much better about myself and just slightly more self righteous, so the motivation is definitely there.

On Sunday I had a scheduled ride with Dude. Emily had contacted me late on Saturday, and she wanted a piece of the action, so our number was three for the day.

The ride I wanted to do was a little on the aggressive side. For the locals who know what I'm talking about:

Thrift > Black Mountain> Turkey Pen > South Mills > Mullinax > Squirrel > South Mills > Buckhorn > Black Mountain

The push up Black Mountain is always so much fun. Just ask Emily who had not taken the time to put gears back on her Kish since SSAZ.

We managed a decent pace, but on Turkey Pen Emily voiced concerns that she might be slowing us down a bit, and not wanting to poop on our party she said goodbye. With Dude and I alone now we managed to push through the woods at a PMBAR'esque pace and made great time. As always, Dude was ripping down the descents at a speed I just don't understand as making any sense in this physical world I live in.

Squirrel has seen recent work, and I don't know if I like all of it, but for the most part it seemed all right and necessary. Any locals wanna chime in on that? I saw your tracks. (Doh, old news)

With our reduced numbers, we kept stops short and sweet. Anybody recognize this place? Normally the stop here is a water filtering twenty minute+ snack break.

We did take a short moment to take in the view from the top of Black Mountain.

I think the Dude was updating his Facebook status while we were up there.

"OMG, on top of Black Mountain with @Dicky. Wish U all were herez... except you @Zach"

Being bored with the view I tried to use digital imagery to see if I needed to trim my neck hairs.

Yes, I do.

Hands down that was the best mountain ride I've been on in a very long time. No shortcuts due to lack of time, no mechanical, no stops over five minutes, no fuss, and no muss. Just a lot of ripping and tearing, and that's what I came for... the ripping and the tearing.

We also managed to bump into Emily two more times in the magical Pisgah, because that's what happens. She picked a slightly shorter route which had us intersecting at one point, and she was just about to leave the parking lot when we rolled back in. She gifted me with a couple New Belgium 2° Below beers (since she knows I can't find them in Charlotte anymore), but when I got home they were warm. I went to my new standby.

This beer is Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. Everyone knows I like submarine movies, and this beer is named Torpedo. That's sooo awsesome. The only better name for a beer would be Torpedo Fist. That will probably never happen. This beer has reinforced my new rule regarding the direct correlation of the ratio of ABV to the price of a six pack.

7.2% : $7.99 = Near Victory