Green River thing to do

Four day weekend.  Nick says we should go to the mountains.  Zac suggests the Green River Gorge.  Kürdt seconds the notion.  I've never been, and my plan was to wait for someone to come up with a plan.  It worked.

In Zac's driveway at 9:00 on Saturday... no Nick on Nick's ride.  A shorter drive than to the actual "mountains" and seventy paved switchbacks later, we're in the gorge.  A serious crack in North Carolina's butt.

Kürdt does a quick pedal upgrade in the parking lot...

And then dress for the party.

Zac was riding flat pedals, and thus not bound by the Faster Mustache racing panties rule.

The ride starts in a gorge, and thusly, this happens:

Up and up next to the Green River.  Zac realizes he forgot his food.  Back to the car for Zac while Kürdt adjusts his pedals and I regret wearing a hat... in late December.  Zac returns and more adventure fun time.

The views in a Gorge differ from those up high on a mountain by just a bit.

My bike leaning on rapids, downriver from the Gorilla.

The climbing was gentle for the most part.  Not Pisgah hard, but not Charlotte cakewalk.

Mostly climbing all the way to the first descent down Bear Branch.

A downhill worthy of the work done, ending with super steeps and leaf surfing.  Huge regrets riding a bike with no drooper or fjork.  Saddle in the chest and the unknown lurking under the dead foliage... haven't had to deal with that in a long time.  Don't want to have to do it again, like ever.

Dat drooper lever, my easy button.  I miss it a little in Charlotte, a lot more up here.

At the bottom, Zac blows through a turn, Kürdt and I stop, yell, sit down, look at shells on the side of the trail.

Eventually we go down, find Zac, his rear hub self-disassembling, chewing into rotor bits.  Zac reassembles, we continue back up Pulliam Creek headed towards the descent of Stairstep Falls.

Wait at the top. Kill time. Not with robots.

Staistep Falls rocks and rolls and ends in a steep entrance into a creek.  Over to Turkey Gut, explore it to the top to find out it looks like a trail that got "enhanced" by a logging operation.

Turn around, go back down a 90s style old fire road descent.  Gnar.  Take it all the way to the Bluff trail.

Holy shit.  Leaf surfing, exposed cliffs, rocks, switchbacks... poop my pants multiple times.  I'm off the bike more than I'd like to admit.  We ended up with only about 16 miles, but I would say it's worth stopping the drive just short of the mountains sometime in your near future.   Now with some knowledge of the trails and a map, I could easily get a nice 30 miles or so up there with zero risk of boredom.

Zero.