Pointless as a Circle

With 70° temps coming to the mountains, there was no shortage of ride options in the Pisgah.  Somehow, after sifting through them all, we still ended up doing our own thing.

Decided to go with a smaller crew.  One of my favorite routes in the hatchery area.   I was in Kangalamangus's car at 7:45AM and headed to meet up with Chase, Nick and Chris at 10:30AM... and maybe Jay?

We're there at 10:27AM.  We're ready by 10:42AM.  By "we," I mean Kangalamangus and I.  No sight of the others, and thanks to the remoteness of the hatchery, no phone signal to speak of.  We decide to wait until 11:00 and leave without them.

We got ready and killed time.

10:59, they roll into the parking lot.

Chase had a brand new bike... which he ruined before he even rode it once.

Kona Process.  Comes stock with a drooper... which he removed.    I just don't get it.

Anyways, since Kangalamangus and I were ready and the other three were fast'ish climbers, we headed up the first climb after I told them where to go...

"Left out of the hatchery and take the first gravel road to your right."

And off we went, climbing up towards the top of Cove Creek.

Somehow, they never caught us.

And then they never came.  We rode back down a piece, hollered, wailed, and then saw three riders coming up.

"Did you pass three guys on your way up or at least see three guys fucking around in the parking lot?"

"No."

Looks like Kangalamangus and I had three new friends.

We didn't really end up riding with them because that's weird.  Mountain bikers are usually horrible people, and I wanted to show Kangalamangus something stupid.

Something stupid.

So we rode together but alone the rest of the day.

Like I said, one of my favorite routes in the Pisgah, especially when the seasonal trails are open.  You can have Bennett Gap all day long, but without a shuttle, it's a long climb with a very short descent that seems to only work into mega-loops.

Kangalamangus and I spent a large part of the day discussing how hard it is riding with gears, when we felt they were actually useful, when they were stupid, and how numb our taints were.  Quality conversation.

He was also struggling with the concept of drooping, and like most people who ride with me, he was surprised with the amount of drooping that I was doing.    What can I say?  I love to droop.

I'm finding gears more and more annoying.  A nice way to be lazy but... I don't know.  I guess it's a nice break, and I don't know how I'd be doing wheelie practice without putting a 32X28 or 32 on bike.  It's what's been working so far anyways.  The gears are also part of my horrible hybrid flat bar road bike for Tour de burg, so no matter what, they have some purpose.

Unless I don't Tour de Burg.  In which case, they are pointless as I suspected.

Except for wheelies tho... which are also pointless.