Back to tripping?

Got the chance to squeeze out for a last minute Vancation with Bill Nye over the weekend.

Conveniently, just in time (literally) for a return to travel, the Topeak Pakgo Gearpack showed up so I could load it up with two and a half days of riding shit.

More about that later tho.

I assembled my current favorite ride nutrition in proper portions...

And after meeting up with Chad from Colorado, we made a late go at some Pisgah classics.

Back to practicing my steeps... a "skill" that's needs some refinement after so much city woods riding lately.

We knocked out Black and Avery, Chad needed to get back, but I talked Bill Nye into throwing something at Bennett before the sun went down.

Someone's gonna be sad they lost their Revenge of the Mummy hat.

Bill Nye rocking the Enduro™ line at Qbert rock...

Whilst I took my first stab at the OG Qbert line for the first time in probably over a decade.

I can't exactly explain why I've avoided it for so long.  It's probably 2-3 sequential moves with a bit of exposure... and I'm sure locals don't even let it phase them.  Mebbe I had a close call once?   Dunno.  Anyways, it's gonna be back in the full rotation when I get up to get down Bennett.

Bill Nye seeking cramp relief on Upper Lower Bennett.

Anyways, dope ride finishing under some diminishing dappled sunlight, back in the van, over to Dubuc's pad to sleep in the driveway, and then over to Knoxville to ride the Urban Wilderness in the morning...

I.  So.  Love.  This.  Place.

My first time all the way down Devil's Race Track... I can see why Tennessee Valley Bicycle's owner Scott didn't take Watts and I all the way down to the bottom on rigid single speeds back in October.  It's the closest thing to a bike park without a lift that I've ever ridden.  We did ride everything in the area that I knew was good... Giddy Up, Plan B, Party in the Woods, Turnbuckle, Barn Burner, Best Medicine... so buenos.

Bill Nye had to show me how it's done...

I'm a talentless huck-to-flat dead sailor kinda guy.  Dropping down into a transition intimidates me... I don't care how much sweeter the landing feels.  It looks terrifying when I'm dropping into something I can't see.  Whatever.  Done and dusted.

Speaking of terrifying, I wanted to hit the drop on Giddy Up that you have to clear a boulder on the backside when you go off it... that I did rigid and blind back in October... shrieking in terror as I watched the large detritus pass below my wheels.

Post-drop but whatever.

That night, we returned to a quiet spot that Scott had hooked us up with... behind a sweet mill/wood shop. 

It was idyllic.

Woke up early, headed back towards NC for an early rendezvous with Dubuc in Bent Creek...

To ride a Bent Creek that I've never known.  It was raining when we started, but the skies cleared up and the good times were had.

A short and sweet ride to end the trip that wasn't necessarily  "epic" but the biggest thing I've been able to do in this upside down world we call 2020.

Speaking of which, Nia turned 18 yesterday, and today we're doing her drive-through graduation.

If you're asking yourself if a million years went by just like that, the answer is yeth.

She came into our lives soooo long ago, a four year old person that I met the day she came home, and just like that, we raised an adult person.

Another chapter begins, I guess.