Log Legs

Wow.  Eight days of living La Vida Bachelor this time.  I'm burnt.  My goal was to ride a lot.  I did.  Way more than 24 hours of saddle time, and maybe I'm burnt.  I was certainly hoping for coming as close to being over-trained as possible, so as to be trained for upcoming events.  I won't know for a few days... if I still feel like shit, then I guess I overdid it.

That stupid road ride Watts made me do, morning rides, commutes, after work rides, Thirsty Thursday at the White Water Center, a somewhat exploratory ride in Wilson's Creek with a group that included a bunch of people I've never ridden with, and yesterday's really stupid decision to ride 46 miles of pavement to get in 4+ miles of trail...

Fun and pain and occasional sunburn.  Saturday's ride pegged the fun-o-meter.

I climbed an unnecessary seven something miles of pavement to meet everyone at the second leg of their shuttle.  First group gathered and more climbing up from Gingercake Acres (more up?) with Yuri, Phil, Kelly, Gardner and Cam.  

Then we all jumped on a trail that I think I might have been on more than a decade ago, to the most flowy trail I've ever ridden in Pisgah... and then rain right before the gnar factor kicked up a notch.

To some gravel to thinking about one trail or the other and we took the other which wasn't really a trail anymore.

All to meet up with Mike, Laura, and Derek and to lose Kelly to time constraints and perhaps the ability to make wise decisions after bushwhacking through yellow jacket territory.

More climbing and hiking and we're at the top again... and it starts to rain... again.  More sliding down tech-gnar.  Down on the gravel and over to the visitor center to up our water game.

We stared at a cloud looming over the mountains we were headed to next until we decided to just go anyways.  Up, down Sinkhole, taking the classic line down the steep chute instead of the rocking ridge line... mostly because Yuri wanted to see it.  I won't need to do that again for awhile. 

Yuri rocking the strange root ball uphill at the bottom of Sinkhole.

If you've never seen it, you would never imagine how hard it is... although he did that strange hoppy trials stuff to get over it.  Is that still riding a bike?  I guess... the boy has skills for days.

Bottom of Sinkhole, arrive at the shuttle and beer and soakings.

And then, everybody loaded into the van... but me.  I went out for a few more miles of climbing, because... training, no burrito.

photo cred: Togie... who wasn't on our ride, but in the randomness that is the woods, there he was

Incredible ride.  Probably coulda ended the week there, not done the stupid ride I did yesterday and went to thrift stores looking for a clip-on tie... but whatever.  Still need to get that tie tho.

That'll do, pig.