Dave’s Bike Adventures

NOTE:  Huge thanks to BradO for taking pictures and allowing me to use them in this blog post!  Also, there are some more pictures here.

Last weekend I went back to race in the Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure for the 5th time.  At this point it’s a mix of both tradition and addiction - a full days worth of epic racing in Pisgah – hard to turn that down!  (Check out last year’s race report if you’re interested in more background on PMBAR)

Alex and I did the race last year, but decided to split up this year and bring two PMBAR first timers into the fold (Jim and Dave P).  We definitely had some fun messing with them … “yeah, I hear Eric’s gonna make it really hard this year” … “10-12 hours at least just to finish” … “50% finish rate”.

So we’re at camp the night before prepping for the race when we get a glimpse of what Dave P has in the CamelBak – dude is packing enough calories for at least 2 people!

So Alex is explaining “dude, that’s enough 5 Hour Energy to kill you!”.  He’s got 6 bottles of 5 Hour Energy, Gatorade packs, Lance snack packs, Beef Jerky, a few tubes of Clif Bloks, Power Bars, a bunch of GU packs, and several mondo size candy bars!  Well we managed to lighten up a few pounds from Dave’s pack.

Mother Nature had been threatening some serious rain and I was having flash backs to the total downpours and miserable conditions of the race in ‘07.  But luckily weather turned out to be great – mid 60’s and only a few short showers.

Here’s the man himself giving the good news and prepping the racers for the day.  “You see this map … I’m gonna send you all over this place and you’re gonna like it!”.

A few minutes later and we’re off, starting the annual pilgrimage up the Black Mountain trail.  Being a flatlander in Raleigh I’m always trying to work on my climbing – doing hill climb intervals, cruise intervals, etc.  But nothing seems to get my heart rate up like the PMBAR climb up Black Mountain.  Yeah no nice warm up here, just a few minutes of slight climbing then BAM, maxing out the heart rate for almost an hour.  Ride it, push it, fast, slow, doesn’t matter … it’s a heck of a way to start an all day race!

Here’s our train heading up the Black Mountain trail.  Jim (off picture) was setting the pace, then me, Alex, and Dave P.

Well a little later as we’re approaching Presley Gap I see Brad Kee and Matt Fusco go screaming down the trail the other direction.  “What happened Brad?” … “Broken Frame” … “Hold Up!” … so I turn around, backtrack down the trail and offer up a spare bike I had back in the campground.  Hate to see someone come out and have a mechanical end their day so quick … so I give Brad some quick directions and lock combo to get my spare bike and I’m back on my way.  It wasn’t until later that I thought about the fact that Brad’s about 4 inches taller than me and so my Med frame size would be a bit of a challenge … oops!  But I was super stoked to be able to help out … especially after my experience at ORAMM when I tacoed a wheel and someone lent me theirs – had to pay it forward!

Here’s Brad finishing up after the race … the frame was way too small but he’s still pumped to have a day of racing in Pisgah!

Somehow in the process of turning quick, accelerating, shifting to bomb back down the trail I goofed up my rear shifting.  Derailleur just drops all the way down to hardest cog.  Well after a few tense minutes I realize the shift cable has worked itself out of the gusset on the frame.  OK, first and hopefully last mechanical of the day come and gone.  So now I just had to try and catch up to my train of peops … totally maxed out the HR and caught up with Jim at the Turkey Pen trailhead.

Eric had some interesting spots for the checkpoints this year that really opened up the door for lots of potential route choices – the checkpoints were at:

1. Turkey Pen at South Mills River Bridge
2. Intersection of Squirrel Gap and Cantrell Creek (Mandatory)
3. Intersection of Laurel Mountain and Pilot Rock (Mandatory)
4. FS 5000 (Wash Creek Rd) a few miles north of 1206
5. FS 225 at the gate a bit West of Caney Bottom

So I’m thinking through the route choices as we climb Black Mountain … lots of options … but in the end I make a plan for what I think will make for the most fun factor.  Hey, I could climb Pilot Rock as an out and back, and it might be shorter, but then again that would be a major suffer fest and that will totally sour Jim on PMBAR.  So I decide to go for the most fun and least fireroad route I can come up with:

Black Mountain –> Turkey Pen (CP) –> South Mills –> Mullinax –> Squirrel Gap –> Squirrel/Cantrell (CP) –> Squirrel Gap –> Laurel Creek –> 5015 –> Yellow Gap –> 1206 –> FS 5000 –> CP –> FS 5000 –> 1206 –> Laurel Mountain –> CP –> Pilot Rock –> 1206 –> 476 –> South Mills –> Buckhorn Gap –> Black Mountain (yeah that’s right, we decided we’re all about getting the full effect of the Black Mountain downhill to end the day so decided to take it all the way back from Buckhorn Gap!).

Oh the hand … didn’t mention that yet.  Well last week I did a bunch of wrenching on the bike and went out to test it all out on Tuesday.  The bike was handling great but I ended up pushing a bit too hard.  Before I knew it I was Superman over the bars and pounded my right hand so bad that it ended up swelling up to twice normal size the next day.  Not good!  Gonna be tough forcing the bike where I need to with a bum hand.  So on race day I was on mega dose of Vitamin I and hoping for the best.

Well it was going really well until towards the end of Turkey Pen when my bars get caught on a log and launch me off the bike.  I’m feeling OK but then realize my bars are twisted past the top tube.  While that may sound OK the problem is that on my bike the bars (brake levers and shifter pods) don’t even clear the top tube!  So I have to pull out the tools, loosen them up, and twist the bars back around.

I get back rolling again then a little bit later here’s me …

… and Jim rolling into the Turkey Pen / South Mills checkpoint

OK, CP#1 in the bag and time to head for some sweet flowy riding on Squirrel Gap.  A few minutes before we get to CP#2 we pass Dennis/Bob and Dicky (heading the other way) so I’m feeling pretty good about our pace.

So we grab CP #2, then head over to North Mills Campground and CP #3.  OK, enough fire roads, time for the Laurel Mountain climb!  Laurel is one of my favorite trails in Pisgah – especially when you follow it up with the Pilot Mountain downhill!  Most of Laurel is side hill bench cut with a perfect grade that you can just hammer up … here’s Jim and I climbing Laurel.

Hmmm … not sure what’s up with the crazed smirk there.  The legs were feeling strong at this point and we just passed another team so maybe it was that killer instinct trying to reign in another one.  Or maybe just looking forward to the Pilot downhill!  So we make it to CP #4 at the top of Laurel and chat with the volunteers and a few other teams, then we’re off again and heading back home.  The Pilot Rock descent was super sweet … cleared the switchbacks and even the Humvee rock garden at the bottom … life is good!

Jim and I are cruising back towards home, I set a personal best time (thanks to Jim for the killer pace-setting) on the climb up Buckhorn Gap.  Now it’s decision time … do we descend Clawhammer Fireroad then climb Maxwell Cove fireroad?  Or do we take the Black Mountain super-gnar, hike-a-bike, but killer fun trail and get the full effect of the final Black Mountain downhill.  Well of course the endorphins are pumping full tilt at this point … no way we’re takin’ fireroad baby!  So we’re off and riding/pushing across Clawhammer ridge on the Black Mountain trail.  Ended up only taking 37 minutes from Buckhorn Gap to Presley Gap so we probably didn’t lose more than a few minutes over the fireroad route.

I was having a blast carving it up on the final descent down Black Mountain.  Somewhere along the way I started hearing a faint clicking near the wheels …

… must have pushed it a bit too hard – popped a spoke out on the rear wheel!  Well thankfully that held up and we rolled into the finish a few minutes after 5.  That was good enough for 14th out of 70 teams - not bad for a few flatlanders I thought!  57 miles and 9000′ of climbing.  Time to gnab that new PMBAR pint glass and put it to use!

I’ve been doing PMBAR since 2005, but it started as the “Pisgah Death March” in 2003.  Eric said it all started when he tried to round up people to do epic long rides in Pisgah.  But when he’d tell them the crazy long rides he wanted to do he found it hard to get many takers.  So he figured turn it into a race and bring out the competitive drive and the crazies will make it happen.  Well Eric, you made it happen - I’d say PMBAR has a pretty solid following now.  Thanks to you, Erinna and all the volunteers for giving us an excuse to ride some of the best trails around!

Here’s another local Triangle area team, Peter and Eric, coming in later that night.