Kevin Hoff wrote:
Tsali is Tsali - it's own deal; seems to be more like what most people describe Western biking as but with trees and lakes. I like it, especially in the fall and as a way to introduce beginners and all have a good time.
I'd agree with that.
Quote:
I love Pisgah, the only problem I have there now is that everything fun is way too hard - I'm a weekend warrior these days (sadly) and my days of leaving work and riding Bent Creek until dark 3 days a week are over. Have you discovered the Hendersonville Reservoir area? It is a notch harder than Bent Creek and some fairly long loops are possible, especially if you're willing to do a bit of road riding on the Parkway to connect things.
A good area with some HARD rides is where I used to live - Black Mountain. The local shop (well named - Epic Cycles) has mapped out some majority singletrack loops up to ~100 miles (!) and 5-digits of total climb. The infamous ride known as Kitsuma is one of my favorite short(ish) ones there - a grind to the top of a peak next to Ridgecrest/I-40 then almost unbroken downhill ~5 miles to near Old Fort, taking the old broken up HWY 64 roadbed back up to Ridgecrest.
Never ridden the Hendersonville or Black Mountain areas. Will have to mention that stuff to the group I ride with. They're pretty hard core about this Pisgah thing as they've been doing that trip for like eight years straight now. Most of them are in pretty amazing shape, so the trip is actually quite tough for me (I've done it two years now and each year only ridden two of the four days...the first day is "short" at only 14 or so miles, but something about the altitude acclimation gets to me so then I do the third day which is between 25-32 miles, same as day two and day four). But that's the most my body has yet been able to handle.
Quote:
Please do share anything you find about the Boone area. It seems the locals are exceedingly tight with info except to say "head towards Linville" and the like.
Agreed. Sounds like there's a LOT of Forest Service and National Park land around that isn't completely legal to ride (as in most of it is, but small parts aren't) that bikers are finding more and more of. Plus conservation efforts have been fruitful lately (see my blog post about the CTNC hike I went on) but not without concessions on the environmentalists parts to allow for recreational uses more than just foot traffic. So it'll be a long time before there are published maps and signs marking the trails, but in this day of everyone using a GPS of some kind anyway, it's not going to be terribly difficult to find stuff. I've found a few promising loops on MotionBased.com already that are using some trail I've hiked and been told about, and the most cool thing about a few of these rides is that they have some epic downhill that you *could* do a shuttle thing and not bother with the climb if you wanted to.
Will keep you posted...may try one of these this weekend.
Last time I asked about rides in the area at the bike shop in Boone this kid was like "Here's a map, go ride Dark Mountain." When I explained that was cool but we were hoping for something technical much closer he said "well, here's a link to one of the rides I like on motionbased.com" but went on to say he hadn't mapped how to get in and out from the trailhead to where you park and that you had to go through a couple people's yards and don't miss this little trail "right by the church" and then blah blah blah and we just gave up thinking we'd even find that one. *sigh* So I know what you mean about the locals not being much help. And he *was* trying to be helpful (first one I found that was).
--Donnie
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
And if you want to skip the water part all together, they do have a duathlon, too.
