Mountain Biking by 198

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HIP/VIP - Homers and Ventanaphiles in Pisgah

As lined out here in a previous post, HIP/VIP is a time when a group of us off the MTBR board get together for some great riding in the Asheville, NC and Pisgah National Forest area. This is the mecca of east coast mountain biking with more epic trails to ride than you can handle. This year we went with Bent Creek, Laurel Mountain/Pilot Rock, Black Mountain and Dupont State Forest.

BENT CREEK

Friday started off with the Industry Nine tour and then we headed to Bent Creek for a late afternoon warm-up for the weekend. Bent Creek is an Asheville playground that consists of a spider web of incredible trails. This is what the riders in North Carolina consider a local urban trail. In Atlanta, this would be North Georgia mountain run. We started off riding up Ingles Field Gap to 5 Points and then from 5 Points you head up North Boundary to the promised land. Our favorite section of trail in Bent Creek is Green's Lick located at the top of North Boundary. Green's Lick is an over grown BMX track that blasts down for a little over 3 miles. You really have to watch your speed and prepare for the numerous jumps or things can get out of control very quickly. Just U-Tube "Green's Lick" and you will see what I am referring to. Everyone got down without a hitch and smiles were all around. It is always great to see first time riders of Green's Lick make it to the bottom. From there Jim (Cane Creek engineer) led us on a maze of the other trails in the area that are all better than most of us see on our local rides back home.

There was one casualty at Bent Creek. During a somewhat routine run, OnePointFive took a hard crash and hit is knee perfectly on a rock. It literately exposed his knee cap. For those of you with soft stomachs, I did you the favor of just linking the pictures here so that you didn't have to look.

Knee Picture 1, Knee Picture 2

Good luck with the healing. The rest of the ride went great and we headed to a Mexican restaurant to get some food.

LAUREL MOUNTAIN AND PILOT ROCK

This was my first time up Laurel and down Pilot. The overall ride is only about 14 miles (a little over 2 of which is gravel FS road), but it really puts a hurt on you. The first 10 miles is the climb. For the most part, the climb is pretty easy. There are some small areas that are hike-a-bikes to get through, but you end up just gradually going up the mountain until about mile 9. At mile 9, it is like you are taking an elevator straight up. This is the longest section of hike-a-bike I have ever been on. The last section of this climb, you are pushing your bike above your head wondering if it will ever stop. When it finally does stop, you are at the top of a 4 mile downhill that is a classic Pisgah run. This rooty, rocky, switchback infested mess is some of the best riding I have done in the Pisgah area to date. We even took a rest 2/3's of the way through to get rid of the arm pump. There is nothing like coming down at 25 mph into a 25 yard rock garden. In the last section, watch for some strategically placed rocks in the center of the trail. These are perfect launching ramps that will send you air borne in a hurry. This was truly an epic Pisgah adventure. Thanks goes out to Mike (our local guide) for taking us up and down.

BLACK MOUNTAIN

Another Pisgah classic. Due to our long ride in the morning, we switched up the Black Mountain ride a little bit from my normal route. We climbed up Black to a connector that took us over to Sycamore Cove. This was a great loop. Sycamore Cove is probably my favorite trail in the Black Mountain loop. It's not the steepest or fastest section, but it is one of the most technical with it's multiple creek crossings and tight tree lines. You really have to love this run through the forest and stay on your toes because it changes quickly.

DUPONT STATE FOREST

Time constraints with family events back in Atlanta made me miss the Sunday morning Dupont ride. Having ridden there at least a dozen times before, I know the guys had a great time. You can spend an entire weekend at Dupont and still not touch all of the trails. There is everything from techy dh's to flowy single track.

198'S THOUGHTS

Another great HIP event in Pisgah. I am going to call it a HIP event now instead of HIP/VIP because I was the only Ventana rider there! Pilot Rock is going to go down as my favorite run in Pisgah after this years weekend. That was really surprising to me because Heartbreak Ridge was going to be hard to beat. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend with a better set of riders. The 12-14 of us really ripped up some North Carolina single track and left it all out on the trail. Can't wait to have another one!

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