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Wednesday, July 5

1/4 of the Fourth Weekend

Last week's self-mutinied trip to Hot Springs didn't happen because it was hard to justify seven hours in a car for a three to four hour ride.

But if one were to be staying in Western NC, mebbe...

A bunch of us had loose plans to congregate in a manner or another in the mountains over the four day weekend.  Bill Nye was coming with me, and we decided that since we were not  going to be driving all the way home, we'd go for it.

Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever really sold me on this ride.  Up the same climb (well sorta) twice and two different ways down.  We left Charlotte at 7:00AM.  On the bikes at 11:00AM.

Glad we're staying up that way.

Up the climb once to the first descent that actually starts with more climbing.  The down begins kinda meh, but then it kicked up with plenty of off camber and switchbacks... and snot covered rocks.  Slick wicked.

And views.

Some tricky moves on the way down that stymie me, which means I understand why Eric likes it out here.

Back up the mountain for round two.

Hot Springs living up to its descriptor.

Toast.

Bill Nye gets to the top of the climb dressed as the Vice President of the Shirtless Club for Men should be.

I'm honestly not sure what's the big deal about the Pony Tail Port on my helmet.

I use it anyways.  Seems dumb tho.  Some woman ladysplain this to me.

At the top again only to find out that we're not at the top.  There's a fork in the trail Eric didn't tell me about, and it's not on the map.  We go left, and it's like being back in Nam.  The trail is less so, and more just a slight part in the vegetation.  We go back.  The other way isn't much better.  Overgrown.  Poison ivy.  Bill Bye runs over a copperhead, and it lets me know how it feels about that.  We chase it away with a couple sticks (and mebbe a little screaming on my part).

We snack on berries like people who are all into that kinda thing (I'd rather eat trail pizza).

Okay.  Once we get to the real descending, it's quite a rally down the mountain.  One hundred miles an hour (or so) with cool features all the way down.  We get to the bottom.

"I brought this stupid camera with me all day, and I took zero pictures of us riding."

We agree to go back up until we get to something interesting.  Fortunately, this is only about a four minute hike up.

Bill Nye does it better, but he is also better at timing photos with my camera.

Ride done.  Head back towards Saluda... hit Papas and Beers on the way.  Watch a deluge of rain fill the streets, drive the Honda Fit of Rage like a boat back to Noelle's tiny home.  Drink and talk and play until midnight, and then retire to my #tinyvanlife parked out front.

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