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| Snowy April Mountains in Northern NC |
I've never joined them before - they do some hard core tag-team straight-through driving (often 20 or more hours) to maximize riding and minimize vacation time. I can fall asleep in a car fine, my problem is not being able to stay asleep. I'd be toast. I'm more of a 12 hours-then-a-comfy-bed explorer. This year they chose to explore the South East so that Ann and I could more easily join them from our temporary digs in Central Pennsylvania.
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| View East from Rental House at Saluda |
We planned a few side trips along the way (see my University of Virgina blog entry) and some overnight stops for ourselves, but the ultimate goal was Asheville, North Carolina and environs. The folks from up north found a sweet mountaintop house near Saluda, NC to rent and rounded up 12 likely suspects to share the cost. Great view from the deck for $57 a person, no?
Saluda is a cute little town about 40 minutes south of Asheville, and about 40 minutes east of our ride at Dupont State Forest. Perfect for us, cause while much of the group was bent on riding all day, every day, a couple of us were corrupted by nearby Biltmore mansion (see my Biltmore blog entry) on Saturday. But Sunday it was all Dupont.
Dupont is famous for its waterfalls and exposed granite slick rock. Parts of the 1999 movie, Last of the Mohicans, was filmed here, including the memorable waterfall scenes. So we started out with an all-group ride to the 4 easily accessible falls. Fantastic.
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| Waterfall Up Close |
We'd ride as close as we could, then park the bikes and clamber across the rocks for a closer look. Especially, Bill. Real close. I joined him on the rock at the base of the falls. It was an awe inspiring, moving experience to stand feet from the thundering cascade, your body shaken by the roar, your face washed by the spray, the water leaping and falling past with immense power. A highlight of the whole trip for me.
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| Really Close |
After the falls, we broke up into a long group and a short group. The long group would ride the 30 mile IMBA Epic the encompasses the best riding throughout the forest. The short group would hit some of the highlights closer in, then find other entertainment in town.
The trails were a mix of dirt road, old two track, and sweet modern single track. On the dirt roads you might find some of the many equestrians out on a beautiful spring day (even some sporting carriages). And plenty of hikers closer in. Further out, we saw almost nobody.
Some of the old two tracks pre-date modern building methods and were severely eroded, providing a nice technical climbing challenge. Sometimes it got to be too much to sustain, turning us into pedestrians walking 25 pound wheeled weights.
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| Too Much |
The newest single track was ultra nice, giving sweeping, flowing descents that went on and on. Some of the best were Ridgeline Trail, Reasonover Creek, and Airstrip.
There also visited some more remote waterfalls, including Bridal Vail Falls, which you could walk behind. They did this in Last of the Mohicans as the bad guys chased our heros, torches in hand, through the night. Somehow it looked much more spacious in the movie.
The coolest way to get to this falls is from the bottom. There's a long walk up gently sloping granite to the top where a ledge forms the upper falls. Most of the water is in the rapids to the right of the slope, but it has such an even face that much of it is covered with a thin sheen of flowing water, separated by occasional dry patches. My bike shoes were too slick to make much headway, so I went barefoot. Fine on the dry patches, but where there was little flow, algae had accumulated and it was incredibly slick. I began sliding backwards several times and had to spin and drop on my butt to keep from accelerating to the bottom. Eventually I discovered that if I walked where the flow was higher, there was little algae and traction was good. On to the top.
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| Bill Climbs a Slick Rock Falls |
It was quite dramatic to crawl behind the falls on one side and come out the other. Again the feel of the spray and the sound of the powerful flow were awe inspiring. This time we could reach out and touch it. Sitting on the granite next to the falls in the middle of the river was a great place for second lunch. On the way down we discovered a bathtub sized pothole in the bedrock full of water. If had been a bit warmer, I'd have popped in for a soak next to the roaring cascade.
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| Under Bridal Vail Falls |
Riding the slick rock of Cedar Rock Trail was another treat. After an arduous climb up a once-eroded and now armored fall line trail, we arrived at the dome, covered in moss and with sparse trees where soil had built up in cracks. The path was marked by small cairns and was quite steep, but traction was superb. A very unusual environment offering excellent views of the surrounding mountains. The descent was equally steep, and got to be pretty exciting on the eroded lower reaches when we got off bed rock. A very fun trail.
On the trail by 11 am, back at the car by 6 pm, it was a eventful, tiring day. We had time for one more trail - a quick out and back on the buff single track of Ridgeline. We raced to the top, turned around, and raced back down, Bill and Pat in the lead and me bringing up the rear, while Mike and Kathy spotted the Burb in the nearby parking lot for an end-of-day pickup. Good times were had by all.
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| Mike Ridin' the Slick Rock |
Folks had to be back at work on Tuesday, so we headed back to the house, ate a quick supper of leftovers, packed up the cars, and hit the road as the light was failing. We spent the night in Tennessee, the Houghton crew drove on through the night, from 70's and sun to 5 inches of fresh snow back home. We hit 85 F on the way through Virginia. But it was raining and cold back in State College. Spring was over for another few weeks.
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| The Crew Takes a Break |
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