Oct 16-Oct 22: Brevard, NC
On October 16, the weather forecast for North Carolina was finally improving, so we started working our way towards Brevard. We broke up the drive by stopping in Nashville, TN, to ride the Hamilton Creek trails. We had ridden these rocky bumpy trails a few years back and both really enjoyed them. It was fun to tackle them again and see how far we had progressed as riders – all of the incredibly challenging rocky drops and gnarly sections from our memories were now no big deal. Most sections we simply floated through before realizing it was a spot we had struggled with in the past! This left us feeling empowered and excited about riding again in Pisgah and Dupont.
We arrived in Brevard a few days before the weekend and met up with our Chicago friends Marcin and Alanna, who had also just started a cross-country trip with their two daughters and a pup in a travel trailer. They were taking a couple months to move from Illinois to California and were trying to hit every epic mountain bike destination they could along the way!
We shuttled to the top of Dupont State Forest and started our ride with the Rocky Ridge downhill, a fast and challenging section with an insane number of tight berms with small table jumps dodging through the trees. After a short climb back up Rifle Road, and a giggle at the trail marker, we bombed down Hooker Creek, which was a steep and straight (honestly, kind of boring) downhill, ending in an equally steep uphill push to the top of Ridgeline. Ridgeline is known as one of the country's best flow trails and was the first section of machine built trail in the Dupont area. It's reputation holds true! This trail will not hold you back and you can pick up as much speed as your skills will allow you to handle.
At the bottom of Ridgeline, the group split ways to pick up the shuttle vehicle. Alanna and I headed back to our cars and started making the trek to our friend Marty's house nearby. The gravel mountain roads were our first experience finding the limits of our little home on wheels. As we approached Marty's address, I started to laugh. The driveway looked like a wall. It was a freshly dumped pile of gravel at nearly a 20% grade for the first 40 feet or so, then tapered off up a hill for another quarter mile into the woods. If I could just make it up to the relatively flat spot past the wall, I could make it the rest of the way to the house. After a few unsuccessful tries and ruining the nice smooth driveway surface with loss of traction, I decided it would be best not to push it and parked on the side of the road and began the small trek toward the house on foot. We spent a wonderful evening eating pizza, sitting by the fire, watching the stars, and spending time in good company.
The next morning the rest of our Chicago friends began to arrive at the Hub to ride Pisgah National Forest. After several minutes of saying hello, stretching legs, grabbing coffee or beer, rearranging bags and bins, and setting up bikes, we had enough folks and trucks gathered to shuttle to the top of Bennett Gap. It was a long sketchy drive on a narrow forest road, and we were simply glad that not much traffic was going the opposite direction of our train of shuttle vehicles. We rode down Bennett Gap, a rooty downhill that rattles your bones with a steep and chunky descent, stopping only after a couple of hike-a-bike features and to regroup where it dumps onto the forest road at the end of the trail. From there, we climbed back up Clawhammer road to my favorite downhill trail of all time - Lower Black Mountain. Described as a "tech-flow" trail, there are rocks and roots piled everywhere, and lots of chunky blown out bermed turns, but if you know where to pop and unweight your bike, you can float over most of the chunk for an amazingly fast and flowy ride back down to the road.
That evening we convinced a few friends to check out the Twin Dragons Grand Buffet with us. Although you wouldn't expect it in the middle of a small town in North Carolina, this is one of the best Chinese buffets we've ever been to! The restaurant is always clean, food is fresh and hot, and the place is usually packed.
The following day we rolled out to Dupont again, and this time hit up the Burnt Mountain, Cedar Rock, and Big Rock trails. These trails are quite the opposite of Ridgeline - instead of smooth, flowy singletrack, these trails bounce you over all of the natural granite found at Dupont. They wind through the scraggly trees growing up through cracks in the rock, throw you off a few big boulders along the way, and contain a few open intimidating sections down slick-looking rock. Fortunately, most of the granite is quite grippy, which allows you to maintain traction and fun all the while!
After riding, we headed to the Sierra Nevada Taproom in Asheville for dinner and drinks. To say this facility is impressive would be the understatement of the year. This place is HUGE beyond belief and incredibly extravagant. The Sierra Nevada campus was several acres, and the building itself was over a quarter mile long. Even so, the prices for dinner were surprisingly reasonable - $10-$20 per meal, depending on what you ordered - and absolutely scrumptious.
For our last day of riding, the group headed back to Pisgah. During the morning we stayed on the lower trails to avoid a big day of climbing, since everyone was tired. We parked in a lot just past the Ranger Station and climbed a steep but thankfully short Thrift Cove to get another run at Lower Black Mountain. After the giggle fest down Lower Black, we headed to a mellower climb up Grassy Road. This climb was rewarded by a short but sweet downhill on the west side of Sycamore Cove that was similar to Black Mountain but a little more forgiving, with rooty drops instead of rock chunks. At the bottom of Sycamore we climbed Grassy one more time to ride the east side of Sycamore - this section was not nearly as fun as the west side. It added a ridiculous climb over a couple hundred foot long network of exposed roots to get to the very top, then promptly pointed you downhill through arches of rhododendrons along more bumpy exposed roots. There was little flow to be had as we bounced along rootball after rootball, and the limited sight lines allowed corners to sneak up on you, so we were constantly on the brakes and losing momentum. Finally, we made it back to the Hub and had just enough time for one more shuttle run down Bennett Gap to wrap up our weekend.
The next morning we said our farewells and reluctantly headed off back toward the cold Midwest, where Mike and I would spend the next week training to become laser cutter technicians.
We arrived in Brevard a few days before the weekend and met up with our Chicago friends Marcin and Alanna, who had also just started a cross-country trip with their two daughters and a pup in a travel trailer. They were taking a couple months to move from Illinois to California and were trying to hit every epic mountain bike destination they could along the way!
We shuttled to the top of Dupont State Forest and started our ride with the Rocky Ridge downhill, a fast and challenging section with an insane number of tight berms with small table jumps dodging through the trees. After a short climb back up Rifle Road, and a giggle at the trail marker, we bombed down Hooker Creek, which was a steep and straight (honestly, kind of boring) downhill, ending in an equally steep uphill push to the top of Ridgeline. Ridgeline is known as one of the country's best flow trails and was the first section of machine built trail in the Dupont area. It's reputation holds true! This trail will not hold you back and you can pick up as much speed as your skills will allow you to handle.
At the bottom of Ridgeline, the group split ways to pick up the shuttle vehicle. Alanna and I headed back to our cars and started making the trek to our friend Marty's house nearby. The gravel mountain roads were our first experience finding the limits of our little home on wheels. As we approached Marty's address, I started to laugh. The driveway looked like a wall. It was a freshly dumped pile of gravel at nearly a 20% grade for the first 40 feet or so, then tapered off up a hill for another quarter mile into the woods. If I could just make it up to the relatively flat spot past the wall, I could make it the rest of the way to the house. After a few unsuccessful tries and ruining the nice smooth driveway surface with loss of traction, I decided it would be best not to push it and parked on the side of the road and began the small trek toward the house on foot. We spent a wonderful evening eating pizza, sitting by the fire, watching the stars, and spending time in good company.
The next morning the rest of our Chicago friends began to arrive at the Hub to ride Pisgah National Forest. After several minutes of saying hello, stretching legs, grabbing coffee or beer, rearranging bags and bins, and setting up bikes, we had enough folks and trucks gathered to shuttle to the top of Bennett Gap. It was a long sketchy drive on a narrow forest road, and we were simply glad that not much traffic was going the opposite direction of our train of shuttle vehicles. We rode down Bennett Gap, a rooty downhill that rattles your bones with a steep and chunky descent, stopping only after a couple of hike-a-bike features and to regroup where it dumps onto the forest road at the end of the trail. From there, we climbed back up Clawhammer road to my favorite downhill trail of all time - Lower Black Mountain. Described as a "tech-flow" trail, there are rocks and roots piled everywhere, and lots of chunky blown out bermed turns, but if you know where to pop and unweight your bike, you can float over most of the chunk for an amazingly fast and flowy ride back down to the road.
 |
| Loading up the bikes for a shuttle run! |
That evening we convinced a few friends to check out the Twin Dragons Grand Buffet with us. Although you wouldn't expect it in the middle of a small town in North Carolina, this is one of the best Chinese buffets we've ever been to! The restaurant is always clean, food is fresh and hot, and the place is usually packed.
 |
| Delicious desserts at the Twin Dragon Chinese Buffet! |
The following day we rolled out to Dupont again, and this time hit up the Burnt Mountain, Cedar Rock, and Big Rock trails. These trails are quite the opposite of Ridgeline - instead of smooth, flowy singletrack, these trails bounce you over all of the natural granite found at Dupont. They wind through the scraggly trees growing up through cracks in the rock, throw you off a few big boulders along the way, and contain a few open intimidating sections down slick-looking rock. Fortunately, most of the granite is quite grippy, which allows you to maintain traction and fun all the while!
After riding, we headed to the Sierra Nevada Taproom in Asheville for dinner and drinks. To say this facility is impressive would be the understatement of the year. This place is HUGE beyond belief and incredibly extravagant. The Sierra Nevada campus was several acres, and the building itself was over a quarter mile long. Even so, the prices for dinner were surprisingly reasonable - $10-$20 per meal, depending on what you ordered - and absolutely scrumptious.
 |
| The maple prosciutto cheese grits (left) and the beet salad (right) at the Sierra Nevada Taproom were excellent! |
For our last day of riding, the group headed back to Pisgah. During the morning we stayed on the lower trails to avoid a big day of climbing, since everyone was tired. We parked in a lot just past the Ranger Station and climbed a steep but thankfully short Thrift Cove to get another run at Lower Black Mountain. After the giggle fest down Lower Black, we headed to a mellower climb up Grassy Road. This climb was rewarded by a short but sweet downhill on the west side of Sycamore Cove that was similar to Black Mountain but a little more forgiving, with rooty drops instead of rock chunks. At the bottom of Sycamore we climbed Grassy one more time to ride the east side of Sycamore - this section was not nearly as fun as the west side. It added a ridiculous climb over a couple hundred foot long network of exposed roots to get to the very top, then promptly pointed you downhill through arches of rhododendrons along more bumpy exposed roots. There was little flow to be had as we bounced along rootball after rootball, and the limited sight lines allowed corners to sneak up on you, so we were constantly on the brakes and losing momentum. Finally, we made it back to the Hub and had just enough time for one more shuttle run down Bennett Gap to wrap up our weekend.
 |
| View overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains from the top of Bennett Gap. |
The next morning we said our farewells and reluctantly headed off back toward the cold Midwest, where Mike and I would spend the next week training to become laser cutter technicians.
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