Asheville, North Carolina

I've been meaning to come to Asheville for years given its reputation as a mountain biking destination. Now that I've actually been there,  Asheville, North Carolina, is officially my favourite American city. It's obvious that it's a city that embraces active and healthy living, it's got a vibrant downtown, people are very friendly, and the mountain biking is insanely good. About the last two: Never have I been anywhere before where on seeing my bike, random people come up to me in supermarket parking lots with unsolicited advice on which trails to ride. I got this advice in the hostel and at bike shops, but that was to be expected. In a parking lot while putting away my groceries? Not so much. It was greatly appreciated though, and I think it speaks to the character of this mountain town. Of course mountain biking isn't absolutely everything there is to this place: in the downtown area there are art galleries, ample selection of cafes and restaurants serving locally sourced yummies, numerous brewpubs, and more massage therapists and yoga instructors per capita than I've seen outside of Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood.

Now about that biking...  I rode here for three days, and barely scratched the surface of what area surrounding Asheville has to offer.

On day 1, I rode the Laurel Mountain loop in Pisgah National Forest. If your thing is epic rides, this is the place for you. Once you get on a trail, it's miles and miles and miles before you have to look at your map. You don't have to think about which turn to take (they are few and far between) only about climbing over the next rise, cleaning the stream crossing, walking up the crazy steep slope, hike-a-biking over the jagged rocks on the off-camber turn with serious exposure, spinning the pedals as you go up, up, up.... Do you see a theme here?  I'll admit, I was not prepared for the relentless and seemingly endless uphill. I should've clued in when the guy at the bike shop started describing the route: "Well, you climb for six miles..." There's nothing to compare to this in New Jersey and I suffered appropriately. And the payoff? Going *down*. Bouncing over rocks, dropping off ledges, railing (or walking!) insanely tight switchbacks, and then rolling out to a sweet, flowing singletrack descent. Of course, the gorgeous vistas and the mystery of riding through tunnels of mountain laurel only add to the experience.

Day 2 was a vastly different ride. Needing an easy day I hit the much milder DuPont State Forest. I was frankly quite disappointed with these trails. With rolling hills and a mix of wide singletrack and fire roads, it seemed that this trail system is well-suited for someone looking to put in miles without the heart-attack-inducing steeps of the Pisgah National Forest. This day was redeemed by the wicked BMX track fun of the  Ridgeline Trail, and by views of several waterfalls.

Day 3 in the Asheville environs was spent taking a bit longer at the waterfalls in DuPont State Park, this time with the actual intent of taking pictures. No mountain biking this day, but instead I focused on exploring the possibilities of multiple-exposure shots like panoramas and HDR. Looks like I have a lot to learn here...

Triple Falls upper sections - panorama

Triple Falls middle section - HDR

On Day 4 I finally got around to heading to Bent Creek, just 15 minutes from downtown Asheville. Man, to have a wicked trail system like this so close and readily available is awesome! Apparently all the locals think so too, since prior to riding here I was asked again and again if I'd been here yet. And, more to the point, it is obviously busy and well-used, and the parking lot at the trailhead was full of bike-rack-bearing vehicles shortly after noon on a Wednesday afternoon. Once I was out on the trails, I could see the reason for its popularity. Not technically challenging by any means, the trails are a cross-country rider's dream, all full of ups and downs and flow and general fun. Best of all, it featured a kick-ass, white-knuckle, whoopin' and hollerin', grin-inducing downhill, the likes of which I have not experienced since leaving BC. With jumps, bermed corners, and just enough obstacles to keep things interesting, I had a great old time going down this rollercoaster of a trail. (Note: I'd *love* to take a 1st person video coming down this thing. If someone wants to get me a GoPro Hero 3 or Contour 2+ or something along those lines for Christmas, I'd be a very happy camper!)

As I said earlier, I just barely scratched the surface of what Asheville has to offer. Will I be back? Oh yes!

Bent Creek parking lot shortly after noon on a Wednesday in late November

White Clay Creek State Park - Check!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'd been meaning to check out White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware. Well, I finally made it. What a blast! The trails are fun, fast, and flowy, and there's even a few surprises. With very little in the way of obstacles and elevation change, this would be an ideal park to ride a singlespeed cross-country rocket. No derailleurs, no slapping chain, no shock squishiness... Sadly, today I had to make do with my Blur LT, a somewhat long-legged trail bike that was serious overkill for the terrain, and on my first trip up, I was on my crippled Giant Anthem with its rear shock so far gone the bottom bracket was practically scraping the ground. Yes, that's right, I've been there twice, two Sundays in a row. Despite the drive (it's about a two hour trip one way), I was entertained enough the first time around that I immediately made plans for a return. I'm so glad I did! On my first go-around I missed the southern portion of the trail system, so that's where I dove right in today.

Straight out of the parking lot is  a long, flowy (you're gonna hear that word a lot), nearly pedal-free, singletrack decent. Wheee! Then a bit of a climb, then a whole series of log piles, like someone had left their firewood to season in the middle of the trail. Fun! Then a decision, left down Snow Goose, or right on Mountain Goat. Mountain Goat looks like it's a little less-traveled, might be interesting. Rounding a corner I realize that the trail is aptly named as it hugs an almost-sheer drop around the bend. The exposure is not anywhere near as bad or consequential as in Colorado or around Moab, but you definitely notice it. Dropping (litterally - the trail is near-vertical) down into a ditch and soaring up the other side brings me to another decision point. This time the trail called "Corkscrew" beckons me forward. I figured with a name like that it's got to have the goods, and yup, it delivers them in a whoop-de-do-filled package. Down, up, turn, down, up, turn, lather, rinse, repeat... Like a half-pipe for cross-country bikes, going weightless at the apex of each turn. Wheeee!!!! (If you've ever ridden the Sidewinder or Tap-and-Die trails in Vermont's Kingdom Trails, or the bottom of the Mount 7 trail in Golden, BC, you'll know what I'm talking about.) Well, *that* was unexpected. More flowing singletrack goodness brings me back to the car, where, after a bite and putting on another layer (it's getting cold!) I'm off to explore new trails, but return to Mountain Goat and Corkscrew to finish off the day on a high.

The trails in this area are extremely well-built and -maintained, and traverse scenic valleys and fields, and offer lots of views of beautiful bubbling brooks. It could very well be that autumn brings out the best out of these trails, but more than a few times I stopped to just soak in the scenery. Or maybe 6 weeks of minimal riding took its toll on my cardio and I just needed extra breaks.  ;)

Unfortunately I have no pics of this adventure. I brought my camera on my 1st trip and carried it for several miles in my backpack. I saw an opportunity, took it out for a quick snap... "No Card" blinking on the LCD. Crap. On my second ride I made a conscious decision not to bring the camera. I just wanted to ride! You're just gonna have to use your imagination for this one.

Gettin' Crafty on the Butcher

Crafty Butcher double teeter-totter

So apparently there's some mountain biking to be had in Cumberland, BC. So says the map that shows the piled-spaghetti heap of trails just outside of town. So says the mud-splattered hordes of dudes and dudettes wheeling down the main drag on knobby-tired bikes of all description. So says the groups we've recently had here at the hostel, one of which traveled from Whistler to ride here, and another of which included a couple of national champions and the rep for one of the largest Canadian bike manufacturers. So says the organizers of the BC Bike Race, the 7-day-long epic torture test for masochists. So yeah, I suppose there's some mountain biking in the area.

Jessie demonstrating the angle on the wooden berm

"Most Trails are Advanced." That's the beginning of the Cumberland entry in the Mountain Bike Vancouver Island guide book, and let me tell you, they're not kidding! If you learn to ride here, you get really good, really fast. Rocks and roots and ridiculous steeps are prominent features of just about all the trails in the area. Oh, and what about the woodwork? There's a strong community of trail builders in the area who have put an enormous amount of work into building and maintaining all the singletrack, and many of the trails showcase their creativity and skills with a chainsaw. For example, "Thirsty Beaver" is a newer trail with oodles of bridges and ramps and skinnies, most of which go a long ways to keeping the trail sustainable through all the crazy and wet terrain that it traverses. And yes, there's the "Crafty Butcher", a trail with a double teeter-totter in the middle of it - just because. Why the heck not?!?

Railing the corner on the Crafty Butcher

And just in case you get tired of what Cumberland has to offer, all of the communities in this area are host to mountain biking trails of various degrees of epic-ness. Courtenay's Forbidden Plateau is apparently festooned with downhill-friendly trails. I haven't ridden there yet, and my intel is based on the trail maps and oh-so-handy guide book, but it's on my list. Again, "Most Trails are Advanced." Campbell River's Snowden Forest (which I have ridden, "Most Trails are Advanced") is swoopy, flowy, just-keep-pedaling double- and single-track. Just watch out for the arrows labeled "50 km." I started following them for lack of any other plan, and while I can't attest to the actual distance of the route, I can tell you that it keeps on going, and going, and going... And there's Quadra Island ("Most Trails are Intermediate"), where apparently "the fastest man in the world" and owner/operator of Naked Bicycles can be found leading group rides.

Derelict canoe on the shore of Morte Lake, Quadra Island

I haven't even come close to exploring all the trails in this area, but believe me, I'm gonna try!

Golden, BC: Mountain biking destination!

I've spent the past two days mountain biking in Golden, British Columbia.

I'd heard about the mountain bike trails here in Golden from a guy who was fishing on "my" pond while I was kamping in the Kootenays. He noticed that I had a "cross-country" mountain bike, and suggested I give the Moonraker system of trails a try. (Brief aside: I think it's funny how my bike, a Santa Cruz Blur LT2, is immediately identified as an XC bike out here. In my "home" trails in New Jersey/New York, it's often mistaken for a downhill bike. Just goes to show what the standard is west of the Rockies.) So after leaving Canmore - not a bad place for XC riding itself - I wandered over to Golden with the explicit intention of riding Moonraker. I eventually got to those trails, but in a bit of a roundabout way.

My first ride in Golden turned out to be a full day of downhilling at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. I hadn't actually intended to ride there - I was actually there to see if I could ride the gondola up to take sunset pictures from the mountain top. Well, one thing led to another, and I found myself encased in a full-face helmet, dressed in body armor, waiting in the chairlift line with another guy and our guide/instructor. Oh yeah, the instructor: never having done any lift-accessed riding before, I thought it prudent to have someone along who knew what he was doing, so I tagged along with this guy from Calgary who had signed up for a full day of guided riding at the Resort. Tom, our guide, quickly assessed our skill level, and after our first run on intermediate trails, it was nothing but black diamond runs for the rest of the day. Oh yeah, did I mention I'd never done downhill before? Turns out that a decade of regular riding in locations like Ottawa, New Jersey, and New York, combined with a couple of years of racing early in my career counts for something! I learned a lot in those hours and before too long I was flowing (as opposed to bouncing pinball-like!) down the trails. Alas, something I ate at lunch didn't agree with me, and towards the end of the day my stomach was churning, my concentration was shot, and despite the experience of several clean runs, on my last trip down the mountain I ended up falling more than I had in the past two years of riding. All the padding I was wearing certainly did its job! All I ended up with was a bruised knee.

Day two started with a bonus - an unanticipated shuttle up Mount 7. This guy in the hostel had nothing to do until his afternoon rafting trip, so he offered to drive me to the top of the mountain that had formerly hosted the Psychosis downhill race, also a launch point for para- and hangliders. I put my newly earned downhill skills to good use and railled all the intermediate runs to the bottom of the mountain. Note that I stayed off the black diamond runs this time: as mentioned above, unlike what some East Coast riders may think, my own personal bike is *not* a downhill bike! The bottom half of the mountain was especially fun and flowy, culminating in a sweet half-pipe. And that was just the start of the day...

I *finally* made it to the Moonraker trails - my reason for being in Golden at all - in the afternoon. Long story short: WOW! All kinds of flowy, fun, singletrack goodness threading through pine forest. The CBT Mainline trail, which actually connects the trail system to the town of Golden, is especially not to be missed.

There may be another Golden mountain biking day in my future...

Update Sept 6, 2011:
I did manage to do another day of mountain biking in Golden. I'd headed up the CBT Mainline trail for another XC ride in the Moonraker trails, but at the top of CBT I decided to turn around since my knee had started giving me problems from all the crashing I'd done on my first downhill experience. On my way back to the Dreamcatcher, I rode by this cute downhiller girl I'd spoken to a few times on the trails; she was loading a bunch of bikes into her pickup truck. "Wanna go for a ride?" she asked. "Sure!" I replied. (Really, what else could I say?)  She and her friends took me to a little-used downhill trail that only locals go to. Let's just say that while I'm a pretty good descender for an East Coast XC rider, I got nothin' on real honest-to-goodness Rocky Mountain downhillers.

The aftermath

Working Wood

Welcome!

Week two of my 6-week Artisan Program at the Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking: complete! Also complete: a smoothing plane and a "Gumby" table leg. Didn't get around to finishing the coopering plane or the jointer plane though... Oh well, there's always Monday morning at 7:00am!  Sigh... Too bad I'm not a morning person.

I *have* managed to get out on a few mountain bike rides on the trails here in the Sunshine Coast. All I can say is: *WOW!* These trails are a blast! Not really what I'm used to though, what with a whole lot of uphill and subsequent long descent. On one ride near Gibsons, I climbed for about 90 minutes straight up a mountain, and the trail took me straight back down in 10 minutes. Probably one of the hairier descents I've ever done, I could smell my brake pads burning when I got to the bottom. Can't wait to do it again...


Unfortunately, long days perfecting skills and making piles of shavings haven't left much time for adventuring outside the classroom or for taking pictures. I've met some cool and like-minded folks and am learning a lot though, so I'm definitely having a good time!

Making shavings