I don’t have motorized transportation to call my own. However, I live in Asheville and I like to ride my bike in Pisgah: No big deal…a 30 min drive isn’t much longer on a bicycle, right? I teach myself this lesson again and again, but still come back for more. 8 months ago Sam Koerber posted “New route in Pisgah“, and I was intrigued. I’ve never gone down Big Creek because 1,800′ in 2 miles is a waste of elevation, IMO. But climbing it? WOW. Now that’s an idea I can warm up to!

Biting off Big Creek backwards

And warm up to it I did. By that I mean: ride from town to the parkway, and up the parkway (where I passed Sam coming down) to the top of Trace Ridge trail, down Spencer Branch, to the bottom of Big Creek, and through several creek crossings to where the real climb begins. FYI: that’s about two hours of not hammering it on knobby tires, AKA and shamefully so,  the longest duration I’ve been riding lately.

The Climb:
Heck yeah! 17% average grade, and as Sam said “It’s nearly all rideable, with nothing absurdly difficult”. I had worried that was a bunch of  humblespeak, but it turns out that minus a few downed trees, it IS all rideable, just a hell of a challenge to clean in one shot. At times, the bench is very narrow, and so steep that the front wheel is barely weighted. 22×34 and very fast engagement hubs are all but mandatory…this simply is not a single speed ride, and I was happy to be riding with gears and balloon knobly tires with low pressure.

After about 30min of heavy breathing and dumping sweat, I noticed the surrounding ridges were eye level, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Then the sounds of motorcycles told me the Parkway was not too far off. A discarded beer can solidified my effort by the tell-tale lack of someone else’s, and I popped out just above Little Pisgah Tunnel. AWESOME!!!

The plan was to cruise over to Laurel mountain and descend 7.5miles, and ride gravel back to bent creek, and get on home….however, making it down to the Pilot connector at about 5pm, I realized I had no interest in getting home after dark, and thus turned around and took the parkway back: a tough decision to make while riding down an excellent descent on an awesome epic.

A short stop at the “Eblen Short Stop” for 1,200 calories of candied crap (Snickers, Baby Ruth, and a chocolate milk to be exact), and 6 hours later…I was back home  on my back with my feet up in the shower and my brain turned to mush.

Today, I can only think about going back for more.

Ride Reports
Follow through RSS