adventures in pisgah

The Wild100 is PMBAR West Virginia style. Starting and ending at the Elk River Touring Center riders race to reach five checkpoints, in order, for roughly 100k of distance. Riders in the Plus Category get an extra checkpoint.

The Elk River Touring Center (ERTC) is a nice relaxing place and with that in mind I decided to make a long weekend of the event with Terri and we headed up on Thursday and stayed on the property in the Farmhouse until Sunday. There is a picture of the first mountain bike race held at the ERTC. It is dated 1986 and they have had a mountain bike race on the property every year since then.

The place is full of random bits of bicycle history:

Thursday evening I did a quick out and back up Prop’s Run to get a feel for the bike and woods. In just 45 minutes I saw a hawk, a deer, an owl and a bear. The trail head is right out the door of the ERTC and minutes after finishing the ride we were enjoying a nice dinner in the restaurant.

Friday Terri and myself went down to Marlinton and checked out the Greenbriar Trail where she would be doing a 15 mile on Saturday. On the way back we stopped at Gay Sharp Knob where I had spent over an hour last year struggling to find the checkpoint. We set off up the road to the barn:

Once at the barn I played with my map and compass for a little while and tried to find the way to what was sure to be a checkpoint.

After I felt I knew the way we just hung out for awhile and I played with my camera around the old barn for a bit.

Then it was on up the road to Snowshoe where we wandered around a little bit and looked at the downhillers. The area has a lot to offer cyclists! Cap the day off with another dinner in the restaurant that couldn’t be beat and with a few early morning fireworks it was on to the race.

At the pre-race meeting Gil, the owner and promoter, said that the only pavement that would be allowed was ½ mile down the road to Mine Rd. and I realized that the course was going to be nothing like last year’s. I was part of the mad frenzy of trying to be first to get a map:

As I walked towards my bike I took a look at the map. All I was looking for was where the first checkpoint was and the fastest way to get there. I knew I would have to look at the map repeatedly so I figured my best bet would be to focus on one checkpoint at a time.

I saw number 1, saw that up Mine Rd. was the way, stuffed my map into a jersey pocket and took off off as fast as I could.

I was the first one off but these three guys beat me off the property by going through the camping area while I went the long way around the driveway. Local knowledge is worth a lot and I knew I would have to ride hard and fast to make up for the time I would spend on navigation if I wanted to be competitive.

While I was battling geared riders out on the flat asphalt most of the field was still at the ERTC taking the time to properly look at the map and carefully fold it.

Some riders carefully folded their maps while others gave the cp locations the utmost consideration.

Meanwhile I was out on the gravel forest Mine Rd. trying to reel in some of the riders that got ahead of me on the highway. I wanted to get a decent jump on the pack and worked hard on the steep climb and passed most of those who had passed me but was not able to catch the two lead riders. I went by two single speeders who told me to “spin to win” and that was exactly what I planned on doing.

I pulled my map out while climbing to pin point exactly where my turn was and then haphazardly stuffed it back in my jersey pocket. I made the turn onto the Gauly Mtn. Turn still in third place knowing that the rest of the fast guys were just behind me. When I got to the first turn I reached for my map and it wasn’t there! I didn’t know my way around and didn’t know where the checkpoints were and quite simply had to have my map so I had no choice but to turn around to look for it. As soon as I did I realized that any hopes of being competitive were essentially over. I had to go almost all the way up Gauly and a good 15 riders passed me before I got back on track. The reason I lost it was because of my haste and I wished I had taken more time at the start like most of the riders.

The first checkpoint was near the bottom of Red Run which is a rocky and rooty beast of a trail and I was struggling on the unfamiliar terrain. I pulled into the first CP and tried to make sense of where number two was and what the best way to get to it was. The best way was clearly to backtrack back out to the gravel road but I really didn’t like the idea of walking back up Red Run and then riding up Gauly again as I had just done to get my map. If I would have taken the time to look at all of the CP’s at the start I could have left the map when I first lost it and then just picked it up on the way to #2. Shit!

Oh, well. I decided to take the long way to number 2 and go up Right Fork to Tea Creek Mountain and then climb Bannock Shoals to the CP. This route was the most rideable but also the longest by far and included a big climb that the other options lacked. I justified it by telling myself I like to climb and the Tea Creek Mtn. downhill is sweet. By the time I hit the meadow at the base of the mountain I was pushing and second guessing myself.

As I was crossing the huge rock garden at the top it had already been over an hour since leaving cp1 and I knew other riders were reaching 2 by then and I still had a long way to go.

I broke my frame on the Tea Creek mtn. downhill last year and this year the bike held together but my hand really started to hurt. No time to stop I had to make up for lost time due to losing my map and picking a bad route. I hit the campground and headed straight for Bannock Shoals. Knowing that I had to gain time on the climb I gave it everything I had and was rolling through the CP right at the 4 hour mark. Two riders passed me going the other way just before the cp and I knew that they must have already been to 2 and 3! I shouted my number as I went through and shortly after a few groups of riders were coming the other way and I was relieved to know that I was still ahead of the main pack

A rider caught me out on the gravel and we chatted for awhile as we made our way to cp2. The gravel roads were mainly flat but had just enough hills that I was able to stay ahead of the main pack of geared riders. The checkpoint came easy enough and then it was just a quick turn around the way I had just been to the campground and cp3. I did try and soak in the views along the way.

Down at the campground I filled my water bottles and snapped a quick picture of this flower that had hitched a ride with me before heading up Tea Creek Mtn.

I had just been down this trail and knew it was going to be a hike-a-bike and was just hoping it would be less than two hours. I tried to ride and passed a few guys but it was way too much work and I resigned to walk to the top. The guys I passed caught up to me and we chatted on the way up. We hit the rock garden right at the hour mark.

Then it was a quick downhill back down to the meadow and cp5. I had already been to both 4 and 5 on my way to cp2 and was reminded of my foolish route choice upon reaching 5. When they told me that cp6, which had been kept secret, was the top of Prop’s Run I wasn’t surprised. It was the furthest most point from my current location and made the most sense.

Riding out Gauly to the gravel roads that would take me to the top of Prop’s my hand pain started to become unbearable. I dropped some tire pressure and was having to stop repeatedly to rest my hands. The gravel could not fast enough.

I knew there were still some Plus riders behind me and would have to keep going as hard as I could if I wanted to hold them off on the flatish gravel and then the long Prop’s Run downhill. The end of the race was very unspectacular. The gravel road spin was long and lonely and then Prop’s Run was a long slow gradual downhill where I was sure another Plus rider was finally going to catch up to me. By this point my hand pain was severe and after a few minutes of riding it was pretty much blinding and making me nauseous. I was pausing frequently and wishing for an excuse to walk. I stopped and dropped my tire pressure to the point where I could feel and hear every rock against my rims. I was gambling with getting a flat but was willing to take that gamble. Somewhere along the way I realized I didn’t have my map anymore. It didn’t matter I knew the way and wasn’t about to turn back.

After 10 hours and 14 minutes I finished and got 6^th place out of it. The next rider was just 15 minutes behind me. I had been going as hard as could go all day to make up for my mistakes and was spent.

No new bike this year.

The beer and food was flowing and the relaxed party atmosphere carried on into the night.

I can’t wait to go back next year!