July 4th- now recap

July 4th weekend was a blur. We woke early and headed to the Smokies to sneak in what we thought might be a private ride through cades. Wrong. Cades cove busiest time of year happens to be July 4th and after we finally got parked in overflow parking in the fields of the valley a ranger told us they had 870 counted rider last year between 8-10am and said there were more later and earlier. Anyways we still braved the crowds and got ahead of the cars on our loop. Saw the usual Cade’s wildlife (turkey, deer, bears) and some DFR’s (dumb freckin rednecks). One in particular was chasing a bear with a point and shoot camera through the woods.

For the first time ever I stopped and checked out the gris mill and it was actually pretty neat. We saw lots of reptiles and amphibians there and ate blackberries until our bowels threatened to rebel. Followed by a picnic lunch and ice cream we headed back to K-town for the evening’s events.

We ate the happy hour at a deserted Nama and then headed for the symphony and fireworks. Oddly enough in the field behind the port-O-Jahns, there was a nice patch of grass open upwind and with an unobstructed stadium view of the works. I messed around with camera settings and got a few decent shots. Hopefully I’ll be able to translate this into some good shots for Boom’s Day later this year.

Sunday we ate dinner with the Tuckers at their house and were treated to an afternoon thundershower, grandparental (courtesy of Toots and Grandpa Knoll) stories, and a gentle rain, completing a packed and fun filled weekend.

Little did we know we would be the turkeys thinking it would be deserted in the cove.

Nice views that were relatively smog free.

A doe a deer...a female deer.

Salamander Rescue courtesy of Derek back to the stream bed.

Water powa!

The lock allowing water to flow to the wheel.

The wheel.

55x11 doesn't have anything on these gears.

This one's for you mom. Black snakes eat copperheads and mice and are good to have around.

Berry good deserts.

Flowers in Market square.

The moon provided pre fireworks illumination in fantastic fashion.

Lots of Fireworks pictures.....

Finale. Pictures don't do the bass levels justice.

Neat guttering device at Abby's parents.

Water flows from the gutter and then down all those segments, spilling a surprisingly small amount of water even in heavy rain.

A little walk at Concord and doing our part with some trail work on the local ivy growth.

Big South Fork Race

Home sweet home.

This past weekend Abby and I headed up to Big South Fork for my first mtb race of the year and a race Abby could finally ride in without threat of destroying herself or her bike. We met Maria and Amanda and camped out in the Bandy creek campground, which was very pimped out with the best in taxpayer dollars.

Both Abby and Boogy like sleeping in...

Abby’s race- Abby won the sport women with a small but talented field. We both knew Rachel was going to be fast on her newly decked pink single stallion, but with a little terrain luck on her side Abby was able to hold of off the Pink onslaught till the end. Abby had some mechanical difficulties of her own with a ruptured rear derailleur cable housing and a seat post that wouldn’t hold her seat straight (thanks to the anonymous " " dot quality). She rode with the seat tilted sharply up for the duration of the race and we will be removing and replacing the unmentioned defective designed post in short order and replacing it with something a little more stout.

Boogs sat on the road and side of the trail and gave us this look every time we came around.

Women racers are mean.

Fun in the woods.

And done.

My race- I was very nervous going into this race, but was comforted by the reports that the BSF course was not very technical. For the most part this was true with the exception of a few rock drop offs. What this race lacked in technicality it made up for in scary speed. The first miles of gravel road were all Big ring and a “gentlemen’s” start was not possible with Mr. Casteel (aka Mr. Excitement) attacking off the front like the line was 50 yards up the road. This drove the field to chase relentlessly into the woods at a very high pace with everyone in their big rings.

About ½ mile down the trail at a creek crossing a rider went down in front of me and an octopus of bikes soon ensued. Somehow no one had any major injuries, as when it all happened we were all doing about 25 mph. After the smoke cleared I found myself sitting about 6th in the group and as the first lap progressed, already better than any aspirations I had for the day. A flurry of attacks and small dabs from competitors in front allowed me to move to the very front of the race…somewhere I have never been in expert so far. While it was a rush having a bunch of faster than you dudes breathing down your neck waiting for the slightest mistake, I welcomed the change of lead shortly after on a gravel road. Tanner Hurst, a very fast up and coming kid laid down an attack with another guy in a group of three we had going and they never looked back as they dusted me.


At this point I was into my second lap and my back was starting to hurt and feel a little weird. I backed off the pace a bit and just tried to settle in on a reasonably anaerobic and tolerably painful rhythm. A pro rider Jake Prater, rode up on me offered some words of encouragement and then went on to the front to win the race, as he had been caught up earlier in the race wreck. After a short shooting leg pain and numbness in my leg subsided with a drop in pace, I decided I was feeling better or my adrenaline was high enough to ignore the pain and either way I was going to be done afterwards.

My third lap felt much better and smoother, as my technical skills especially at such high speeds, have diminished with all the no brainer roadie steering. The course was getting dialed in and I was beginning to really feel out the corners a lot better. I caught sight of one of the guys in front of me several times but didn’t have enough gas to close the gap before the end of the race. Meanwhile I was fighting my own battle with a Krystal guy behind me, who would keep walking up on me after the long technical descents where I had to ease off to preserve my back. Oddly enough the climbing on the day felt the best and seemed like it was where I was able to gain the most ground on my opponents. I rolled across the line utterly cooked on my limited expert experience in 4th place, which I felt was pretty awesome, considering the field strength for the day was stout and I’m coming off no riding mtb with a gimp back. After the beating my body took I’m seriously considering sitting out the Haw Ridge race as a volunteer and letting my back make the full recovery before getting back into the mtb race scene. One thing’s for sure, there’s no faking fitness or technical ability in mtb. Unlike road racing wheel sucking is just not really ever an option.Finally back to my roots…and the dirt.