pisgah/brevard

"czb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

landed here in brevard for 48 hours. got a pretty fun 2 hr ride along
some place called bennett gap up from a fire road a few miles near some
horse stables not far from national park's entrance. stunningly
beautiful climb, about 1000 feet, frequently at hard grades. soft as
british columbia in some ways - lush, damp.

but it snowed last night and has rained all day today. fortunately
monday's is my day off for riding. but tomorrow is last day here. i
have 3-4 hours. question for anyone who knows pisgah. if it's been
raining, how well does pisgah drain? it was fairly muddy yesterday and
given how unfamiliar i am with trails i don't want to go over the side
and careen 200 feet. also it's gotten quite cold. at the top of
bennett gap yesterday as it got dark (comming down was tricky for
sure), it was very windy and quite chilly. and if you only have 3-4
hours, and you are in bravard, what's a really fun trail anyone can
recommend?

the topos and locals have their recommendations but thought i'd post.

thanks

Head over to Dupont State forrest. Those trails drain really well. They
are not all that technial, but the scenery is pretty nice.

TJ

umm... i don't want to go all den mother on you or anything but dupont
is a definite no go when it's wet. first, the slickrock gets ultra
slick and second there's huge problems with erosion which have either
closed or caused several trail to need major rework.

and not technical? burnt mountain? the new airstrip trail?

i sympathize that it sucks when it rains on a trip, but riding in the
rain tears the hell out of trails. it's called linear or lateral trench
erosion and it turns trails to gullies.

the good news is that pisgah around brevard has a lot of gated fire
roads which have a gravel base but have grown over. they're fine to
ride in the rain and while they're not singletrack they're fast and
have some great climbs. try the area around pilot mountain starting at
glouchester gap or trace ridge.

again, please don't ride in the rain in pisgah. things are torn up
enough from the storms last fall.

-walt

well this is what happened at pisgah.

first prior to the rains i was able to do the bennet gap climb while
some of the younger pure downhillers were content shuttle up the
fireroads with trucks and bomb down. the climb around coontree road
was great. technical but quite lovely. lots of streams, lush
overgrowth. snuck in about a 2 hr ride when it wasn't too cold.

yesterday i went - a day afer snow and rain. and you're right. it was
too slick at most every trail i tried. the streams were engorged, and
the frost/ice under the leaves made it so slick that the only way to
manage the slide was to cut the trail up, so i didn't ride because of
the damage that would have proved inevitable. instead i did exactly
what you prosposed and found exactly what you said i would. lots of
old fire roads closed to vehicles that were overgrown just a few
hundred hards past the barriers.

the fireroads had gravel bases and 20 or so minutes up had evolved into
overgrown muddy paths. made for excellent climbing at difficult grades
- especially with the temps in the teens and it lightly snowing and the
winds up at looking glass mountain really howling. point is i think
any responsible rider would have discovered that trail damage (or
severe injury) was inevitable on a lof the single track in pisgah after
the rains, and would have found the fireroads if they really wanted a
ride.

one disappoinment though. the local shops here do not dissaude you
from riding the single track to preserve the trails and stem erosion.
it's not that they encourage you, but neither do they discourage. and
the town (brevard) has a few handfuls of hardy non-locals who came in
from canada and florida and elsewhere to ride and were not at all put
off by the wet conditions. so they were shuttling and bombing
regardless of impacts. i was surprised at this.

anyway, i discovered a great route called clawhammer and another called
sycamore flats and another is bennett gap. terrific rides. beautiful
scenery. lovely town of brevard. good local bike shops with good
equipment. strongly recommend pisgah to anyone.

oh and last. 40 minutes south near Tryon is a town called Saluda on
the Green River, which has Green River BBQ which I highly recomment.

You've just enticed me to go back there!

--
- Zilla
Cary, NC
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"czb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

well this is what happened at pisgah.

first prior to the rains i was able to do the bennet gap climb while
some of the younger pure downhillers were content shuttle up the
fireroads with trucks and bomb down. the climb around coontree road
was great. technical but quite lovely. lots of streams, lush
overgrowth. snuck in about a 2 hr ride when it wasn't too cold.

yesterday i went - a day afer snow and rain. and you're right. it was
too slick at most every trail i tried. the streams were engorged, and
the frost/ice under the leaves made it so slick that the only way to
manage the slide was to cut the trail up, so i didn't ride because of
the damage that would have proved inevitable. instead i did exactly
what you prosposed and found exactly what you said i would. lots of
old fire roads closed to vehicles that were overgrown just a few
hundred hards past the barriers.

the fireroads had gravel bases and 20 or so minutes up had evolved into
overgrown muddy paths. made for excellent climbing at difficult grades
- especially with the temps in the teens and it lightly snowing and the
winds up at looking glass mountain really howling. point is i think
any responsible rider would have discovered that trail damage (or
severe injury) was inevitable on a lof the single track in pisgah after
the rains, and would have found the fireroads if they really wanted a
ride.

one disappoinment though. the local shops here do not dissaude you
from riding the single track to preserve the trails and stem erosion.
it's not that they encourage you, but neither do they discourage. and
the town (brevard) has a few handfuls of hardy non-locals who came in
from canada and florida and elsewhere to ride and were not at all put
off by the wet conditions. so they were shuttling and bombing
regardless of impacts. i was surprised at this.

anyway, i discovered a great route called clawhammer and another called
sycamore flats and another is bennett gap. terrific rides. beautiful
scenery. lovely town of brevard. good local bike shops with good
equipment. strongly recommend pisgah to anyone.

oh and last. 40 minutes south near Tryon is a town called Saluda on
the Green River, which has Green River BBQ which I highly recomment.