Spring Training 2 - Pisgah National Forest

With the promise of sunshine and double digits, we packed up and headed south to Brevard, where all the mountain bikers head. The HUB is the bike shop and they provide a big parking lot for cyclists' cars and trucks. If you ever wondered how many different bike racks there are, this is the place to see them! 

With a 49 km route speaking to us from Ride with GPS, we started to climb. First pavement, but quickly turning into the National Forest (park) and finding gravel. Climbing gravel. Not that easy. 

It changed from road like conditions, swerving to avoid potholes, to more narrow paths, with boulders.  Letting some pressure out of the tires was helpful. 

A few other cyclists passed by, and were very encouraging (as they passed me) "way to go" "this is very steep" "you are doing great". I was thankful for the encouragement, and for that "granny gear". I was in first gear for a long long time. 

The first 13 kms took an hour and a half 😂, average speed 8, slow and steady...

We actually stopped for lunch at the "top", even though we still had 25+ k to go. 

Amazing how good a turkey sandwich tastes after all that climbing. 

And then the ride changed. Descending we found much more of a mountain bike ride, narrow paths, over hanging trees, boulders and roots. So much fun! 

 

It was very very fun. Hard and boisterous, challenging and exhilarating.  

Sometimes the rocks are too high, and you can't push your pedal down. I encountered one such rock, and over I went. Not too far a fall, a little jam of the wrist and scrap of the calf, but up I got. To keep pedaling. 

However, my derailleur was not so lucky. When my pedals didn't want to go around, I stopped and asked Marc to come and look at my bike. Somehow my derailleur was definitely not where it is supposed to be... I asked Marc if it needed to be rotated back into position, but he rather calmly explained "well, no, not exactly, as it appears it has snapped off". 😳

Red arrow, the lonely "hanger" that snapped.

The green arrow, the derailleur, that enables the bike to shift the back gears.

We were 18 kilometers into the forest, basically half way, as far away from the car as possible. So we had no choice but to repair it enough to keep going.  

This is a big issue. Thankfully I ride with a very good bike mechanic. 

Back wheel off 

Chain off 

Derailleur removed

Chain shortened - broken, links removed, quick link to the rescue 

As we worked on it, our friends who passed us earlier came by and stopped to offer their help. 

Would you believe they were from Barrie, Ontario - fellow Canadians! 

And there is was, fixed. No way to change the back gears, so basically a "fixy". I had to ride the rest of the way out of the forest in the same gear (basically 2nd gear). There was a lot of stopping and starting, and putting the chain back to where it should be, but thankfully we had done so much climbing that much of the way was down hill. 

Song note for the day, once I was stuck in second gear, I of course sang the Friends theme song:

So no one told you life was going to be this way.
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA.
It's like you're always stuck in second gear,
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.

Once we crossed highway 276, we just headed for the car, cutting 5 k off the ride.

A very lovely ride by waterfalls and lots of fishermen.

I asked one fisherman if he had any bites and he said "no but I sure scared 'em".  Hehe 

Highway 276 was literally all downhill, allowing me to coast. And coast I did, as it was a lovely smooth surface, and very few cars, indeed I could go quite fast at this point, see blue speed map - max 60.8 (don't tell my mom!) 

After pushing me along the final gravel strip (riding with his hand on my back to help me), Marc raced ahead on Hwy 276, back to the car and then drove up to intersect me. In the end I glided down about 16 of the final 18 kms and he met me at the Rangers station. 

What a crazy ride. 

Onto bike repair.  Consultation at The Hub bike shop, parts found online, and we have a part on order for Amazon delivery to our air BNB tomorrow morning.  We will try to repair my bike. 

Exhausted. We stopped for tacos on our way back, our comfort food, and we are having a quiet evening of recovery and refueling. 

BTW...the white blossoming trees that are so beautiful.  Dogwoods!

Good night.