Transition

Given the cancellation of the Rocktober challenge and the fact that I had a campsite reserved for the weekend, I decided to go up anyway and get some riding in.  I had heard that Kuhn would be there and that he wanted to ride the course on Saturday.  Sounded like a good idea to me.

I rolled into RB Winter State Park around dusk on Friday, set up camp, made a fire, and ate dinner.  Once I ran out of wood for my fire I packed it in, crawled into my tent and fell asleep to a book.  Good times.  There's something about camping alone, even if the fat guy in the camper across the way is snoring loud enough that you can hear it, that is quite relaxing.  It might be the whole being on your own thing.

Next day woke up, found Mike, and set out on the first part of the loop with Mike and 6 others, mostly locals.  It was a good ride.  The new Ergon pack held up well, with a full days worth of food and crap in it.  Barely felt like I was carying anything.  Thanks Ergon.  After 20 miles of riding, we dropped down Black Gap or Black Cat or something.  Kuhn stopped to change a flat and noticed a snapped suspension bolt on his new Scalpel (ed: this may have been his punishment for our lamenting the lack of a 29er Scalpel... it would be prefect!).  Ride over.  Back to the parking lot.  Luckily that was about the end of the loop.

After a quick lunch of half a pb&j, I rolled back out with the local guy leading to do some of the second loop.  I got a little friendly with a tree on a super-steep descent, and came out with a few scratches.  Then we got lost and ended up practially on I-80.  Then we walked up a steep ridge.  Then we headed back and ended our ride.  Total time, about 5.5hrs of rocky goodness.  Solid.

Of course as soon as I got back to my campsite it started raining.  Sat in the tent for a while, then packed and left.  Went to Dick's graduation the next day.  Should be fun next year.  That night I bid goodbye to Ms. Geology for a few weeks (sad panda), and I'm currently squatting in my friends appartment until I can move into mine on June 1.

Going down the North Carolina this weekend to provide pit support for Zach and the Cyclesports Kids for the Burn 24 hr race.  Should be fun.  I'm doing chill easy rides now to transition down from my peak that didn't actually exist.  Oh well.  Next year.  Cross season... More racing to come in June.