This was a ride with Matt, Ryan, and Bruce. We were a good group seemed to be able to ride well together. The weather was great for being August, the temps were in the low 80's couldn't ask for much better. I drove up with Matt and his wife Katey. It was cool to meet her, after knowing Matt for a bit. We got there late, but Bruce and Ryan had not left yet. We did the fireroad climb and I really liked the wooded section unfortunately there wasn't more of it. We did the climb and Ryan seemed to be riding strong, I was second up the climb, then Matt was behind us with Bruce coming up the rear(I think he warms up slower and had ridden more that week). I have never been to EF, but had heard about the hike a bike. Well this lived up to it's reputation. The ridgeline was not all that rideable. I wreaked a couple of times and the 3 of them were slow ones because I couldn't unclip. I have used performance pedals for years and have not had a problem, but the new Carve pedals don't do well with me. So I was frustrated with that and after hurting myself on the downhill I was just going slow. Well after the first lap we talked about doing another lap. Ryan and decided to just do the Fire Road climb again, and come back down, while Bruce and Matt decided to go up the more technical downhill we had just came down. I started a good pace up the climb and had some space from Ryan and decided to push myself to see how much time I could get on him by the top. Well I pushed it pretty hard and let it all out since the way back was mostly downhill. Well Ryan bailed and went back early so I waited at the top, and ended up talking to some hikers. We saw Eric, Dietrich, and Mike Piece. Saw Joe from the Bike Lane and I talked with a NCVC woman rider I have seen at the races. So there were alot of people riding EF on Sat. Well the ride was not what I expected but the 2 hill climbs were a big workout. I like Liberty Furnace better, it is basically the same terrain.
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| EF Aug.11 2007 |
3 comments:
I think I saw you guys on 8/19 on the SMT100 course. I hope your day was as good as ours. If you passed a group of three going up towards Todd lake as you were about to turn on Tillman Rd. It was us. We rode the start climb and Tillman to Little bald knob for a total of 56 miles on Saturday. Sunday we did Hankey Mountain and headed home. Great trail conditions and beautiful weather. Good luck on Sept.1 !
Russ
Hey,
Don't give up on EF. There is a whole lot more trail out there. Trails on both sides of Ft Valley Rd, all the way down to Harrisonburg. As crazy technical as you'd want.
Mark Wiggy should know most of it from our years of riding out there with MORE.
see ya in a few,
LC
Not a great day for me, but good training for the SM100 none the less. I would gladly do some different sections out there that contain less hike-a-bike. -Ryan
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