East Coast Bliss!

Two weeks of riding in Pisgah was absolutely badass! It rained everyday, except mother's day. Rode for all but one of those days and definitely spent my fair share of time in wet clothes. The rocks, roots, mud and deep water crossings were all fabulous. It reminds me that if you can ride east coast singletrack, you can ride anything. It was great to get to spend time with all of my friends. It doesn't seem like I moved away from here three years ago. I felt at home, for sure.

Gabe hooked it up, we had a bbq almost everyday and his house felt like home. Jane was awesome, she drove me to A LOT of trailheads and spent quite a lot of time with me on the bicycle. She's absolutely amazing and I'm blessed to have her as my friend. Hung out with everyone that I set out to hang out with, except Nate Bowe, only got to see him for a quick minute.

Pisgah claimed several things along the way. Finally blew up my shoes, still wearable but not real functional. Blew up my I9 hub and the rim was pretty trashed also. Ran through a pair of brake pads, bearings are shot on my american classic front hub and put some wear on the drivetrain. Finished off one chain and the second one is in need of replacement. The magic gear on the ss with vertical drops doesn't allow for a very long life span on chains. Can't wait to get back to Denver and convert the tires back to tubeless. 8 flats is no joke. It was evenly distributed, 4 front and 4 rear, but definitely not cool! My ergon bag, serious POS, blew up as I was packing to leave for here, so I count that as a trip fatality.

The good news is Craig at Ski Country hooked me up with 2 new pairs of shoes for the price of 1, I9 hooked me up with a brand new wheel, in a while you wait format. Super stoked on that one. Then all of my replacement parts at cost, along with a shop to do the work in! I don't get that in CO. Shanna hooked me up with several sizes of endless cogs and Bruce gave me some new accessories to wear. Friends are such a nice thing to have.

Overall my trip was amazing. So glad to turn off my brain for a bit and just ride bikes. My goal was to be in shape when I left here and I feel like I have gotten a pretty good start on that one. Over 40 hours of saddle time pushing a gear, I thought was going to be too big, that turned out to be just right! 34X18 felt surprisingly good!

Went out downtown for the evening and ended up running into just about everyone. Hit up a few bars and ate a couple of dinners. Nice night to finish off the trip. Rolling to work with Gabe in the a.m. then get dropped off at Ski Country to box up the bike and catch a plane back to CO!

Got to ride with numerous different people that all pedaled quite nicely. It was good times for sure. Hopefully will get to see some of these folks in sept. before sswc09 in Durango. Then I can show them some trails in the rockies, where I call home. 'Til then , ride bikes! peace.