WV dreamy tour Day 3

Day 3 begins after a restless night. Not much sleep was had by either campers. We slept under an integral designs 5x8 tarp and used our warm weather bags for our sleeping pleasure. A good setup, just no sleeping. Definitely prefer my eno hammock, but it's bigger than I like to carry on the bike. Here's both of our bikes packed up and ready to roll into the unknown trails of Dolly Sods.
Neither Mike nor I had ever been on the trails we were about to hit, so we weren't real sure what to expect. Within the first 1/2 mile we were rewarded for our big climb the night before. Rocks, rocks and more rocks was the theme of the day. Hundreds of yards at a time where you would never touch anything but rocks, narrow singletrack and big bogs. Relentless effort was required all morning. The first section was 2 1/2 miles that had us smiling from ear to ear.
We then knew that we had to hit as much trail as possible. Ended up doing about 15 miles of rocky east coast goodness before we hit the pavement at the bottom.
No real good pictures were taken of the real technical sections as movement was essential to keep the flow alive. Here's the only action shot that I actually got of Mike. It definitely portrays what these trails were all about.
Only one wreck by either of us on this day and it belonged to me. On the only steep descent Mike slowed down as I passed him over a techie rock drop in that led into a steady and steep ass and super techie descent. I was completely out of control, trying to hold a controlled skid but was picking up speed with no bailout point in sight. I finally went over the bars and had a nice soft landing on a big pile of rockie goodness. Ended up flatting on the endo and decided to finish the descent with a little walk down the hill. After putting the wheel back in I realized that my brakes were completely worn out. I figured I only had 100 miles left so brakes weren't really necessary. I mean I had leg powered braking on the back wheel, right. Brakes are just momentum killers anyway! It's good to be humbled, I suppose.

Ended up hitting the pavement for a nice and mellow traverse over to route 33 and then to Canaan Valley park we went. Stopped at the campground for a water fill up and a snack break. I talked a lot of smack to Mike about the sardines he had been carrying, but boy were they a delicious treat. Found the alleghany trail? after some looki-loo sections. Nice and normally technical climb up to the gravel road. It was the first time I have ever ridden Canaan and thought it was easy, but compared to Dolly Sods it seemed pretty smooth.

Some of the bogs were still fairly deep and were definitley momentum killers. Hit this one full speed ahead and almost made it through but here is where she sat. The motivator was the world mud bog champion for years and it proved it to me on this day.
Some green carpet lovelies were a delight to ride. So many colors and such a different riding texture. Hit plantation to something then over to Blackwater falls to connector trail into the town of Davis.

Checked out town before finding the house we were to call home for the evening. Thanks to JR for allowing us to invade his space. Then off for a fabulous italian dinner before heading back to JR's to crash for the night. 50ish miles and most of the day in the saddle.

Before this ride, the gnarly north fork was my favorite trail, ever. But in comparison, the gnarly seemed mellow to what we rode on this day. Absolutely fabulous. Some of the best riding I have EVER done. There was no down time, constantly thinking and making BIG power moves over the rocks. Amazing riding. Thanks Mike, for choosing this one. I'll be back to do this again.

One day and 65 miles left. Back in a bit!