Aaarrrgh! How do the people in the northwest stand it? I seem to have skin, often referred to as “web”, growing between my toes. I watch”The Killing” on TV and get depressed because of the all the rain depicted in that show. Having the wettest summer on record here is just wearing me down.
(Ever had one of these summers?)
To make matters worse, the best of the few days of riding have been…
In recent days, stories have been circulating in and around counties abutting the Blue Ridge Parkway indicating that the Parkway is going to CLOSE TO CYCLISTS.
The story has enough “legs” under it to garner comments from the Adventure Cycling Association and Blue Ridge Outdoors. So, my plea is to Superintendent Phil Francis that he issue a clarification of the Parkway’s intent regarding cyclists under the current draft plan…
Yesterday, Sunday October 17th, was a beautiful day here in Western North Carolina. We have been on a wave of some late summer – early fall temperatures for the past few days. The nights have been crisp with frost warnings each night but the days have been just simply outstanding with temps in the upper 60’s and the low 70’s. Yesterday made it to the mid-70’s. It was perfect weather for….
This past week has been interesting with a couple of rides in the evenings and an accomplishment of note. I’ll also go ahead and warn the readership that there is a high probability of a mini-rant included in this post.
The rides…
I didn’t get back on my Fuji CCR3 until Tuesday night following last Saturday’s Blue Ridge Breakaway. By Tuesday night after work, I was ready to let go of work related stress and get my legs moving again. The Navigator was headed for her water aerobics course and then we had plans for supper out with the Wood-man and the Navigator’s sister. So, a quick spin was in order for me. I decided to circle in and out of Waynesville.
The weather was most excellent. Skies were clear and we’re just beginning to get a touch of fall in the air. You don’t really see anything different. It’s just more of a feeling than anything although the cool foggy mornings are certainly a harbinger of things to come. Our daytime temps have been in that almost perfect range of upper 70’s and very low 80’s. Tuesday evening was just a fine time to be out on a bike.
I simply crisscrossed my way around and about town and took a moderate climb up Hyatt Creek Rd. to connect back to Old Balsam Rd. before traversing town. I had only been on the road about an hour and wasn’t ready to stop so I headed east out of town by riding some residential streets and connecting to Sunnyside where I began a descent to Raccoon Creek Rd. My intent was to circle back around on Raccoon and head to my LBS, Rolls Rite.
As I was descending Sunnyside and enjoying the scenery, I was jarred to the bone when my front wheel struck some kind of object followed by my saddle attempting to scratch the base of my skull from the inside of my body. Almost immediately, my rear wheel popped up and then I knew I had flatted.
I walked the bike to a shade tree and started replacing the tube. At a nearby house, a party seemed to be underway on the porch. I’m still not sure that anyone there even noted my presence. After removing the blown tube and while checking the tire casing for foreign objects, a jeep drove by me only to stop some 25 yards past my location. The driver backed up alongside me, looked at me, and said “oh, I thought you were a friend of mine.” Having determined that I was not, in fact, a friend of his, he started to pull away and then seem to have an afterthought and inquired if I needed assistance. I thanked him and assured him I was fine.
I finished my repair and headed out to the LBS and, unfortunately, was accompanied by a thump, thump, thump as the tire rotated. Apparently, I didn’t get the tube in properly. I also experienced rough gear shifting. The jolt seemed to have thrown my drive train out of alignment. I was concerned that I had bent the rim on my rear wheel but that turned out not to be the case. John, the owner of Rolls Rite, had me back in good condition and ready to ride by our group ride on Thursday evening.
The accomplishment…
Our local bicycle advocacy group, BicycleHaywoodNC, has been sponsoring Thursday night new rider/newly returning rider groups. The focus has been on helping cyclists get back into shape and to learn to ride properly on the streets. We’ve been blessed to have good turnouts each week although most of the riders have been well experienced overall. This past week we all celebrated the accomplishment of one of our truly new riders. Previously, she had ridden with us and was worn out after about 25% of the route. We hadn’t seen her for the past couple of weeks and wondered what had become of her. We were pleased when she pulled in this past Thursday and was ready to ride.
This time she completed the full 12.5 mile route! We were very pleased and proud of this accomplishment as it was a the fulfillment of one of our goals. Of course, Carolyn did the work! We congratulated her on the accomplishment and told her how proud we were of her. She was going home to call her son and report that she had made the full route this time.
WARNING! MINI-RANT AHEAD…
This has very little to do with cycling so feel free to skip ahead… I’ve been without my primary computer since last Sunday due to ongoing problems resulting from an upgrade in my operating system (Vista to Windows 7 Pro). After the upgrade, numerous Dell programs including my Verizon broadband account would not work. I spent 2 hours on the phone last Sunday with Dell support to accomplish the deduction (on their part) that “it isn’t working.” This resulted in kicking the problem up to an on-site visit. I purchased next day on-site protection when I purchased the computer so you’d think that meant someone would be out on Monday. You’d be wrong… It took until Wednesday before the Dell on-site tech support arrived and then until Thursday for me to get the computer back. Unfortunately, the computer was the equivalent of a paperweight as NOTHING worked. My computer is now residing with my local CRS (computer repair shop) getting yet another Windows 7 install, which means installing all of my programs again. The only good news for Dell in this is that their tech support is miles and miles better than Intuit’s (Quicken,etc.) If there is a sorrier excuse for technical support than Intuit’s “we’ll call you back” approach, I don’t ever want to see it, hear of it, and certainly not use it! O.K., I quit because I’m now approaching the cross over from mini-rant to full fledged rant and I choose not to spend my time or yours with that escalation. Let me just say that if you have submitted comments to this blog and NOT received a reply, please accept my apologies as I’m working back and forth between two different machines and things are messy…)
Some updates…
Gary Williams, the 61 year old cyclist from Belmont, NC, (near Charlotte, NC) that was so severely injured last week while participating in the Blue Ridge Breakaway remained in a coma into Thursday morning. The last update I had was that the swelling of his brain had receded and the medical staff was hoping to begin bringing him out of the coma yesterday (Friday) and hoped to take him off the ventilator. His wife remains in Asheville, NC near Memorial Mission Hospital. The family asks that they be kept in everyone’s thoughts and prayers with hopes for a full recovery… The cyclist involved in the incident in Clyde in which he was pinned under a horse trailer was treated and released at the hospital. He has been in contact with the Blue Ridge Breakaway officials and reports that he is fine… The Smoky Mountain News provided coverage of the ride. Bro Dave reports that he enjoyed an excellent 2.5 hour ride on his Salsa Fargo in and around Santa Monica, CA on Friday. He reports that BikinginLa perfectly described the ride and even wonders if they weren’t riding near each other at the same time. I do have to go find out what the Greasy Wiener truck is…Meanwhile, Jim Artis over at Cycling Experiences has been hard at work featuring articles on iPhone Apps, the new Garmin Edge 800, and the changes he has made in his design and layout of his blog… The VeloHobo is prepping for his ultra-light tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway and is sharing with us what he intends to include or not include on his upcoming tour.
Until later,
- Zeke
I’ve always been “blessed” to be able to reach into a pile of assorted fruits completely blindfolded and pull out the only lemon in the bunch. This skill has kept me entertained, flummoxed, and busy through the years. Apparently, I haven’t lost my touch!
On Sunday, I made the trip to my local REI to finally purchase a SPOT 2 GPS locater. I’ve been intrigued with the concept since watching the 2009 Tour of Discovery in which Rafael Geraldo made his way cross country and allowed observers to join him through the use of technology.
Arriving at the store just before closing, my Sales Associate reached into the proverbial “bunch of fruit”, except this time it was the stock of SPOT 2’s on hand. Drawing back his hand, he gives to me a nicely wrapped brand new SPOT 2 in black and orange dressing. He assured me that REI had returned all of their stock of the original SPOT 2 after so much negative press highlighted problems with that version.
With lots of duties to take care of for our long planned vacation beginning at the end of this week, I didn’t get to do the initialization until lunch time on Monday. Everything went smoothly. All of the lights blinked green just as the manual indicated they would. A GPS location was locked in quickly and the send message cycle started properly.
I eagerly looked forward to getting emails from those individuals that I had already listed as being the recipients of my hopefully “all is well” message. I eagerly looked forward to receiving one for an hour. Then, I began to look forward with some trepidation to finally getting acknowledgement that the messages had been received. Finally, when no message arrived from anyone, I gave a short “thanks” that I wasn’t critically wounded and in need of the SPOT service.
Following work, I tried to send the “track progress” messages. Upon arriving home some 1.5 hours after initiating the latest message, I logged in to my SPOT account only to be informed that I had zero, the big 0, in GPS locations. Fortunately, I recognized my deck and knew where I was currently located even if my SPOT somehow didn’t process that information.
So, a quick call to SPOT tech support and an approximate 10 minute wait resulted in a pleasant conversation with the SPOT personnel, who had me retry everything making sure I had a clear view of the sky. We had a nice conversation for about 15 minutes and the SPOT tech dude properly announced, “Yep, you’ve got a defective unit there. Take it back to the store where you bought it and they’ll replace it.”
Yet another quick call to REI and the Sales Associate assured me that they had more lemons, err SPOTS in stock and that they would be happy to replace my 1 day old unit. So, I’m heading out shortly to Asheville to replace the busted one. I’m testing the replacement BEFORE I leave the store!
In a related matter…
I ordered from Amazon a RAM mount for the SPOT so that it can sit nicely on my truck’s dashboard or windshield as we travel. I paid extra for 1 to 3 day business shipping so that the unit would arrive before our departure date this weekend. If my math is correct, I ordered on Monday and 1 to 3 working days should end by this Thursday giving Tuesday as the first working day following the order. Imagine my surprise when I received an acknowledgment from Amazon that my unit was shipping and would arrive by May 17th. Hmmm, that seems to be the week AFTER we depart… I guess that, as in all things, time will tell!
Until later,
- Zeke
(Update to this story 12:30 p.m. 05/11/2010) I am back from the REI store where I swapped out the faulty SPOT 2 for one that works. I had a very easy swap out with REI and then a quick response from SPOT to get the ESN switched over to the new unit. I was able to quickly initialize the new unit and started receiving messages, as did my intended recipients, within 10 minutes. All in all, things are working nicely at the moment!)
Our 3 day planned riding event with friend Jim Artis, of CyclingExperiences.com fame, is now well into our second day and we’ve just returned home from our second ride of the weekend. Jim arrived yesterday after getting about 30 minutes of sleep over the past 48 to 72 hours. It was interesting for me to be aware of how we have developed a friendship over the past year and yet yesterday was the first time we had actually met face-to-face.
Jim did an excellent job of speaking to my local Rotary club on the upcoming Tour of Discovery – Ride for the Republic. His presentation garnered lots of interest and many questions from his audience. His slides and the “show and tell” of the PowerBox and Fargo’s trailer had mouths agape at times. I feel very confident that there will be at least one Rotary Club monitoring the upcoming Tour!
Our Friday ride was to be a warm up of about 18 to 25 miles depending upon the route we chose and was to occur after the Rotary Club meeting. I had extended an invitation to local cyclists to join us. Two riders accepted that invitation and joined us as we rode from the site of our meeting (Laurel Ridge Country Club) to our home in Canton. You can see Jim’s write up and the map by visiting Cycling Experiences.
(Cross Country Stan, Dr. J., and Jim Artis enjoying some shade!)
(Artis ascending roller along Hyder Mountain Road)
Our day 2 ride was to be somewhat more ambitious with plans for a 70 mile out and back ride to Asheville. As with all things, plans get changed and modified and today was no exception. We departed Bethel, NC at our planned 10:30 a.m. time and proceeded to warm up and shake out the legs from yesterday’s ride as we spun our way down NC 215 to Canton. We were joined on today’s ride by local cyclist Brandon Anderson and my friend Nick Nicholson, who agreed to be our photog of the day. (Images to be uploaded later). Our climbs for the day started on North Main St. and continued as we made our way up and through Newfound Gap.
(Photog Nicholson, Anderson, Artis at Hominy Community Center)
Weather predictions for today had improved slightly from the 50% chance of thunderstorms to only 40% chance. The mid morning weather couldn’t have been better. Despite a chain that kept jumping the ring, Artis did an admirable job of taking on the mountain and cruised on through the gap to the long descent into the adjoining valley. Traffic was moderately heavy this day. Fortunately, we were treated quite well by all but one passing vehicle who chose to “buzz” us.
At the intersection of Newfound Road and New Leicester Highway, we reached a consensus to change the route and ride to a local eatery for lunch. We also decided that day 3’s planned climb from Bethel to the Blue Ridge Parkway might be done better on fresher legs on the morrow. Being the “wizened and experienced cyclists that we are”, we called for support and cut our ride in half of the planned distance.
I’m pleased with the decision that we made as it increases the odds that Artis will get to see yet another aspect of our great Haywood County cycling as he rides himself into shape for the upcoming tour. The ride on Sunday will take us from the bottom of the Pigeon River Valley to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Along this route, we’ll cross the West Fork of the Pigeon a couple of times, ride by Lake Logan, Sunburst Camp Ground and ascend past waterfalls as we enjoy what will still be early spring flora on the mountain.
More images and tales to come! Now, I’m heading out to the store to get some fresh Salmon steaks and veggies for grilling tonight!
Until later,
- Zeke
Sunday, April 18th, was my first ride to Asheville of the year. Along with the Wood-Man, I enjoyed a fine afternoon in the saddle as we covered the 38 miles from our starting point to Tripps Restaurant in Asheville. It is Dogwood Winter here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, which means that the Dogwoods are in full bloom and the temps have dropped to cooler ranges. We’ve had frost warnings for the last couple of nights and even a freeze warning one time. Fortunately, the days warm up nicely and that was the case yesterday as we climbed and descended our way into the “big” city.
We took a route along Old Clyde Highway from Lake Junaluska to Canton. If you can picture 3 roads running pretty much parallel, Old Clyde Highway would be the middle road. Part of the time, you’re running along the Pigeon River and the rest of the route is agricultural-to-residential in nature.
After passing around and through Canton, we headed up Newfound Road. Newfound is the longest and steepest of the climbs on this route topping out at 9% grade. I was really feeling my Saturday “work day” of cutting firewood and mowing grass. My legs and lower back felt tight as rubber bands stretched to their limit and I struggled to maintain contact with the Wood-Mans’s rear wheel. I lost about an 1/8th of a mile to him as we crested Newfound Gap and dropped into Buncombe County.
As always, what goes up must come down and I caught back up with him on the descent side of the mountain. From there it was a run across the valley floor where we were occasionally accompanied by the dastardly Headwind Harry, who I suspect was hiding in amongst the pretty white clouds. He seemed to make his presence known mostly on climbs, which of course is his standard mode of operation.
At the 2 hour mark, we took a brief break at the intersection of Newfound Road and Leicester Highway (pronounced Lester Highway by us locals). The short break did my back good but my quads tightened up. We called our “better halves” and gave them the meeting time at Tripps. They were heavily involved in their favorite form of exercise – aerobic shopping!
(Suttles Quick Mart – site of much needed rest)
After a very short run on the dual lane Leicester Highway, we were running along a ridge that provided a wonderful panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north of Asheville. After dropping down into the Erwin Hills Community, we had a series of climbs that just about drained the rest of my leg power. Mercifully, the climbs ended and we crossed the French Broad River north of Asheville. From here, it was a 6 mile run along the river using some of Asheville’s bike lanes. Normally, I can hang on Wood-Man’s wheel here but that was not the case on Sunday. I struggled to keep him in sight as I started bonking. At this point, I had serious doubts that I would be able to make the final climb up from the river to Pack Square. I did persevere and make it.This brought us to Tripps where I re-discovered the term “rubber legs.”
I was very pleased that the ride was not an “out and back” exercise! I would have given my kingdom, if I had a kingdom, for a hot tub last night!
A point of interest:
I’ve written often about riding the Pigeon River Valley above Canton. Last week, our local paper featured an article about one of the most famous “residents” of the PRV – The Osborne Family Oak. I have a deep appreciation for this tree and the history of our county that time has seen fit to pass under its spreading limbs. I share this story as a further point of interest for those readers, who have noted my writing of the area.
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Osborne Boundary Oak to be evaluated for restorative care The Osborne Boundary Oak, a historic tree on the Department of Transportation right of way, will be evaluated for immediate restorative care and recommendations for continued care by Lloyd Anderson, an experienced knowledgeable tree specialist, Southern Tree Care, at 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 19, at the site of the tree on NC 110 at the junction of Wells (1869) and Jeffrey Lane with Pisgah (NC 110). Observers are welcome. “The Osborne Boundary Oak was in existence in the days before white man settled Bethel Community,” said Doris Hammett. According to documentation, an Indian council existed near this tree. When General Griffith Rutherford and his men pressed against the Native American villages in Western North Carolina in 1776, they marched by the tree and forded the Pigeon River. |
Positive Response from NC DOT:
(Fairly wide, relatively clean gutter - pre-cleaning.)
(Example of gutters closing down – sweeper machine just passes over it.)
(Gutter almost completely gone!)
A couple of week’s ago, I wrote an email to the local NC DOT Engineer regarding the condition of the shoulders/gutters along NC 110 and NC 209. I explained that I wanted to be proactive this spring and highlight a couple of areas that might need some additional attention as they did their routine “spring cleaning”. Today, I received back a very nice reply indicating that the local DOT Maintenance Engineer had been to the sites and made a preliminary review of the work needed. I was informed that the work is scheduled to start in 3 weeks. I very much appreciated the kind response that I received and look forward to the widened gutters as I ride these roads! THANKS DOT!
Until later,
- Zeke
This week has been an outstanding week for getting some rides in at lunch. The skies have been clear, some color from the fall season remains, and the temperatures have been just cool enough to energize you initially and just warm enough to break a good sweat during the ride.
I was joined on my Thursday ride by Big Ben, who is in the process of building a new home and changing work schedules. His riding time has been cut short lately so he was eager to take advantage of this new riding schedule to get some miles under his saddle. I could tell he was eager to ride as he set a pretty good warm-up pace as we left the busier town streets behind us. He was also wearing his snazzy new bibbed cycling tights. (How much that added to his eagerness to ride is unknown to me although he did say he “really, really liked them!”)
We headed out our favorite north Haywood County road NC 209 and turned into the Upper Crabtree section. This departure from NC 209 comes at about the 11 mile marker from my office. The road is a gentle 2 lane route through some beautiful agricultural land. Traffic is typically fairly light and the drivers in the area have always been courteous to me as we ride along. The road travels 5 miles up the cove before the pavement terminates. It is mostly river grade with a slight incline until about the 4th mile and then you get some mild to moderate increase in the grade.
We were enjoying the “spin and chat time” as we headed up the road past barns, churches, and livestock. I spotted our favorite Australian Blue Heeler as we went up the road and warned Big Ben to be on the look-out as we descended. I know well that this 4 legged “pal” likes to try and herd us as we go by. Sure enough, we rounded the curve on our way out of the cove and here he came! Knowing he was headed our way made it easy to avoid him and we were by him in a jiffy.
Mother Nature had “treated” us to a 10 to 15 mph headwind on the way out of town making the ride out a pretty good workout. Once in the cove, the winds had abated somewhat. We were hoping that “Mom” would keep her winds blowing in the same direction when we made our way back to the office.
On the way out, I noticed the early afternoon sun was shining upon an old tobacco barn just right and asked Big Ben for a proper pose to go with it. I mean after all, he had on those snazzy new riding tights!
As you can see, he granted my request and helped me grab this little shot of Southern Appalachia culture. I liked this photo and have submitted it to EcoVelo’s current photo contest. We’ll see if it gets selected for a submission.
Our ride back to town continued in a very pleasant manner and the tailwind we were hoping for granted us some speedy times back. Lots of folks were out enjoying the fall weather at Lake Junaluska as we traversed South Lakeshore Drive. Big Ben and I parted ways near town as he headed to meet his contractor and I headed back to my desk. Another day and another great 28 miler was complete.
Check it out…
My friend and fellow blogger, Jim Artis, is working on quite the little project. Jim is known for his attention to detail in all of his projects. Check out his latest at CYCLING EXPERIENCES.
Here’s hoping that your riding conditions are great this coming weekend and beyond!
Until later,
- Zeke
To make a tax deductible donation to support Appalachian State University Cycling, follow this link:
http://www.give.appstate.edu/.
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