Douthat State Park Too

I rode with Carter. Carter, the self acknowledged intermediate, represented himself pretty well, here at Douthat. We started with the east side and were treated to only slightly more moderate climbs than I rode the previous day. I was going to ride gears again, but Carter showed up on his Spot belt drive SS,

so I pull out the Lynskey SS and made the tires have my happy pressure and we were off. I could not let Carter enjoy more suffering than I. Evil Grin.

The first climb, while more moderate in general, still seemed to keep going forever. With some steep sections that were just a little too much, on day two and with one gear. I would stop and Carter would say "You don't have to stop on my account." I would have laughed if I wasn't still catching my breath as he made his way up to me. I normally do not stop for much, when I have my way or don't need photos, but On this day on this mountain, I was more that happy with all the stops for scenery and snacks.

The Rock over look

Tuscarora Overlook

Stony Run Water Fall

 The Garmin Stopped adding elevation about half way through.

  

Douthat State Park

Man, I thought Big South Fork Was Big! Douthat really kicked my butt. I definitely underestimated this Epic! Granted it was 87 degrees (mini heatwave for April) and I attempted to follow the Mid Mountain Mama XXC race course, which does go outside the park. I can't remember the last time I used my granny gear, let alone so much. I was using it 40 minutes into my first climb (Stony Run) and quite a few times after that! I did use Stony Run for Threshold training and probably burned up too many matches, I got a 3rd out of 40 on Strava, so in a way it was worth it. I got almost 30 minutes of threshold in before I began to to sputter. It was the most so far this year and all in one chunk, not two or three intervals. I paid for it later though, boy did I pay! But the DH's were equally long and sometimes brutal and treacherous. I had to awkwardly negotiate more than a few tight switchbacks with steep consequences!

There were orange arrows on the ground, that I believe are for that race. It crosses itself and runs along the Middle Mountain ridge twice (best I can tell) I was toast well before this, so I dropped down Blue Suck Falls Trail. I rested there for a bit.
Tammy met me at the beach, with food and beachwear, so I could nap and refuel in the sun.

Check out the local IMBA club at http://www.roanokeimba.org/ 

They have a link to this map http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/documents/douthat.pdf (Became a 404) Try http://www.americasstateparks.org/park_maps/douthat-parkmap_trails.pdf
I got in touch with Carter Shumaker for the next day's ride, through their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/roanokeimba
More on that later...

Big South Fork NP Gears John Muir and Grand Loop in reverse

I was Feeling good this day, despite 12 hours of riding this past week. This ride makes 155 miles of dirt in a week. Sweet. No spectactular interval numbers, but a pretty good average power for the duration. Gears definitely provided more Pedaltunities going reverse on John Muir. I found some Tifosi glasses in one of the caves. They were probably too dark for the shadows, prompting there removal. I left them with the visitors center's lost and found. I hope the Karma will help me find the pair I misplaced. No sightseeing this time. I just wanted to feel the flow of the trails. I am glad we are splitting the trek to Douthat in two. Eight hours of driving the bus can be rough, even when I am well rested.

Big South Fork NP SS John Muir and Grand Loop in reverse

Saturday I was going to do the part of Collier Ridge I have been skipping.  After I realized it was one way I just did the whole loop, both up and down and just took the fire road up to the start of the West Bandy trail. This added 3 or 4 miles, so I just about had an endurance day, HA!. Like 36 plus is short. But after 72 miles in two days, almost 48 hours off the bike, the sun smiled on me as we drove the switchbacks to the overlook on the Eastern Rim. I dusted off the road bike and took the 10 and 15 minute hills that came out of the river valley. That was late Friday. So endurance pace felt just fine, Saturday morning! Single Speed today, saving gears for Sunday's ride, in case I am tired. I rode John Muir and the Grand Loop in reverse. Funny how it did not seem up hill to the north trail head, but it sure seemed more down hill on John Muir than the opposite direction. This was fine, but if I was looking for more Pedaltunities I would go the from the Grand Loop up. The trail flowed, in some ways better in this direction, but there were a couple more places that I had to dab or take a few steps off the bike. I spent some time at the overlooks. There are so many that you could really make a day of it if you hit them all.

Big South Fork on Single Speed

Oak Mountain Video

I am giving up on Picasa as a video editor and I could not make hide nor hare of the software that came with the Go Pro. Nick probably told me about Microsoft Movie Maker, but I forgot until I it came up my second Google search. My first came up with AVS from www.avs4you.com. But it is only free if you want their logo smack in the middle of the video. To small to read, but big enough to be anoying. Here is the first one form Movie Maker:

Big South Fork Kwik Stats

BIG! It's in the name and it describes the trails. BSF is the only IMBA Epic in a National Park. While there was some two way on a fire Road, all 37 miles were on dirt. I just happened to run into Jim Cross from Big South Fork Bike Club (http://www.bigsouthforkbike.org/) as he and a buddy where finishing up. I mentioned that I was happy that I finally got some climbing, more tech riding and natural trails in at Oak Mountain. After negotiating the numerous switchbacks in the motor home, with car in tow, just to get to camp, I expected a ton of climbing. Joe said that there was not that much climbing and nothing really technical. He definitely under sold it, to my delight! Even though very few of the hills broke the 3 minute mark (only important if you are looking for intervals), I still broke the 100 feet per mile! Right up there with Oak Mountain.
He also said it was natural or old Army Corps of Engineers and that was on the money. I seem to prefer more natural trails.
There is is plenty of tech, spread out over the trail system, just the way I like it. I think what others call tech I call stunts. Built drop offs, machine built jumps and skinnys are what I call stunts. A technical section can consist of log hops, rock gardens, roots, some smaller natural or massaged drops even.
There is a fair amount of gravel fire roads. I love single track, maybe it is because I have been riding for decades that I enjoy a good fire road as well. Now I would not want a steady diet of flat straight fire roads, BORING! The fire roads as BSF are anything but! Barely a hundred yards of straight or flat. These fire roads are so fast and twisty, it just feels like big single track. I raced a Toyota pickup home. the speed limit is 15 mph. The Toyota could climb that fast sometimes, but had to descend much slower. I would descend much faster, but climb slower.
There is a good steady of diet of cliff exposure on both the Grand Loop and the John Muir trails. Both are open to hiking. I saw neither. I did not even see any wild life, not even a squirrel! First time that has happened since we left NJ. There are so many over looks and geological features, I did not have time to stop and take pictures of them all.

Tannehill Kwik Stats 2

I took out my Single Speed on the Tannehill 12 hour race course and the Furnace Quarry trail. The rain was not so hard last night, and the trails held up well after yesterdays 12 hour race, some of it in light rain. I could not quite figure out the start the other day. But it became apparent after watching the race. That is correct I sat this one out. I have done one 12 hour race and it was not the the most fun I have had racing. I prefer two to 6 hour races, going from experience. I also weighed racing against, being wiped out and missing riding for a few days. I rode hard on Friday and had a great time at Oak Mountain. That left some sight seeing time Saturday with Tammy to check out the history that is just packed into this park! The rain was mild enough and there was a nice break, with some sun even, that made for a fun session working on my cornering in somewhat slippery conditions. I rode a berm up to high and smacked a tree pretty good. Even after all these years riding, I see that I can improve my cornering. Leaning into the corner early, keeping the center of my mass towards the center of the curve, knee in even. From a physics stand point, I thought that pointing the knee into the center of the curve took weight off the tire contact patch. As gravity trumps, the inertial forces, measured in G's, that pull you out of a corner, until about 60 mph on pavement on a road bike. But as the coefficient of friction is reduced in a greasy corner, it is easier for that inertia to overcome gravity and make you slide out. With more of your mass inside the corner, it kind of acts like a planet and your bike acts like a spacecraft being slungshot around it. And then if you still manage to slide out, allowing your body to move outwards, brings more weight to the contact patch, yes, but more importantly, I think, it acts like a weight shift, similar to a log hop, just in a different plane, reducing the force pulling your bike to the outside, as your mass, your body moves out and you keep your bike (and tires) tighter in the curve. I practiced this more and more as the lap progressed. I started late and was running out or light, which is good, cause I have a 6 hour drive in the RV pulling the car tomorrow. But I was tempted to get more practice in. Building on the carving I learned in the sand, leaves and pine needles of Alafia, Balm Boyette, Santos, Munson and the Lake Overstreet trails in Florida. I threw in a blast through the slightly wet rocks of on the Furnace Quarry trail, hoping for a little Strava glory!

Oak Mtn Kwik Stats 3

I had to get my Single Speed to Oak Mountain. Did some VO2 intervals up to the start of the lighting gravity trail. Then rode the main loop but did Bloodstone, Johnson Mtn and Foreplay instead of Jekyll and Hyde.

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Oak Mtn day 2 Kwik Stats

Came mainly to do a tune up Threshold interval on the Red fire road. But had to play on the pump track and try Lightning. Wanted to do Blood Rock but read the map wrong and got on the short cut to Jekyll and Hyde. John at Cahaba said to stay away from Lightning, admittedly after I told him I was not into drops. The qualifier at the beginning almost made me turn around too! I skipped the one big huck and had a blast.

Tannehill Ironworks Kwik Stats

The course is mostly marked. I just did not know where the start of Saturday's 12 hour race was. I rode a bunch of the course backwards. It is fun in both ways! The Furnace Quarry trail, while not in the race (I think), is a must ride, particularly if you miss the rocks of the NE!

Oak Mtn Kwik Stats

This one felt epic! Not on the the leaderboard for any of the segments. Lots of folks have ridden this park. 77th out of 398 on the long fire road climb was my best segment Edit Or not so kwik. We are not that far from civilization but not only is the camp site Wifi spotty, so is TV and cellphone reception. My posts and videos keep failing.

Local Rock Garden

Red Bug Kwik Stats

Did Lake Overstreet trails first, kinda twice and had a great time. LO may be underrated. Over two hours into the ride I was back to do Redbug. I had a better time once I figured out the flow went in descending marker order.

Munson Monday

My jersey is soaked and I am stoked HA. Here is the second part of the ride chasing Dan Percy around.

 

Tom Brown Kwik Stats

Got a couple good tours of the Tom Brown/Cadillac trail system in Tallahassee Florida. Thanks guys and gals
I was actually glad to have some moisture in the air. It has been dry a little to long. I never thought I would say that. I complained about it quit a bit in New Jersey!

Santos long ride kwik Shot