Western NC - Ride and Camp 2020

WNC Ride and Camp 2020 - Pisgah and DuPont

Last year was a blast so let's do it again. As of today 5/11/20 DuPont is still closed and Pisgah is very limited but I am optimistic that by JUNE 19-21 we should be back to "normal", whatever that ends up being.

For those that are interested, last year I put around a total of 50 miles and 6500' of elevation gain over the weekend, Fri.-Sun. but most others did less depending on when they came in or left town. So while ALL are welcome to join, be prepared to put in 10-15 miles on Friday, 20ish miles Saturday (not all at once, broken into two rides likely) and maybe 10-15 on Sunday. That said, if we have a large enough group, and someone else knows their way around well enough to not get lost, we can break into two groups depending on what kind of distance folks want to put in. I don't to scare anyone off! All the riding we do will be at a casual pace, this is about fun!

I will firm up details as we move forward but will likely get the same spot we had last year as it seemed to work well for us. You will need to be responsible for your own camping gear and food. Last year we did breakfast at camp so we could get an earlier start riding and then did lunches/dinners/beers out. I am hopeful that we will see restaurants open back up, but at worst we can do take out. I'm also open to doing a Camp BBQ on Saturday night, but we can discuss that once we see how many folks we end up having.

UPDATE

Recommend everyone plan on everyone bring enough food for the whole weekend. I had planned on us grabbing lunches/dinners out but with COVID restrictions in place, some of the places I had planned for us may be tough to get us all in. Sierra Nevada for instance is still take-out only. Oscar Blues is requiring masks and parties cannot be larger than 6. I expect we will still be able to grab dinner and lunch out but want everyone to be prepared to be self sufficient if need be.

As far as schedule. I will be up there and ready to ride on Friday morning, planning to meet at Kitsuma around 10 or 11 depending on who will be in town by then. Will probably grab lunch in Asheville then head to camp to drop gear, set up tents(for those with ground tents etc), and check in with camp host. Would like to get another ride in Friday afternoon, trail TBD.

Saturday we will have breakfast at camp, then can head over to DuPont to ride Ridgeline and Big Rock/Cedar. Grab lunch then ride some combination of Buckhorn/Bennett/Avery/Black/Sycamore.

I'll have 4 bike racks on my truck so we can plan to shuttle most of these trails, but for those who want to ride Middle/Lower Black, there's really not much shuttling, you have to earn it up Clawhammer.

We can talk about this more and plan our day around the camp fire Friday night. Sunday morning, for those that are not hitting the road first thing, we can ride Trace Ridge or Bent Creek

If you would like to rent or demo a bike while you are up there, most of the major brands are represented from the LBSs up in Brevard.

I'll tag those of you who attended or wanted to attend last year, feel free to tag others. Hoping we have a great turnout!!

Campsite Address:
315 Charleys Knob Rd, Pisgah Forest, NC 28768


CONFIRMED:
@Bannerman
Jeff (not on TW)
@backcountryj
@eidsondesign
@stronghammer
@cgstclair
@honda50r

BACKED OUT AFTER PREVIOUSLY COMMITTING:
@113tac


INTERESTED:
@SummitBound
@bishtaco
@Marcmtb1
@Irongrave
@Pickup90
@btrumpatori
@abacall
@J_Hacker
@disconnected
@vsyntax

 

@backcountryj @honda50r @paleh0rse @Cozza @cgstclair @trekinit @eidsondesign @113tac @Giffmann @Built2Ride

 

You know my answer

 

Sick! I’ll be tentative until it gets closer to the date, hopefully everything opens back up!

 

Yes

 

Confirmed or Interested?

 

I'm gonna be flakey as hell and say "interested" just to watch the thread for now..

 

Soooo, same as last year. Got it.

 

yeah but I have a new bike this year....so it's different...

I don't even remember this from last year haha

 

Putting myself down as "interested" depending on work schedule.

Picking up a new-to-me Fathom here soon and need to get it dirty.

 

I'll be there long as trails open. Also down for big Knoxville trip but also I'm bias

@trekinit

 

We will keep this date for this trip but you set up a Knoxville trip for July or August and I'm in.

 

I’m on an old crappy bike, but I would be interested if I can make it work.

 

Run what ya brung

 

Where there’s a will there’s a way. Worst case scenario, just rent/demo something from a local shop.

 

On that note, for anyone not familiar with the area, you can demo/rent from The Hub, Sycamore Cycles, or Squatch Bike and Brew.

 

Not a bad idea. I’m fairly new to the sport, so it would be interesting to see how much my bike holds me back with other riders. I don’t have much issue on my local trails as there not many big rocks / roots to deal with.

I like to push my little 26” XC bike with a suntour coil spring fork harder than I should.

 

gotta bring it back up to monte sano for some of the trails you didn't hit to test out the rock situations.

 

I’ve never ridden pisgah but from what I heard it’s similar to Harrisonburg VA and the george Washington National Forest. When I first started riding I had a similar bike as yours, it was sketchy but rideable, definitely not as fast as everyone else but still fun. Just make sure your brakes are good to go haha

 

This is me getting followed down Middle Black, a trail we will for sure ride, it's pretty chunky. If you are a newer rider, I would strongly encourage you to rent a bike for the weekend, it's just going to be more fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojn34BKJS9A&t=273s