Jessi, Me, Mary and Kristin at the top - before the freezing descent.Thanks for taking the pic, John.
I could've used my bike cleaning dude after today's ride....We rolled out from Nantahala Outdoor Center under cloudy skies with temps in the upper 40s planning to climb the more gradual side of Wayah Bald. I was feeling good and the ascent went well - I got to the top with Kristin and Mary, two very strong climbers. We waited at the top for the rest of our group and by that point we'd been getting rained on for a good 20min or so. We were soaked, underdressed and getting colder the longer we waited.
We regrouped and started what proved to be a pretty dicey descent. I headed down first and had a few nervous moments through some slick, gravel-filled hairpin turns but got down in one piece and waited at the bottom for everyone. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of traffic on the mountain today - only a few cars and trucks passed me on the way down. This was certainly not a day to attempt a 50mph descent - getting to the bottom without incident was definitely the priority.
We ducked into a gas station at the corner of Wayah and Old Murphy Roads to warm up and made the decision to call for a ride back to Nantahala. Everyone was thoroughly soaked, shivering and really not prepared to ride the remaining 35mi back to our starting point - we didn't bring dry gloves or rain jackets along as the forecast said the rain would hold off until much later in the afternoon. We were retrieved about an hour later at which time I was still wet, shivering and numb - it was actually painful and I was extremely uncomfortable.
It wasn't a bad day on the bike - rather quite a good one for me while we were actually riding. Tomorrow looks to be an easy day and we hope to get out before the rain starts around mid-day. I have photos to post from today's ride but Blogger is still moving slow on photo uploads so I'll get them up at some point later on.
As always, thanks for reading. Now I have to go clean my very dirty bike....
We regrouped and started what proved to be a pretty dicey descent. I headed down first and had a few nervous moments through some slick, gravel-filled hairpin turns but got down in one piece and waited at the bottom for everyone. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of traffic on the mountain today - only a few cars and trucks passed me on the way down. This was certainly not a day to attempt a 50mph descent - getting to the bottom without incident was definitely the priority.
We ducked into a gas station at the corner of Wayah and Old Murphy Roads to warm up and made the decision to call for a ride back to Nantahala. Everyone was thoroughly soaked, shivering and really not prepared to ride the remaining 35mi back to our starting point - we didn't bring dry gloves or rain jackets along as the forecast said the rain would hold off until much later in the afternoon. We were retrieved about an hour later at which time I was still wet, shivering and numb - it was actually painful and I was extremely uncomfortable.
It wasn't a bad day on the bike - rather quite a good one for me while we were actually riding. Tomorrow looks to be an easy day and we hope to get out before the rain starts around mid-day. I have photos to post from today's ride but Blogger is still moving slow on photo uploads so I'll get them up at some point later on.
As always, thanks for reading. Now I have to go clean my very dirty bike....
