Labor day called for good weather, so Matt and I decided to venture out to the Blue Ridge Mountains and see how our rigs stood up to some Gnarly trails. The trip started out with a slow and steady grade up to 2K feet in 5 miles. We then came up to a hard switch-back section that covered 1k feet in one mile, pretty hard stuff. My gear was a bit too big to push on a 15% grade but Matt was able to climb about 2/3 of it before he had to stop and walk. I was quite impressed. Just after this point I became aware of my first and only mechanical (thankfully), I lost a screw to me cleat, which caused unclipping out of my pedal very difficulty as the cleat moved freely when I moved my ankle in the unclipping motion. This caused me to fall over a few times, but I am thankful that was the worst of our injuries. We then came on a trail called Torry Ridge. This section had endless rock gardens and really technical riding. Due to the fact that Matt and I were riding single speed hardtails, we walked most of this stuff. Then we came on to slacks trail which was a lot of fun descents. As we reached the meadow in the valley of the mountain that we had just descended we ended up at Sherando Lake, which was a huge reward for all the work we had done. It was beautiful. I was in awe most of the trip which made all the suffering worth it. Matt and I then road 664 for about 5 miles to our campsite and built a killer fire. Made a delicious dinner and enjoyed the quiet of being in the woods. Looking back makes me want to go there and never leave. The real world of being in back in the city has already kicked in, school/work and rain. I have a race this weekend and I'm looking forward to using my new skills used this weekend in Sherando. Hope you all enjoy the pictures.
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