PMBAR (Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race) is probably my favorite race of the year. First of all it takes place in my backyard on the amazing trails in the South Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest but it also brings more into the equation than just riding fast. PMBAR is unique in the fact that you ride it with a partner and the route is somewhat up to you, you just have to get at least 4 of the 5 provided checkpoints. There is usually a time bonus for reaching all 5 and some roads that will be off limits, the road thing can greatly affect you’re route planning.

The weather turned out to be perfect for this year, a little chilly but sunny at the start and a forecast of sunshine all day long. I was riding with Andy Forron from West Virginia again, our riding styles match up pretty well and he’s a pretty good partner to spend the day riding bikes with. We were in the single speed category and knew there was some pretty good competition in that category, but we both still felt like we could do pretty well if we chose a decent route and stayed mildly smart.

The route part was mostly up to me, I ride these trails almost daily and really should be the one that knows where to go. Over the past year I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with how to get around these parts. What I’m not always sure about is which direction is faster to get from point A to point B, or which takes less of a toll on your body…Anyhow this is the part of PMBAR that gets really exhausting and makes you second guess yourself all day long, and sometimes longer.

Our plan was the same as last year,  get the passport, peruse it quickly for any funny rules and make sure that the instructions are to start and finish using the Black Mtn. Trail, then start up Black Mtn. while reviewing the passport in more detail, occasionally stopping to make sure that we read all of the details on the checkpoints, off limits area, etc. It’s pretty effective we may not climb as fast as we normally would but its forward progress and tends to keep you out of the major traffic.

This year the checkpoints weren’t too bad, however one main road was taken out of the equation so it kind of forced an unfortunate out and back on the Bradley Creek trail forcing what feels like 600 about knee deep creek crossings. The checkpoints included:

Intersection of Bradley Creek trail and 1206

Bradley Creek and South Mills Trail

Horse Cove Gap and 5018

Club Gap

Cove Creek Trail and 225

Once we got to Pressley Gap we had our first major decision which would pretty much determine the route for the rest of the day, we stopped to have a quick conversation to confirm. As we were talking the Sycamore folks rolled through Pressley Gap and straight up the other side of Black Mtn presumably towards Turkey Pen. That pretty much sealed the deal, we were going that way. This meant a little hiking but then we got to ride Turkey Pen, which I have recently come to love.

After we got to the Turkey Pen lot I got a little confused as to where we were supposed to go down at the first Footbridge and we chose wrong, over the footbridge, we get to Mullinax….oops, that’s not right. Fortunately that section of trail is pretty fun so all was not lost. We passed a few more folks and got our water wings out for Bradley Creek. On our way out we really didn’t see anyone, this was either a good thing or really bad, but that’s the beauty of PMBAR, you really don’t know.  The way back was a different story, we were constantly running into people, some of whom we knew, others not so much.

The rest of the day would go pretty smoothly, once we got off Bradley Creek it was on to the hike up Laurel Creek, to Squirrel Gap, out to Horse Cove Gap, up Horse cove Gap to the next checkpoint. From here it was a nice cruise down Funneltop Rd. to Gauging Station and make our way over to Club Gap. When we got to Club Gap the awesome volunteers there had some homemade treats for us to enjoy and it was time to make the decsion on going for the 5th and final checkpoint. It was still relatively early in the day and based on when we saw everyone we figured to have any chance in doing well we needed to have all 5 and really it was going to be a fairly easy ride to get.

So it was down Club Gap and made our way over to Cove Creek. This section of the day was going to be fast and without a lot of climbing. Which is not necessarily a good thing for single speeds. We got passed by a couple geared teams like we were standing still but that’s how it goes sometimes.

The last real hurdle was the climb up lower clawhammer/Maxwell Cove to get up to Pressley Gap and finish on Black Mountain Trail. The sun came out in force to make this a pretty warm climb but we finally got there and it was time for the descent home. We pulled in to the finish to find out we were the 2nd place single speed team and actually 6th Overall! Really not a bad day on the bike, particularly with a short little detour down around Turkey Pen.

Once again PMBAR was a blast and a great day in the woods riding with a good friend. We both had our ups and downs during the day but when you ride for 7+ hours that’s bound to happen. Pisgah Productions puts on a great event and the trails in Pisgah were in great shape.

Can’t wait until next year!