The idea of 100+ miles of Pisgah has been in my head for a while. I have mapped out some routes but never started on one. I have heard stories of this P99 route that was attempted once and had one finisher at 22 hours or so. However, 100 miles in Pisgah is not something that’s easy-to-get company for.
Fast forward to a few weeks back when I got a text from Chris with a date and time for a modified P99 route. This was also right about the time we found out that the stage race had been cancelled and I didn’t really have many commitments as far as riding was concerned. So, I talked it over with Kattie and I was in. I took to mapping out the route only to come up with 115 miles and about 19k feet of elevation gain….so much for 99. Anyhow it wasn’t until I kind of wrote the route out in my own shorthand and broke it into a few segments that the magnitude really hit me. I have a way of simplifying things in my head. It looked like maybe I was oversimplifying this.
As we got closer the excitement and nerves both started to build a little. It sounded like we were going to have a nice little group starting this thing. Based on the route we had decided that there was a really obvious place to have a cache of food/water/repair etc. at a place we’d pass by a few times. So Friday night I ran our minivan up there for folks to use as a landing point.
3:30 am came early but in order to get a proper breakfast, some coffee, and hopefully some morning constitution it was necessary. Chris and I decided to go ahead and ride over to the start from the house because who doesn’t need a little warmup before a 115-mile adventure. We got over there and were surprised to find 10-11 folks ready to give it hell.
Stage 1
Under an amazingly clear and cool sky we took off, coming over the top of Black Mountain into an unbelievable sunrise. The sun was coming up in amazing glow on one side of the ridge with the stars and moon hanging out off the other side of the ridge. Kind of a surreal feeling scene. After a bit of hiking in the dark, the click of bike shoes in pedals and we’ve got a rider. Time to really get the party moving. After the hike of Black, we turned onto Turkeypen descending into the glow of the rising sun. The trail was in great shape and we were having a blast. Into the parking lot, onto South Mills, Mullinax, and finally Squirrel Gap. We were rolling, laughing, talking, having some fun. One little mishap on squirrel where a branch sort of jousted me off my bike wasn’t going to slow things down. It wasn’t long before we were at the van, 9:45 am, 4:45 after starting and we had the first bit complete while still feeling pretty good. 35 miles down. Ryan rolled up to the van shortly after Andy and I got there. Then just as we were about to leave Chris rolled in looking as fresh as a spring flower.
Stage 2
From here we had some pavement to climb, up 276 to the Blue Ridge Parkway, past the Pisgah Inn over to the top of Big Creek. Ryan, Andy, and I started up the climb, knowing that we were only about 1/3 of the way done we had to conserve a little, but after all that trail it was hard not to roll that pavement a little more quickly. I felt like we did a pretty good job of dialing it back, then I watched some of the video I took and It looked like we were moving a little more quickly than I thought (my legs would end up agreeing with that consensus later).
This next part was exciting, new to me trail in Pisgah, I’ve never ridden down Big Creek. I’ve heard it was good but it’s kind of hard to get to and work into a loop. For the record, upper Big Creek did not disappoint, it’s kind of what I imagine Black Mtn was like before mother nature and heavy traffic had their way with it. It was obvious that it doesn’t get much traffic in the fact that it was still covered in leaves in many places but what a fun ride that is until we got to the bottom…then creek crossings and tree climb overs got a little old. I did however get to practice some gymnastics on a few tree balance beam bridges.
Soon we popped out into the North Mills area to head up Fletcher and Spencer, yes up, on Saturday at noon. This is not something I can recommend and I honestly understand a little why some other user groups can get annoyed with bikes after this, there’s a lot of folks who need a lesson in trail etiquette. Anyhow, after those climbs, we got the sweet Trace Ridge Descent, this trail is running so so so good right now though. A little more gravel and a quick stop at North Mills CG to refill some water bottles before heading up the gravel on 1206 to get to Laurel Mountain.
Things got real on Laurel, we were now something like 63 miles and 10 hours in it was probably the warmest part of the day and fatigue was sneaking in bigtime. Laurel Mountain really is a pretty nice trail and climb, it has some challenging spots and that one big hike a bike. A couple friends caught up and knew what we were up to, they gave us some encouragement as they blew past us like we were standing still. They were on a big day themselves although a bit shorter and less “heinous” they were still much livelier than we were at that point. It was good to see them though, it’s been too long since I’ve seen some of my “race friends”. Over the top and down the rocky chunk that is Pilot Rock. It wasn’t my best Pilot attempt, there were a lot of the switchbacks that I just rode straight into, put a foot down, and pivoted, but at that point in the day I was fine with that. I did clean the rock garden and honestly I’ve done worse…I was still on top of my bike and we were headed to the van for a 2nd time.
Stage 3
2 “stages” done, 11 ½ hours and 70 miles or so, with about 40 to go that include, Farlow Gap, Daniel Ridge, Club Gap, and Black Mtn gate to gate. Switched out supplies, grabbed lights, arm warmers, and loaded up the water before heading out. The first bit of this next loop was pretty easy, down some gravel to cove creek, down cove, up to Gloucester gap on the gravel before hitting 5003 on the way up to Farlow gap. Then onto 140A where we were greeted with freshly bulldozed doubletrack road like surface. Which made for some slow going and choice vocabulary. Then in one of the rolling sections I picked up just enough speed to catch a root and stop my bike instantly sending me bouncing off the top tube before hitting the rocks below. Elbow and knee a little banged up but merely a flesh wound. After slogging out the rest of 140A it was time to sit down for a few mins at the top of Farlow and eat some food. After a quick dinner date, we were in a hurry to get down Farlow/Daniel Ridge before dark, we made our way down.
Things were pretty uneventful through the Davidson River trail and up 475B all the way back to 477 and Club Gap. I had stashed a small cooler at the bottom of 477 with some cokes and oreos knowing that the spirits might be a little low at that point. Andy and I stopped and grabbed a quick coke, a few oreos before setting out on the last real leg. Having to walk almost anything uphill on Club/Black made pretty slow going, but there is some great trail in between there. The descent down to the Buckhorn gap shelter is one I don’t get to do very often but man is it a hoot, and in the dark no less, I was starting to feel alive again. Then we had to hike back up Black mtn for the second time of the day. While it was slower than 18 hours ago it still moved pretty quickly. Once we hit that Rhodo tunnel that sort of signifies you’ve made it, the game was afoot.
Upper black has some teeth, In the name of getting home in one piece I stepped off a few places I normally wouldn’t, but after a few of those I started to feel the flow again and got myself in gear. Down to Pressley gap, we actually rode a bit of the climb up to Hickory Knob before making one last push. Then it was finally all downhill from here. There were no PR’s set on the way down, but I had a good, clean, smooth, ride down middle/lower black to roll into the parking lot just before midnight. We were greeted by Andy’s wife and her friend in amazing fanfare. Still trying figure out exactly what happened we had a few “holy crap” moments and I decided to ride home and pick up the car so I could be back to see some friends come in.
Thoughts
Shortly thereafter Ryan came in looking far less dead than I felt, I thought he might go around for lap 2. We had a beer and he had to head home. I hung out for a bit longer to watch Chris finish it up and had a celebratory beer with him as well. It’s always really exciting to share that experience with friends, even though you may not ride together all day it still really feels like a shared experience (at least in my mind). All and all I think there were 10-12 to start the day and 8 folks finished – Myself, Andy, Ryan, Chris, Luther, Victoria, Lee, Graham, if I missed anyone I apologize.
Andy and I had just under 19 hours total time 110.5 miles and 18,600 ft of elevation. I don’t have an accurate moving time as my computer cut out and I missed some before I switched to a 2nd one then the 2nd one didn’t seem to handle the stopped time the same way. Anyhow, the route was tough, the stats don’t really do it justice. It’s the hardest single pull effort I’ve done to date and to be honest when we were down by the fish hatchery it was a little tough to make that left to go back up 475b instead of just rolling back to the parking lot on 276. However, we were almost close enough to start smelling the barn at that point and Andy never seemed to blink so it made it harder to even consider bailing.
So, my 100 miles of Pisgah is complete and I had the opportunity to take it on with a few other like-minded folks. This would have been really tough to keep pushing through without the support of all the others out there. Which also made it even more fun. It’s been a while since I’ve actually gotten in over my head and there was part of me that wanted to see how I was going to respond to it. All I can say is that I’m glad I got that text and decided to give it a go. With the kids at the ages they’re at getting away like this for an entire day or multiple days is really tough but it won’t always be that way and it’s always good to keep that fire alive.
