If you’ve been around me for any amount of time — or talked to me anywhere near the month of May — you know PMBaR is my favorite. For a lot of reasons. There are a number of posts on here just search PMBAR.
As big days like this get harder to come by, PMBaR hits a sweet spot. It’s not all about speed, even though it kind of is. Route choice matters. Decision-making matters. It’s long enough that pure fitness isn’t the only thing on the table. And maybe most importantly, you get to share the whole thing with a partner. Romping around the woods all day with a buddy, pushing a little harder than you would on your own, solving problems as you go — that stuff doesn’t get old.
I tend to come into PMBaR with some level of expectation. I know these trails well. I spend a lot of time out there. I know how long things take, where they hurt, where you can hide, and where you absolutely can’t. I’m comfortable being uncomfortable in Pisgah, which helps on a day like this.
This year I was riding with Wes, and from the start the day felt… steady. Not frantic. Not forced. The route came together really well, and that showed pretty early. We headed up Black, over to Turkey Pen, down into South Mills and in to the Bradley Creek checkpoint. One of the first teams there….From there it was Mullinax, Squirrel, to the next point which was on you could not leave the same way you came, a new trick for PMBAR this year, which added some fun to route choices.
From there up and out through Horse Cove, down Funneltop past the Wolf Ford horse camp, out and back on Pilot Cove where we found teammates Brian and Josh hosting the wild checkpoint. Yet another awesome checkpoint from the BFC crew, and that was also when we realized we’d made some solid route choices and were riding pretty well relative to the day. The out and back on that gives you the chance to see where you stack up to some degree.
Then into the long back half of the day — 1206, 276, 475B, out to 225, to Rocky Daniel’s to grab another point. Then the interesting part, how to handle the Butter Gap point. Another one with no out and backs… Up Searcy, and out 471D to Cathey’s looping things back toward Black. No descending Butter, it was fast, bombing down the gravel at 30+mph it was obvious this was right as We leapfrogged Kerry and Andrew with our choice, which felt like a small but satisfying win.
We had some rain, but nothing too bad — just enough to keep things honest. Tires were dialed. I got to ride almost all of Squirrel, which is always a win. The partner aspect really stood out this year more than ever. Big rides like this don’t happen as often anymore, and there’s something special about sharing the highs and lows instead of disappearing into your own head for hours at a time.
Fueling was… decent, but not perfect. I definitely overpacked, which worked out well when Wes lost a bunch of his gels at some point. I came home with extra food — three gels, a fig bar, part of a jam bar — which probably means I didn’t eat quite enough. The carb mix in the bottles and clean water in the Camelbak worked really well though, and I liked still having easy access to jersey pockets with that setup. Energy levels were a little more variable than I would have liked, but never catastrophic.
Overall, the day was pretty smooth. That doesn’t always happen at PMBaR, and it’s worth appreciating when it does. Route choices were on point. We worked well together. The checkpoints hit at the right times. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good — and honestly, that’s kind of the point.
PMBaR keeps reminding me why I love this kind of riding. Long days. Good friends. Hard trails. Enough time out there for things to fall apart — or come together — depending on how you play it. I’ll take days like that whenever I can get them.
