After spending what didn’t seem like that long but was apparently too long in the parking lot, we were off. The start directions were simple this year, straight up Black mtn trail to Pressley Gap, then it was up to you. We started up Black and I quickly realized that we were in for all kinds of fun, on your left…I mean right…sorry…hey buddy!…sorry…most folks were really friendly, a few were not, maybe my fault for picking poor passing lanes? I don’t know, we’re racing…. We did get to see some friends on the way up and maybe the conga line actually helped not put it too far in the red too early? But there were so many strange passes

We talked on the way up here and there, the loop was obvious we thought, it was really just a matter of which direction. We had sort of settled on going up to 1206 first, picking up the Pilot cove point, hitting the gravel in a slightly more downhill trend, then over into North Mills, and back to finish up with Bradley, Laurel Creek, Squirrel, home. That would let us come down a piece of squirrel that’s a crappy climb and down a couple other things. This was the working plan…

We dropped off Black Mountain to go around Maxwell/Clawhammer instead of up and over Clawhammer and Black mtns. We catch Charlie and he asks how we’re heading over to the squirrel point, like there’s no other option of what to get first. I say we’re going gravel first, and I get the “you’re gonna do what?” that’s fine, he’s got tons of knowledge and experience, what does he know…. Then we catch Chris and his partner, pleasantries exchanged, there’s only one loop…yeah, we’re going clockwise I think…again…” You’re gonna do what?” …crap…we’re not an hour in and I’m second guessing.

Catch Matt, sounds like our plan is pretty against the grain. We talk, maybe that’s good, we still think it’s fine. Going over Buckhorn Gap, maybe there’s something useful about getting all that tricky overgrown trail out of the way while you still have some life? About ½ mile before we must commit to one direction or the other, we make the call to go trail first. We hit the south mills split and make the right, immediate confirmation as it appears what we assume all the teams in front of us did the same thing. Unfortunately, now we’re all doing the same thing, so it’s basically just an endurance race and routing is not so critical, which takes out my advantage.

Amazingly after all the rain the trails are in good shape, South mills to squirrel and I’m in my happy place. Squirrel gap is popping with the bright green foliage lining the dark forest floor and I’m feeling good. We’ve got a team real close in front of us but I’m not sure who it is, and honestly not that worried, the day’s gonna play out how it does. First checkpoint down and we’re headed to Bradley Creek. Down the mess of Laurel creek, we both manage to stay upright and not break anything in the dogwobble. The next checkpoint comes quickly and just like that we’ve got 2. In the racer meeting Eric mentioned the backcountry horsemen came out and cut 42 trees off Bradley Creek. What he didn’t mention was that there were at least 60 down and that on top of the 12 river crossings made for lots of on off the bike, colorful language, and confirmation that this was way better early in the day. At the end of Bradley there was some confusion with how to get off the trail, but eventually we figured it out and made it back up to the road.

Gravel over to North Mills where we caught a glimpse of Jarz/Haddock after they refilled water at the campground. We were close…. We stopped to top off water and eat before heading up 5000 to Spencer where I started to lose some steam. Where we were greated with little cream cheese wraps and a smile, I do love Pmbar. This time we’d get the chance to go down Spencer which was awesome to the next and 4^th checkpoint on Fletcher, an easy roll down. Boom! We’ve got 4, time for the ripping Fletcher descent, back to the parking lot, lower trace, and out by the fisherman’s Bridge. Triple checking that the little connector trail is now on the map.

The climb on 1206 back up to yellow gap was probably the low point of the day for me, energy went through the floor, life’s decisions questioned, it was rough. Didn’t help that even after Champ rode ahead to talk to another team, I still caught him soft pedaling to stay back with me a few times. After we went over the top a little bit came back but I was still hurting. We were going to get all 5 though, so it was off to Pilot Cove, an area I’m not that familiar with. We questioned the loop vs the out and back. We landed on the out and back, honestly some pushing was probably good for me at this point and what’s PmBar without at least one out and back. As we get hiking a few of the teams I expected to be in the top 3-5 are coming at us, which is a pretty good sign, but I didn’t know how far from the top we were. Turns out they had about 20-30 min on us. Last checkpoint done, must get to the barn. As we come back over the top, Chris and his partner are coming at us. I start thinking man they’re close, we gotta go. Man, that descent down was super fun. Kind of chunky, but not butt puckering, honestly felt like old school classic trail that hasn’t been overridden and undermaintained.

Back on the road, get to South mills and the legs have a little life again (not a lot, but just a little). South Mills and Buckhorn come and go quickly. Again, around the gravel, back up Maxwell. After a long day when you make that turn onto Black Mountain Trail to start the final trail home it’s a pretty good feeling. Black is in prime condition, and we make pretty short work of it with the main goal of keeping the rubber side down. We rolled across the line right around 4 pm I think and in 7^th place. Not necessarily the day I was hoping for but honestly probably about the day I was prepared for. We had a good time in the woods, kept up pretty solid attitudes all day, and didn’t break anything so I’ll take it.

It wasn’t long before Katie showed up with the kids, cold beer, hanging out with friends, telling tall tales from the day, man it was good to be back. I hung out to watch a lot of friends finish and stayed probably too long. After the last of the friends came in around 9:20? I hopped on the bike to ride home. About ¾ of the way home I get messages showing up on my phone, none were coming through at the race. “basement half flooded, kid left faucet on, I got most of it, going to bed…..” oh good…when I get home, there is still a whole bunch of water left in the basement. I can’t go to bed with this like this. So I spent the next hour and half with the wet/dry vac cleaning up water. Moving fans, things from the floor, all the things. Welcome back to reality…

Takeaway

I felt pretty good for about 4ish hours, had a couple rough hours there, then felt pretty good again near the end. I think I made some fueling errors in the middle and didn’t take in enough and paid for it for a while. I finished with entirely too much food left. That ride was also longer than a typical week for me so fueling and not overcooking would have been critical. Always learning, always having fun, already looking forward to next year.