This trip was triggered by a trip to Asheville by my old friends from the Black Hills, Karl and Laurie Marlowe. They were planning a 5 day trip to NC, in part to spread the ashes of one of Laurie’s sisters who had died while hiking on a trail near town. They were also planning to do some hiking and biking and asked us to come along. However, Jean had Pro-MBA teaching and couldn’t make the trip. I settled on meeting them for dinner on Friday with a ride at Bent Creek for Saturday.
I
decided to do a run at the Smokies Big Creek Trailhead on the drive over. I
hiked up to the hiker campsite, explored up to the horse campsite, and ran back
down to the trailhead. It took 1:45 to reach the campsite and 1:10 to run back
down. The trail is rocky, but I really didn’t have much trouble with the
footing while running back.
Jean
got me a reservation at the Super 8 off Tunnel Road in Asheville. I checked in
before heading downtown. We ended up at the Bhramari Brewing Company. My beer
was good, but the food was only OK.
It’s
been almost 25 years since I’d seen Karl and Laurie, so we had tons to catch up
on. For some stretches we’d been out of touch a while. Obviously a lot of
family changes over that time, but Karl was still with Homestake’s successor
Barrick, which is probably some sort of longevity record for an exploration
geologist. I think I was on my fourth mining company before I was out of grad
school.
Both
Karl and Laurie are hard core bikers, mostly doing gravel riding these days.
I’d only been off the greenway for three rides this year, so I was hoping just
to survive. It was a short evening downtown, they were used to Pacific Time.
On
Saturday morning we met at Rice Pinnacle TH at Bent Creek. They’d rented bikes (full
suspension 29ers) from Carolina Fats. We rode (right at my max) up FS 491,
turned onto FS 491E, and then started up Ingles Field Gap. That trail was rough
and rocky, but we weren’t more than 100 yards down it before Karl discovered he
had a flat. We both had pumps, but no patches. The tire would hold not air, so
he rode it flat back down to the parking area. What a bummer.
While
they headed back to the bike shop, I took a short loop; immediately off on a
user trail from 664, then up 666 and 660 along Ledford Branch. All of these
were rough, rocky, and rooty, too much so to want to ride again. Back in the
early 2000’s I was riding a lot at Bent Creek, but this was my first trip since
2009. Obviously some trails had gotten rougher. Luckily, the bike shop trip was
short, so I zipped down FS 491 to meet them for a restart at the by now full
trailhead.
Round
2 was back up 491, then 491E again, then this time out to T145 to try more single
track. 145 was fine for riding, at least once the climb was over. I’d been
bragging about T665, so we took it down. After a few rocks and a quick creek
crossing, it became the smooth flowy dirt trail I remembered from years past,
the kind that always puts a smile on the rider’s face. We took lower Sidehill
137A out, finally finding some trail that wasn’t really crowded. This was
tougher single track for me, but Karl and Laurie just flowed over it with their
29ers, and their far superior bike handling. 
With Laurie and Karl at Bent Creek.
We
got some pointers from some guys at the start of Road 479M, plus a group photo.
479M starts with a long climb, but Laurie just blasted out ahead in the lead. The
479M surface was perfect, the forest open and pretty. This was probably my
favorite part of the ride. We stopped at the Chestnut Cove intersection, and
almost rode down a foot-only trail by mistake. We turned down Sleepy Gap and
rode a section of Explorer Loop, both these trails were in great shape and a
ton of fun. The we took the Pine Tree connector and loop trails, both those
were badly eroded and too rough for me to enjoy.
By
then it was getting late for me with the drive home looming, so when we hit the
paved road, we just rode back on it to the trailhead. 
Ready for Bent Creek.
What
a great day. It was really fun to be back out riding again, especially with
them. I’d learned to mountain bike in the Black Hills back in the late 80’s and
Karl was one (the main one?) of the guys who really got me going. I’m not great
at keeping in touch with old friends, but this ride shows how valuable those
connections can be.
