Saturday: Browns to Duncans and Back

Saturday, I met Doug and a colleague from work James Davis for a moto ride that encompassed all the known singletrack at Windrock. The first section named Brown's Flats was completely unknown to me but I had heard plenty from Doug and Devin about the differences between Duncan's and Brown's. I was fired up to give it go but it took a minute to get myself calmed down enough to stop blowing the first tight turns. Brown's definitely had some tricky spots but the real mind blower was how the track took us so deep into the woods! For example, towards the end we dropped down to this creek surrounded by massive Hemlock trees which was straight out of the deepest reaches of the Smokies, some really old growth for this area. After the final hill climb we popped out on a gravel road that took us back to the trucks.

After Brown's we navigated over to ride the 14-15 miles of sinlgetrack at Duncan Flats. I have ridden this track a bunch but the conditions on this day were excellent! Where Brown's had a little grease in spots Duncan's was pretty much prefect with zero dust! And since I am continually at the back I was pumped to not have to use the force to pick lines.

About 3/4 of the way through Duncan's we came upon a few riders chilling in the woods talking about this and that but mainly economics and politics. I took the opportunity to obsess over the setup on my bike. But I did notice that many of the issues as of late could be easily solved by simply sitting in woods with real people.

The ride was perfect and without issue with total mileage at 34.2 miles (+/-) 2 miles for the accuracy on my odometer. James mentioned that he felt like he just raced a GNCC which sums up the terrain we have at our disposal in the Windrock area. I imagine we will see James more frequently now that he knows how we roll!

The meeting