Heartache

Front Squish, 34x22

Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35s, 32 / 35 psi

Trail Condition: Relentlessly cruel, yet awesome at the same time

I took advantage of having to be in Charlotte last Friday to shoot over to Old Fort and ride the famed Curtis Creek climb to test out my PMBAR gearing choice. As an added bonus, descending down Heartbreak Ridge would verify that I had the Manitou Tower Pro dialed in.

Spent Friday night with friends and planned on an early start to roll away from Andrews Geyser at 9am for up to six hours of fun in WNC wilderness. Assuming I finished my route in 5ish hours, I was also going to do a quick Kitsuma loop, but that would probably be skipped as I intended to get home in time for dinner with the family.

I rolled away from Andrews Geyser at 10am.

I've only ridden Heartbreak Ridge one other time, and that time we came in from Old Toll Road. There's only one intersection on Heartbreak, so the most difficult part was going to be finding the entrances at each end. I ignored the suggestions to buy a map for the region. I studied route cues and it wouldn't be hard. Right off the bat, the entrance to the initial climb was a piece of cake. I was in and over the RR tracks and on my way to the brief push up the switchbacks to the Star Gap intersection. I got to the intersection in 30 minutes or so, took my right turn and was amazed at how tight the trail was. The trail hugged a private property line and there was no way people regularly rode it.

After about 20 minutes, I made it back to the trail and a little further up to the real intersection of Star Gap and cruised down the trail, making my left on the gravel road to get over to Curtis Creek. I climbed. I didn't remember having to climb this part, thinking it shouldn't have been that steep. Then I descended. A lot. I stopped to try to access the internet and figure out if I was going the right way. I regretted not having a map. I descended some more. I stopped again. Finally I kicked out on asphalt (asphalt?!!) and took a left onto what I hoped was Curtis Creek Rd.

I was already at mile 12 and 2 hours into my not so hopeful <5 hour ride, just starting the big climb. I saw a sign that confirmed I was headed in the right direction. Optimism flowed. About 10 miles of climbing to the Blue Ridge Parkway, then cruise southwest down the Parkway and watch for the trail entrance to the left after about 5 miles.

I stopped to help a guy tighten his stem.

Curtis Creek got long and steep. I had to push. Apparently the sandy crushed gravel packed into my cleats making them hard to release. At one point I tipped over just like a noob their first time in clipless pedals.  I cried when my pretty Thomson carbon bar hit the dirt, but fortunately I took the brunt of the fall with my left knee, which started bleeding. I was somewhere in the 8-9 mile range of the climb. Trees and brush had been cleared back from the road, which now was not shaded. I thought about my sunscreen 20 miles away in the truck.

I toughed it out and made it to the Parkway and pulled over to push the check-in button on the Spot to let my wife know that "I'm having an awesome time and am okay" as well as post the same message to my Facebook friends. I don't type all that in, by the way. I set it on the Spot website. All I do is push a little button that starts flashing green and continue on to my business.

I also dug the packed dust out of my cleats.

There was a little hill that I needed to climb on the Parkway that banked off to the right before I could start descending the Parkway. I rounded the turn and the Parkway kept going up. I started to realize that I never checked the elevation profile of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead, in my mind, since the Parkway went down the page, then I was descending. This was not the case.

At one point I screamed out, "You bitch! Don't you ever end?!"

I was spent and was having to pause about every mile. Finally I descended and freaking descend I did, hitting 35 mph on those massive 2 lb tires with the giant lugs. I was watching my Garmin 500 (which is pretty cool, I must say) for the mileage mark to start looking for the trailhead. There were random marks on the road previously for ORAMM, and I was hoping for one of those to cue me where to turn. I made one false stop, but happened to look left just as I was about to blow by the trailhead pictured above. I checked in again with the Spot, mainly to mark the coordinates.

Someone had the cruel joke that even if you climb all the way to the top of Blue Ridge Parkway to enter Heartbreak Ridge, you still have to push your bike (or at least I do) up a couple hundred yards before you can descend. Anyway, in short order I passed the intersection where the connector from Old Toll Road comes in. I opened up the ABS+ damper a few clicks on the Tower Pro and it was on like Donkey Kong.  If I had someone with me, I would have really pushed it. The fork handled like a dream and the tires held on like I was on a slot car.

After getting my self all situated back at the truck and amazing another motorist that I had gone out by myself, with no map, to the Parkway and back, I got on the road at 5pm and made my way to a Wendy's, as I certainly wasn't getting home in time for dinner with the family.