Hello! And welcome back! Day 3 of the Rockstar started from Douthet State Park, around 8:30am. I guess we "slept in" a bit, as it seemed rather cold outside. I climbed out of my rainfly-sauna-cocoon only to find that my jersey and chamois shorts were still soaking wet from where I washed them in the lukewarm shiver shower the night before...excellent, thanks humidity. I tried to dry them in that ancient heater box in the shower but that just warmed up the wetness, which is better than nothing, I suppose. I piddled and packed and snacked on a brownie with some jimmies on it, another half of a cold CBR with pieces of wax paper wrapper stuck to it and forced myself to drink a liter of water before leaving camp. And then we rolled out headed for about an hour climb ,up a trail named Stoney Run, out of the park.
Once we were near the top of Stoney Run, we had a quick out and back to the Tuscarora Overlook Cabin, where the mosquitos tried to carry me away. A couple of quick pics and we headed on to the top of the ridge where we were rewarded with a sweet, long, but bone chattering descent down to the Clifton Forge Reservoir, where we grabbed some water from the creek and I found another tasty, decaying CBR (now 4 days old).
Leaving the creek, it was time for another 1500' single track and double track ascent and subsequent descent of Fore Mountain. We were headed for the town of Covington, our first major resupply, with real food/restaurants, since leaving Harrisonburg two days ago. I could literally taste the food and just put my head down and knocked out the entire climb without stopping, as a huge portion of it was rideable.
After a smoking fast singletrack descent that had our hands and wrists on the fritz, we found ourselves in Covington, 4-5 hours after our departure from Douthet. We locked eyes with The Rail Bar & Grille and made a b-line. It was now after noon and the heat was full-on miserable!! The AC and smorgasbord of food were a much-needed reprieve.
Yes, that is, in fact, chicken fettuccini alfredo; apparently, I do hate myself. Of course, we ordered way too much so we ended up asking for some sheets of aluminum foil to store food in. I added an extra order of fried pickles to go, because, salt and carbs.
After food, we had to detour off route, by a mile or so, for some foot and butt care. I had a nice blister, on my left heel, from all the HAB. I was also having terrible neuropathic pain in both of my great toes, where it felt like a hot poker every time I hiked or descended (which seemed to comprise most of the route so far). I grabbed some mole skin, weird toe pad things, Boudreaux's Butt Paste, a travel toothbrush/paste, snacks, water, and pedialyte powder. We found a nice shaded spot, which was right next to a 4-way stop, where we plopped down in the grass to tend to ourselves. You can imagine the looks as people at the stop sign looked over and saw us both playing with our feet and me brushing my teeth. Ehh, whatever.
Also, FYI, the Boudreaux's was a mistake; it's like glue between a saddle and raw skin. Ouch!! And if that isn't enough, the zinc oxide in it just leaves your hands solid white, it doesn't rub in. You're welcome.
While stopped here, I got a call from Graham, stating that he had decided to switch to the gravel route and that he was also in Covington. We took the highway to hell (think HEAT) back to our route and continued on until we arrived at a small store, called Whitey's One Stop, where Graham was refueling. I grabbed a 5 hour energy and we headed out together as our routes would overlap for the next 12 miles or so.
We started with a 1000' paved climb up Pitzer Ridge Rd. out of Covington. As we began climbing, I looked back to see the flashing light of a cyclist just behind us; it was Susannah! We stopped at the top, briefly, to chat, and then the four of us proceeded together. And what a magnificent afternoon it was to ride through the rolling farmland of Hays Gap.
After a super-fast, paved descent off the plateau to historic Roaring Run Iron Furnace, we stopped to say our goodbyes to Graham, as his route departed ours there.
Historic Iron Furnace built in 1832
Susannah, Marty, and I had a short but fun singletrack loop in the Roaring Run trails and then an 1100' singletrack climb and descent, during which darkness descended upon us.
I don't remember a ton about this section, but I do remember, I crashed twice! Once, trying to take a highline around Marty as he was stopped, I shot straight back down across the trail to the low-side and went over the bars, but without injury or breakage. Only a few minutes later, JRA (just riding along) and my front wheel caught something that just slammed me on my right side before I realized it. Again, all was good, just a sore hip and tight neck.
On the long, somewhat technical descent, we had several sketchy creek crossings. We opted to grab some water and soak our feet at one. I was hoping it would help with my foot pains! It definitely felt amazing.
That's mole skin, not real skin, dangling
The next 12 miles or so were all pavement. It was rather flat and the cool, damp, night air felt great on my sunburnt skin. I had ample cell service and took the opportunity to call my lovely wife and have a brief chat as we coasted the country roads.
Although we were gobbling up the easy miles, I felt that there was a sense of "calm before the storm" as our Price Mountain ascent was just a few gravel miles ahead. Left off of the pavement, 5 miles of rather easy gravel, a stop at a creek crossing for water, and there we were, looking at our turn for Price Mountain. Looking back at the numbers, it's a 1600' ascent, first through a prescribed burn area with the lingering smell of fire, on an easily visible trail, then onto what appeared to be a goat path cut with a dull machete.
I'm not really sure what happened, but I'd guess that all those easy road miles blinded me to the fact that I needed to eat and drink. I started this mountain in a bad place, and ended up in a much worse place. I had to stop twice and just lay on the ground, trying to force some calories in, as I was nauseated and weak, with no energy or power to push my bike up the steep (or so I thought) grades. Unfortunately, it would just continue to get steeper. And steeper. And steeper. And steeper. Holyyyyy shit. I've never experienced anything like that, with my bike. After a couple of hours of this nonsense, Susannah decided that she couldn't physically go on, safely. She felt woozy and wanted to just camp there in the middle of the trail. Marty and I understood, and left her there, albeit, reluctantly, to get some sleep.
It was about 2:00am and, right after we left Susannah, the nastiest sections of this "trail" would come. I was still in a bad place, but trying my best to stay positive and keep moving forward. I can't explain this section, and you know pictures don't do it justice, but we were having to hold front and rear brake to keep the bike from moving, as we inched our feet up, then inched the bike up, then repeat. I cussed, and griped, and drug my bike up the faces of those knobs, one after another, toes on fire, back tight, arms like noodles, nauseated, and pretty much on my death bed.
After reaching the final knob (felt like the final boss on a Nintendo game), we hit a crazy steep, loose "fall line" down to a paved road. Sweet victory! Or, more like, just barely escaped death. I came to a sliding stop in the gravel on the side of the road, threw my helmet off, and just laid in the leaves on my back, trying to find the strength to eat some calories. It was about 3:30am and I was ready to try to sleep. Soooooo ready. I ate some fried pickles, a chicken tender, and some sweet crap. I threw my jacket on and shivered all the way down the curvy, banked, paved descent. It kind of reminded me of the Tail of the Dragon, along the Western NC-TN state line.
There was rain in the forecast for later that morning. We weren't really sure what time it would actually roll in so we were looking for a church with a covered porch or something to sleep under. No such luck. A few miles of pavement and we turned right onto more gravel, headed for the traverse of a rough horse trail. We found a small path that led back into the woods, not far off the road, and set up to try to get some sleep about 4:30am.
I think we got up around 8:30. I have no idea how much I actually slept as I can't differentiate asleep and awake. I know I felt super groggy and didn't want to get up. My eyes burned with the fatigue and lack of sleep. But I did. I ate some more fried pickles, dried fruit, a cliff bar, and made sure to hydrate. We got packed up and rode the 100 yards or so back over to the gravel road. As we looked down the road to the left, before turning right, there's ole Susannah making her way up the gravel hill. What are the chances?!? Haha! We all had a laugh about the timing and proceeded to the good ole horse trail, where we wondered why all horse trails are exactly the same: blown out with tons of rocks of all sizes, creek crossings, and tons of debris.
Fried pickles are REAL BAD the next day
After the horse trail, our morning consisted of a gravel climb up to North Mountain Trail (aka Dragon's Back) which started with 20 minutes or so of HAB up to the ridgeline. And, as we were pushing our bikes up to the ridge line, the winds really picked up and we started to feel the sprinkles. Just as we hit the ridge, after the HAB, the storm hit. Winds were probably 30mph with some sideways rain. We all donned our rain jackets and kept moving. It was pretty awesome!
Dragon's Back is about 10-12 miles long, and similar to the Shenandoah Mountain Trail in that it traverses a ridgeline. However, this trail goes up and over most of the knobs rather than skirting around them to the side. This creates even more steep HAB sections. I didn't take a lot of pictures here as I had Hunt Brother's Pizza on my mind, which was directly on the other side! If you've ridden Snake Creek Gap in Dalton, GA, this trail is similar to the last 8 miles but with a lot more HAB.
After 4-5 hours on the ridge line and a LEGIT descent off of North Mountain, we were at Catawba Grocery, the gas station with pizza!! This was a major milestone as we were now out of the big mountains, the hardest was behind us, and we had a lot of pavement and a few smaller tasks between us and the finish (about 45 miles to go). The time was around 4:30pm.
We ordered a couple of pizzas, I ate some ice cream and flaming hot chips as an appetizer, we chatted with some Appalachian Trail (AT) through-hikers, did some wardrobe shifts due to clouds/wind/sprinkles, and prepared for the final leg of our journey! My butt was rather raw and I just couldn't get comfortable on the saddle, so I opted to put on my "sleep shorts" which were just some swimming trunks with a liner; no chamois or anything. I also put on my leg warmers (so as to not show way too much man-thigh with my short shorts) and all three pairs of my socks, in an attempt to mitigate some of the brutal toe pain I was still having. I also opted to wander around the store, and their bathroom, with no shoes or socks on. No judgements please!
From Catawba, things were just good! We had a little over 10 miles of easy pavement, with a nice descent, and a strong tail wind the entire way! We were headed to do a short loop of Carvin's Cove en route to Roanoke! I'd guess we entered CC around 7:00pm or so. We were all in good spirits, sensing the end was near, knowing we'd be done some time around midnight. We made quick work of the first long climb, where the sun was trying to make an appearance through the thick grey clouds just before sundown.
One long-ass bone-jarring descent, another 20 minute singletrack climb, an undulating Brushy Mountain Fire Road, and there we were, on the outskirts of Roanoke, with a lot of paved pedestrian path, a little singletrack, and one small Mill Mountain climb to go!
I should also mention, at the bottom of the rough singletrack descent in Carvin's Cove, Susannah showed up with my sole remaining flip-flop that had ejected due to the abusive terrain. I just let her carry it on to the finish, hahaha.
We navigated the quiet streets of Northwest Roanoke, chatted and laughed along the paved pedestrian river path, and then made our way up Mill Mountain, which is a small park just south of the city center, which is home to the Star of Roanoke. We snapped a few quick pics and made our descent towards town. We rolled into the official finish, the Texas Tavern, at 12:34am on Tuesday night, filled with exuberance. We were elated to have completed this exceedingly difficult route!!
Huge thanks to Graham for being there at the finish, awaiting our arrival, and grabbing some pics and video of our finish. Also, thanks to Rob Issem and Virginia Endurance Series, as well as all the contributors to the route creation, for a brutal but beautiful (brutiful?) route and event. But, most importantly, thanks to my lovely wife, Melissa, for supporting me and allowing me the freedom to participate in excellent events such as this one. I love you!!
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Well, it had been a while since a real adventure, and, in a moment of weakness, I apparently put my name on the Trans-North Georgia Adventure (TNGA) start list some time last year. This race is mainly off-road and usually ridden on a mountain bike and runs east to west, from Clayton, GA (at the SC border) to the Silver Comet Trail where it crosses the AL line. It's 355'ish miles and has 40,000+ feet of elevation gain using forest service roads, gravel, single and double track, pavement, and whatever Honcho calls that shit at the top of Hickory Nut. Just kidding, I like that section. And if the route itself weren't difficult enough, the event is held the second weekend in August every year, meaning, essentially, the worst time of year imaginable in the Southeast. After switching jobs in June, life hadn't afforded me the time to ride as much as I typically would. I completed a whopping two training rides the two weekends prior to the race. Oh well, the mind is strong.
Hey friends! Thanks for stopping back by to read about my Huracan Lite 300 race. It was a doozie I tell ya. The Huracan Lite is a 322 mile mixed surface loop out of Shangri-La campground situated on the Santos Trail System in Ocala, FL. There's also the OG route, now nearly 400 miles with a lot of the same dirt roads but also with nearly 100 miles of singletrack and some awesome water crossings that is more suitable for mountain bikes. I raced it last year, finishing in about 30 hours straight through, with a little too much stopped time. My goal this year was a slightly easier pace with less stopped time. In my prep, I planned to tackle the race on a titanium hardtail instead of my gravel bike, as I felt pretty beat up on the gravel bike last year. But, true to form, I decided to change to my gravel bike the week of the race. I kept it super light with only a top tube bag and two feed bags. I carried a Nathan trail running pack with no bladder but instead, warmer gloves, arm w
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