I walked into the Great Outdoor Provision Store in Cameron Village a half hour ago and immediately saw who I was looking for. GOPC’s Chuck Millsaps was talking to a guy at the counter; I walked over and waited. Chuck had invited me down to meet Conrad Anker, one of the world’s top alpinists, who was in Raleigh for a speaking gig. As I waited, I scanned the store to see if Anker had arrived.
Support your local bike shop: A tale from the trail
Hello, and welcome to GGNC Playhouse. Today’s a one-act performance, “Buy Local: Your Race Could Depend On It,” is a re-creation of an actual event that occurred at Saturday’s 6 BC endurance mountain bike race at Briar Chapel south of Chapel Hill. The scene opens with a long shot of several mountain bikers coming up to pit row. The riders, nearing the end of a 7-mile lap, are slowly pedaling up the hill, all except one who’s pushing his bike. As the despondent running cyclist nears the pit, Dave Naderman, manager of the Trek Bicycles of Raleigh, manning the store’s mobile service center parked near the start/finish heads down to see what’s wrong. Let’s listen.
Art Loeb, Part II: One wet and wild run
Tuesday, we started running the 31-mile Art Loeb Trail in the Pisgah National Forest with Mike Walsh, Charles West and Mike Day. Today, we finish the run.
Charles West and Mike Walsh were a good half hour into telling me about their 11 hour and 10 minute, 31-mile run on the rugged Art Loeb Trail before they mentioned the rain. They were 10 miles into their trail tale, coming into Ivestor Gap when the topic surfaced.
Hike to the Fair (it’s still a good idea)
It’s North Carolina State Fair time again, a fact I was reminded of this morning when I drove down Hillsborough Street this morning and saw a guy hawking parking spaces for $10. $10! Do you know how many Krispy Kreme hamburgers you could buy for $10? Then I was reminded of a post from last year encouraging people to save a sawbuck and their waistline at the same time by hiking to the State Fair. I’ve updated that post slightly and rerun it below.
Weekend plans? Get mtb religion, howl, hike
Get religion at a Fat Tire Festival, howl at the coast. It’s all happening this weekend.
Piedmont
Saturday, we salute the Fat Tire. If you’re already familiar with the Church of the Fat Tire, we need only say that Saturday is something of our high holy day here in the Triangle. If you’re not already among the faithful, the 5th Annual TORC Fat Tire Festival is a great way to explore a different branch of exercise ecclesiology: mountain biking.