Piedmont

Charlotte

1. Colonel Francis Beatty Park, 4330 Weddington Road. 5.75 miles. Relatively flat singletrack loop that’s mildly technical. Good beginner venue.  Details here or call (704) 643-5725.

2. Lake Norman State Park, 159 Inland Sea Lane, Troutman. 17.5 miles. Rare North Carolina State Park singletrack is known for good flow and opportunities for beginners and advanced riders alike.  Details here or call (704) 528-6350.

3. National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Parkway. 17 miles. Well-groomed, well-marked trail network with good mix of beginner, intermediate and advanced trail. Bike rental included with price of admission to NWC, though you only need to pay parking fee to ride the trails. Details here or call (704) 391-3900.

Other trails of note: North Meck, Huntersville; Beech Springs/Poplar Tent, Concord; Sherman Branch, Midland; Anne Close Springs Greenway, Fort Mill, S.C.

More info: Charlotte Mountain Bike, Tarheel TrailBlazers.

Triad

4. Hobby Park, 2301 West Clemmonsville Road, Winston-Salem.  7 miles. Long-standing Triad mountain biking tradition, Hobby Park is geared toward more advanced riders. Details here or call (336) 727-8000.

5. Northeast Park, 3421 Northeast Park Drive, Gibsonville (use 4010 High Rock Road for GPS purposes). 5 miles. New network is gaining a reputation for fast flow. Details here or call (336) 375-2322.

6. Owls Roost/Bur Mill Park, 5834 Bur-Mill Club Road,  Greensboro. 5 miles. An oldie and enduring goldie for good reasons: one, the flow has been compared to a good mountain ride and two, the trail connects with others in Greensboro’s vast Watershed Lakes trail network. Details here or cll (336) 373-3800

Other trails of note: Country Park, Bald Eagle, Wild Turkey, Reedy Fork, Lake Brandt, Hagen Stone, Greensboro; Salem Lake, Horizon Park, Tanglewood, Winston-Salem.

More info: Greensboro Fat Tire Society, Mountain Biking in the Triad, Singletracks.com, Triad mtb.

Triangle

7. Carolina North, 1089 Municipal Drive, Chapel Hill. 20 miles (approximate). Mileage includes official trail on 750-acre holding of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and adjoining unofficial trail behind Seawell Elementary School. Mix of double and single track. Details here or call (919) 883-8930.

8. Harris Lake County Park, 2112 County Park Dr., New Hill. 8 miles. Clearly marked trail distinguishes beginner, intermediate and advanced trail, though advanced trail includes ride-arounds making even toughest trail accessible to most riders. Details here or call 919-3874342.

9. Lake Crabtree County Park, 1400 Aviation Parkway, Morrisville. 8 miles. The most popular trail network in the Triangle, in park because of its central location, in part because it’s very beginner friendly. Adjoins more challenging bandit trail and 13-miles of bike and bridle trail at neighboring Umstead State Park. Details here or call 919-460-3390.

Other trails of note: Little River Regional Park, Durham; Briar Chapel, Chapel Hill; New Light and Beaverdam, Falls Lake State Recreation Area; Legend Park, Clayton; Garner Recreation Park, Garner.

More info: TriangleMTB.com, Triangle Off-Road Cyclists.

Elsewhere in the Piedmont

10. W Kerr Scott Reservoir Trails: Dark Mountain, Overmountain Victory Trail, Fish Dam Creek Trail, Warrior Creek trails, Wilkesboro. 35 miles combined. These are popular destination trails: Get in shape, then come ride for the weekend on these well-designed and maintained trails. Beginners should start with the Overmountain Victory Trail. Details here.

11. Uwharrie Mountains: Keyauwee, Supertree, Wood Run Road trails. 22 miles combined. 10 miles west of Troy on NC 24/27. Longtime trail network underwent a facelift in 2011, to rave reviews. Wood Run is 11 miles of easy, aerobic fire road, Supertree is 5 miles of easy to moderate singletrack, Keyauwee is 6 miles of more challenging singletrack. Details here and here.

Mountains

12. Bent Creek Experimental Forest, Asheville. 24 miles. A big trail network of singletrack and double track on its own, it connects with other trails in the region to create some true epic rides. Proximity to Asheville makes it especially popular. Details here or call 828-667-5261.

13. Davidson River area of Pisgah National Forest, Brevard. 100+ miles. Davidson River campground makes a great base camp for exploring this vast network of trail, the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education and Fish Hatchery is where several of the top trails depart. Some trails are only open to mountain biking from mid-October into spring. Details here.

14. DuPont Forest, between Hendersonville and Brevard. About 100 miles of all kinds of trail, from challenging double track to challenging singletrack to slickrock. Great scenery, with lots of waterfalls. Details here.

15. Kitsuma, Old Fort. 10 miles. The climb up 14 switchbacks is a grind, but the payoff is four miles of fast, rolling mostly downhill that make Kitsuma a Pisgah classic. Details here.

16. Mills River area of the Pisgah National Forest, Mills River. 82 miles. Adjoining the Davidson River area, this is another classic Pisgah collection. Most notable are the Fletcher Creek and Laurel Mountain trails. Details here.

17. Tsali Recreation Area, NC 28 at FS 1286, Bryson City area. 40 miles. Fee. Long noted for its great flow and mileage,  Tsali consists of four big loops. Mountain bikers, hikers and equestrians share the trails, with useage split up by day of the week. Details here.

More info: MTB WNC, Pisgah Area SORBA, Singletracks.com.

Coast

18. Bicycle Post, Short Bridge Road near Kings Crossing Road, Greenville. 10 miles. ($2 fee for non EC Velo Club members). Lots of trail on a small parcel of private land (hence the fee) and a remarkable — this is the coastal plain, after all — 500 feet of vertical climbing throughout. Details here or call (252) 756-3301.

19. Blue Cay,  3950 Juvenile Center Road, Castle Hayne (Wilmington area). 7 miles. Great example of a great bandit trail network evolving into a great legal network. More technical challenge than you might expect at the coast. Details here.

Other trails of note: Stoney Creek Trail, Jacksonville; Brunswick Nature Park, Wilmington area.

More info: Singletracks, com, Sir Bikes-a-lot, Cape Fear SORBA (Southeastern Off Road Bicycle Association), Down East Cyclists.

The post Top places to mountain bike in North Carolina appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

“Hey, you still wanna ride? I’m off Friday.”

Even though we had discussed riding together a time or two, I was caught off-guard. I may have even blushed. Those first outdoors dates — be it for a backpack trip, to go climbing, to do a trail run — are fraught with tension. Are you as accomplished as you’ve let on? Can you really do 15-mile days in the Appalachians with a 35-pound pack? You may have done a 5.9 route, but that was 20 years and 30 pounds ago; can you do one today? And yes, you may have run 9-minute miles in a 10K — but that was on pavement, on a downhill course.

I’ve known Jason for at least a year, maybe two. I met him when he worked at Performance Bikes, always helpful with gear and patient to endure my latest tale from the trail. Then he showed up behind the counter at the local Bruegger’s, where I often work in the morning. We resumed our discussion of bikes, especially the mountain variety, to which we’re both partial.

This summer, I kept Jason updated on my training for ORAMM, he kept me apprised of his bike rebuild in anticipation of a trip out West this fall. We don’t speak directly to our abilities, but through what we do talk about — my bike “racing,” Jason’s rebuilding a lighter, faster bike — Jason, who is at least 20 years my junior, seems to think we’d be compatible on the trail. Which lead him to pop the question this morning.

“Sure, Friday’d be great,” I said. I then began combing through our past conversations to make sure I hadn’t oversold my skills. I’m pretty good at not doing that, at not portraying myself as something my physical appearance would suggest I’m not. I don’t think anyone has ever come away from a mountain bike conversation with me thinking, “Dang! That guy must be an animal.” And if there was an animal associated with the image they went away with it would be a flat one, on the roadway.

So … I’m a little nervous about our date to ride Friday morning.

For starters, with rare exception, the only person I’ve ridden with in several years has been Alan. And get that thought out of your head: Alan and I have an open riding relationship, he’ll be fine with me riding with Jason. I may not ride with other people but Alan, well, Alan will ride with anyone. Some weeks he may ride with five, six, seven different people. Sometimes he does rides with two different people in the same day. Sometimes he brings a friend along on our rides! And he loves a good group ride, the bigger the better. Not the lifestyle for me, but it works for him.

Me, I’m a little rusty in the company category.

What if we get out there and prove woefully incompatible. Fortunately, we’ve picked Harris Lake, a fairly neutral network, for our first ride. Good beginner warm-up loop that leads into a nice intermediate stretch. And with only a couple exceptions — some monster whoop-de-dos — the advance trail isn’t too technically taxing. I may not be the fastest guy around, but at Harris Lake I shouldn’t have to worry about embarrassing myself by getting off and walking. Still there’s the chance that after hitting the trail we may not see each other until we’re back to the trailhead, Jason leaning against his car, in his street clothes, checking his watch, waiting, as I hobble in exhausted. Awkward.

But you know, he’ll just have to accept me for the rider that I am. Maybe we finish up, talk about what a good ride it was, but secretly agree that it will never happen again. If that happens, fine. It’s not like I have to ride with someone else, that it someone how makes me a more complete cyclist. There’s nothing wrong with riding solo. Nothing at all.

Deep breaths, it’s just a ride. No worries.

Actually, there is one worry. I don’t have a decent kit to wear.

The post First date appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Last July 23, a Saturday, I was standing in front of about 40 people in the parking lot of Historic Yates Mill County Park in Raleigh. It was shortly before noon, the temperature was 101, and Allen Davis and I were on a 12-week mission to lead these hikers to ultragreatness. But first, we needed to lead them on a mile and a half march around the lake.
“Follow me!” I yelled — and promptly led our charges down a dirt path that dead ended within 50 yards. “Follow Allen!” I yelled, pointing to the back of the pack, where Allen exhibited the international palms-up sign for, “Me? Where?”
It was an inauspicious beginning to a journey that would affect, to varying degrees, the 28 who would make it through basic training.
The group was the inaugural Raleigh contingent of Ultimate Hikers. Ultimate Hike is the fundraising genius of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, a non-profit that until recently relied on grants and philanthropic donations to raise funds for research into children’s cancer. Three years ago it started doing fundraising walks, then hit on the idea of the Ultimate Hike: Train for 12 weeks, then do a monster dayhike. In the case of the Raleigh hikers and hikers throughout the Southeast, a 28.3-mile stretch of the 77-mile Foothills Trail, which straddles North Carolina and South Carolina.
A few of the hikers who showed up that first day were of the hardcore variety, athletes in search of a good challenge made all the better by the chance to help a good cause. But the vast majority seemed drawn more out of curiosity: Could I possibly hike 28 miles in one day? Me?
Most had never hiked more than 5 miles. For them as well, it was a test.
To get them down that trail, Allen and I led them on increasingly longer hikes throughout training. After our get-acquainted sweatfest at Yates Mill, we did 6 miles at Harris Lake, 10 miles at Umstead, 14 miles along the Eno River, 15 at Hanging Rock (our “elevation” hike) and 20 on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake. Allen would typically lead the adrenaline junkies off the front, I hung with my stop-and-smell-the-flowers gals in the rear. We’d swap Clif Shot Bloks (“Trade you a citrus for a strawberry”), “we” talked about how uncomfortable female undergarments could get on a long, hot hike, we stayed as a group when one of us was dragging and needed encouragement. I assume the folks at the front of the pack, who typically were driving home by the time we finished, had a good time. We had a great time.
When Oct. 1 and the Ultimate Hike rolled around, we were ready. We got up at 2:45 a.m., were on the trail by 4:30. The speedsters were done by 2 p.m. I came in with the last hiker just before 7 p.m., with precious little sunlight to spare. We partied that night (until 9:30!), we dragged ourselves to breakfast the next morning, we drove home. We’ve kept in touch.
It’s an experience I would repeat in a heartbeat. And lucky me, being the hiking coach for Raleigh, I’ll get to, starting two weeks from today with our first information meeting for the 2012 Ultimate Hike season. Here’s part of what we’ll be telling you at the five sessions slated for the Triangle (see details on each meeting below):
Sign up and you’ll get:

• 12-week training program, which includes every-other-week training hikes led by me and graduates from last year’s UH class. And those are just the officially scheduled hikes; I also led a number of night hikes to get folks accustomed to hiking under a headlamp (and to beat the heat). And group members frequently met on their own and hiked together.
• Weekly newsletter with hiking and fundraising tips.
• A T-shirt!
• All-expense paid Ultimate Hike weekend, including two nights of lodging at a swell hotel, meals and support stations (with all the trail food you can eat) on UH day.

In return, you agree to raise $2,500 for the battle against children’s cancer.
I know. That’s what I thought the first time I heard it: $2,500?
It is a lot, especially if you’re used to fundraiser runs and rides where you only have to raise $100, $250 tops.
But here’s the amazing thing: Only one person last year struggled to reach the goal. Everyone had to work their fundraising behinds off, almost everyone was sweating their goal going into the last week, but all but one met or exceeded the $2,500 goal by the deadline — and the one who didn’t got an extension.
It’s hard work, the hiking and the fundraising. It’s also for a cause that is second to none. You’ll hear stories along the way that will make you cry. But then you get to do something about it. A great opportunity.
Come and here about that opportunity at one of the sessions listed below. And if you can’t make it, drop me a line and I’ll answer your questions.
This year’s Ultimate Hike on the Foothills Trail is on Oct. 27. Hard to imagine a better way to spend a fall day.

Above: Check out the slide show from last year’s Ultimate Hike.

* * *

Ultimate Hike info sessions

• Tuesday, July 24, 6:30 p.m., REI North Hills, 4291 The Circle at North Hills, Raleigh.
• Wednesday, July 25, 6:30 p.m., REI, Cary 1751 Walnut St., Cary.
• Thursday, Aug. 2, 6:30 p.m., REI Durham, 6911 Fayetteville St. #109, Durham.
• Friday, Aug. 3, 6:30 p.m., REI Cary, 1751 Walnut St., Cary.
• Saturday, Aug. 4, 9 a.m., Umstead State Park, 8801 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh.

* * *

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The post Hiking long for a good cause appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast, especially come summer. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. 
To help ease this trying transition, we’re running a new feature every Monday, at least during the summer, called 90 Second Escape. Essentially, it’s a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s in the sun. Or in today’s case, at least outside.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: A Wet Summer’s Hike.

Even at just 35 miles per hour, the windshield wipers couldn’t keep pace. The rain was coming faster than the blades could clear a path. This is gonna be a great hike! I thought. Provided, of course, I make it to the trailhead.

For some — most, perhaps — a little rain is cause for a second cup of coffee and a trip to the couch with the newspaper. To me, it’s a squishy siren’s song, a call of the wet and wild, a summons to aqua adventure. If you’ve got the right rain gear, a hike in the rain is a cozy commune with the great outdoors. Take 90 seconds to escape with us on a wet summer’s hike.

The post 90 Second Escape: A Wet Summer’s Hike appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

A rush from the mush

Recent snows, rain and cold weather (which keeps the trail from drying) have conspired to keep most mountain bike trails closed for the last month or so. That there even was a race Saturday was the doing of Amy Burke and her crew at Harris Lake. Race Director Chris White said Burke, who oversees trail maintenance at the park, had four people working on the trails full time last week and seven other employees pitched in when they could, building new boardwalks and infilling gravel in spots left perpetually wet by the recent snow and rain. The 8-mile course was soft in spots, but certainly rideable. Nice work by Burke & Co.

Injured? Ha!

Racers are always full of suggestions to make an event even better. During registration, one helpful racer was telling outgoing TORC race coordinator Sean Callihan about a timing system that uses GPS technology to not only log riders’ lap times but also tracks riders while out on the course: You can look at a computer map and see a rider’s icon move around the course. “The big advantage to that,” said the helpful racer, “is that if a rider goes down, you know exactly where he is.”

“If a rider goes down?” Callihan wryly replied. “We don’t care about that.”

Ghost rider

Jeff LeBlanc apparently was the day’s designated ghost rider. He did five laps — he had the dead legs after six hours to prove it — but he didn’t register so much a blip on Bigfoot Cycling’s official results. Big Foot was trying to figure out at race’s end why LeBlanc was  le missing.

Slow, but not that slow

And in case anyone saw it and thought I’d broken my own record for lethargic racing, that, 1:49:06 time reported for my 3rd lap was actually the time for my 3rd and 4th laps — the computer somehow missed me on the third lap. “We’re actually better suited for running events and triathlons,” Bigfoot told me. “We’ll get it fixed.” (And yes, 54:33 is still really slow.)

Warm thoughts

Though the temperature by race’s end approached a balmy 60, the day started around freezing, making the International Mountain Bicycle Association Satefy Patrol’s kerosene-heated warming tent an alluring draw. “It’s for people who don’t want to be hurt and cold,” one of the patrolers told me.

My aching (15-year-old) back

Just when you think you’re ailing body is trying to tell you you’re too old for endurance mountain bike racing, you have a heartening conversation like the one I had with Pierce Holloway. I caught up with Pierce mid-race. “How’s it going?” I asked. “My back hurts,” he replied. “I always have back pain after I either run for an hour and a half or bike for an hour and a half.” Good to know that aches and pains aren’t ageist: Pierce is 15.

Speaking of which …

Overheard in the pit area: “This isn’t so much about cardio,” one racer was telling another. “It’s about pain management.”

Bikes squared

There’s always a lot of bike oogling at events such as the Meltdown. Adrian Vrouwenvelder, whose son Luke was racing in the Men’s Duo category, and I found ourselves doing a “What the heck is That?” next to a BMW motorcycle that had a Moots YBB attached via a bike bike rack. As we were admiring the ingenuity of the 2×2 Cycles bike rack (which is better described in the accompanying picture than in words), the bikes owner, Garrett Blake of Chapel Hill, walked up.

“I’ve never seen a motorcycle rack like that,” I said. “Where’d you get it?”

“I made it,” Blake replied. Turns out he and some fellow biker/cyclist buddies couldn’t find a good motorcycle racking system so they decided to make their own. The result: a steel rack that holds the bicycle off the back in a way that’s in “aerodynamic alignment” with the motorcycle.

Pretty cool. So cool that we hardy talked about his YBB, one of the cooler hand-built bikes on the market.

Race results

Are posted at On the Mark Sports.

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