Pisgah: Day 3

Here's where it all goes sideways.  I've been on a bit of a personal improvement program of late, and I've trimmed off about 28 pounds so far.  One of the things I've paired out lately is beer.  I've thrown down a few light american style lagers, (who cares about the brand, they all taste the same), but nothing adventurous and certainly nothing even remotely earning the terms "craft brewed" or "hoppy" .  SO after the previous day's fun, I threw down a couple of the locally brewed Brevard Ale's at the Hub, and then that night I washed down my spaghetti with three Belle's Brown Ale's.  Now that is 5 beers, but we are talking about consumption over a 5 hour period, so I should be fine, right?

Nope.

The trail that we chose for the day started at the Hardtimes Trail Head, at Bent Creek, and went up.  As in climbing.  As in climbing for about an hour straight.  Ugh.

Pretty climbing, but climbing none the less.  It was also a cold day, and even with three jerseys on, I was still chilly in the shadows.

Mercilessly turning to descend, this was the highlight of the day.  10-15 minutes or so, mostly downhill, enough to shake your forearms numb and make your calves burn.  Somewhere around here I saw trail markers for Green Lick, so I guess that was one of the trails we did, although I was not navigating.

At the bottom we had technical difficulties as the only guy with 29 wheels and the only guy with tubeless had troubles all the way around and we spent 45 minutes in the chilly shadows waiting for the technical difficulties to be resolved.

So now I'm cold,  numb, hungover, and generally feeling pretty crappy.  Enter 2 hours of rollers and I was in the hurt locker.

The group.

Luckily Ashville was in our future, and while I didn't partake of anything more adventurous than an unsweet tea, the others filled their empty growlers at the Craggie Brewery there in town after we had some food..  We also visited Bio Wheels bike shop next door, (foreshadowing).

On the wall at Craggie... Boil Fruit?

We ate at the Lexington Avenue Brewery, and I had a Grilled Gouda cheese sandwich, with bacon, apples and french fries on the side.  I also had a fleece vest, and after a few hours I was back in form as my jolly old self. (?)