As I continue to search out new adventures this year, the Pisgah 36 came up on the radar and it seemed like an interesting event. If you are not familiar with the event, it is a 36 hour race that starts at midnight on Friday night and runs until noon on Sunday. comprised of 6 different stages with various checkpoints within that you can rack up extra points through the event. The course and routes are unknown until the start of the race and a single stage is released at a time which requires you to come back to camp after each stage.
Over the last couple years I have done various Pisgah Productions events and have learned that they are some of the hardest around. If there is a difficult way to do a route in Pisgah, @Ericweever will find it and put it together. Though super tough this is part of what makes these events so awesome!
I started researching the event and found there was not a ton of write ups out there on others experiences. The couple that I did find described freezing temps and and a brutal route. Nothing else would be expected with one of Eric's events!
Found that Graham Skardon had already signed up for this one and Dustin Welch was going to be coming down as well so i would have some familiar company to hang out with. My oldest son had never been to one of these events and with it so close to home he was also able to come out and hang for a night which was super cool.
Work has been insane this year so stress levels are high and prep time becomes nonexistent. I end up getting my stuff somewhat organized the night before the event and throw everything into a pile to be loaded up the next day.
Friday the 3rd rolls around, the day again starts at the crack of dawn, and the normal chaos that has become my life this year gets cranking. Check the weather again and it looks like the rain is suppose to hold off, but the temps are going to be in the low 20's and it says it will feel like 16.
The plan is to hit the road by 4:00 at the latest so I can get to camp bfore dark and make sure I can get the RV across the creek crossing at the entrance to the Cove Creek campground. As I expected, the day hits overdrive and the planned departure time quickly slips away. It is now 5:30 and I am finally pulling out and heading to Pishgah.
The drive up was fantastic as the mountain views and thought of the upcoming adventure seem to melt the stress of the day away. If you have never been to the Pisgah forest, it is an almost magical place filled with mountain laurels and endless water falls. It is one of the few places that I can escape into and get away from cell phones and the constant barrage of texts and other electronic crap that seems to make up most of my days.
Arrive at the camp entrance, check out the creek crossing, and luckily it looks like it should be no problem. that this 32ft monster has to get across. It makes it through with no incident and onto the camp site we go. Cole's car does not fair so well and the creek claimed some of his front air damn. Luckily zip ties were in abundance and a trail side car repair was done.
We get the RV to a good place and get everything setup and ready for the weekend. I went with the Trek Stache 29+ instead of the Procaliber as I figured the forgiveness of the big treads in the middle of the night would be worth it. Get the bike packed up with all the required gear and its time to try and eat and relax a bit. Tried to lay down for an hour to rest before the start, but unfortunately that didn't work out as there is just too much going on to rest.
Graham pulls up about 10:30PM or so and begins getting things prepared. The riders meeting at 11:45 is on us quick and Eric goes over some of the details and the stage 1 slip is handed out.
Now coming into this thing and remembering how tough the Pisgah 55 course is I thought to myself, I bet this guy is gonna take us right up Farlow and back. To my dismay this is in fact the choice that was made for Stage 1 and it was not an out and back, but an out, way around, and back. To make it even better the prologue lap is up 475B back around to Cover creek. Gotta love a big prologue to get the night started for what is suppose to be a 6-8hr stage.
Dustin decided to ride the first stage to keep us company and the three of us were going to ride together. It was not 2 min up 475B that GrahamIAm turned on the SS gas and quickly proceeded to drop Dustin and I. My biggest concern at this point is getting too hot and sweaty and getting cold. Riding in this weather is new territory for me and it has me a bit nervous. I am forced to stop a few times and put on and take off layers trying to regulate body temperature.
As we are climbing I start to notice that the dead fall on the road is crazy. There are tons of 4ft to 15ft long sections of trees scattered across the road and this is when I start to take notice of the wind for the first time that night.
There was a wind advisory that came across my phone earlier in the day, but I did not pay any attention to it unfortunately. We continue to climb and the wind just keeps getting stronger. Looking around you see huge tress swaying and bending all over the place. I begin looking up above us and realize that there are slew of widow makers we are riding underneath and are being held on by threads in the tress above. One in particular had to be 20ft long and was dangling right above Dustin head.
We try to just keep pushing on and not paying attention to the impending death hanging above. Little did I know at this point that this was tame compared to what we would encounter that night. The prologue lap takes us about an hour and a half due to some navigation errors getting onto the cove creek trail from 225. Seems like this happens to me every time and I roam around the same field wondering where the trail is.
Arrive in camp, get a few more things organized, and somehow end up wasting probably 45 min messing around. We get back on the road and start heading toward Daniel Ridge on our way to climb up Farlow Gap. I have come down Farlow many times and it is one of my favorite trails out there, but I have never gone up it. I had no idea of what actually laid ahead of me, but was felling good that we were gonna get this stage done and move on.
Starting up Daniel is not too bad until you get to roots that seems to mark the start of a lot of hike a biking to come. We make our way up the trail and I always forget how long Daniel actually is to the point where the more technical climbing begins. We meet a couple guys that are hanging out at the bridge there and we chat for a few before continuing on.
Hike, ride, hike is the sequence as we climb up Daniel. This is very different with a loaded bike and seems like I end up hiking more than riding. As we are making our way up the wind takes on a whole new form and begins to sound like a 747 coming right over your head. We continue on and continue hearing trees snapping and falling to the ground. Surrounded by debris I start to get more and more nervous about getting pinned to the trail by one of these falling spears.
Not sure of the time at this point, but we make it up the stair case to the intersection of the Farlow trail. We were gonna sit for a few minutes, but the death wind made us think better of it and figured a moving target would be harder to hit.Onward into the mouth of Farlow we go!
The hike/ride/hike starts turning into just straight hiking as we progress on. The first set of challenges show up as we start coming to the various waterfalls you have to cross along the Farlow trail. I dont remember any of these being difficult when coming the other direction. However, tonight the water was high, fast moving, and the routs across looked sketchy as hell.
My carbon race shoes are somewhat of a terrible thing when trying to cross wet slippery rocks caryying a loaded bike. I think we maybe crossed 3 or 4 and some of them took a while to figure out as the risk of slipping in one of these things could lead to a long ride down some hard rocks. It is after the last water waterfall that there was a wall in front of me that I wondered how the hell can I even walk up that thing. I think it is at this point that my mental game is starting to slip and frustration is starting to set in some. So early in a race this is never a good sign.
This is somewhat compounded when I look up to see a headlight coming at me. Holy Sh***! the leaders have already gone up and around the rest of the huge loop that made up the stage and are on the way back down. I just put my head back down and kept pushing my bike trying to keep focused and positive. More riders are coming down and making their way past us in the opposite direction.
If you have never gone up Farlow Gap I would highly suggest keeping it that way unless you are looking for some serious hike a bike training. This ended up being the steepest nastiest thing I had ever gone up, but the positive thing for me was seeing all this gnar and thinking wow I actually ride down this stuff.
I have lost all track of time at this point and it is just about putting one foot in front of the other. This goes on for hours and my mental game is cracking quick. I come to ledges and climbs that are so steep and tall that I am constantly falling backwards and giving all I have to not fall backwards or off the edge.
My bike was thrown up some root ledges a couple times as I was starting to break down and just wanted to get off this damn mountain hike. About this time the sun is starting to come up over the ridge and is the most awesome color of red.
It looks beautiful and I try to stop for a second and take it in, but my brain wont let me do it and all I want is to get to the top of this trail and be done with it. Time continues to pass and after another couple hours maybe I start to see light at the end of the tunnel and realize we are getting close to the top of the ridge.
Crest Farlow, throw the bike down, curse a bit, take a control picture and then just stood for a few trying to figure out what to do.
Once I stopped being pissed about the 5 or 6 hours I had just spent hiking the sunrise got my attention and things got a little better, for a moment
That was the first time I had ever ridden overnight so for me this was still a win and progress in the right direction.
As I am on my way to bail on this adventure we come up on Graham and a couple other guys that are just now coming back around and getting ready to head down Farlow to wrap up stage 1. We chat for a couple min and then we make our way to the bail out gravel roads back to camp. The ride back was cold and fast as we descended down gravel roads all the way back to the camp ground. By time we get back it is around 8:30AM or so.
I tried talking myself into just resting for a few and heading back out to finish stage 1, but the thought of riding back up what I just came down to have to loop around and climb it again was not sitting well. The other option was to hang out at camp and help support Graham in his efforts to get this thing done. It was going to be a couple hours still until he returned so I had a few minutes to lay down and grab a couple hours of sleep.
I slept a couple hours and then Graham came rolling back in to get ready for the next stage. We reviewed over the map and Stage 2 and tried to give some advice on where to avoid and some options to get where he was heading. We helped him get together what he needed and he was back out onto Stage 2
Later that night Graham rolls in and is trying to get things together and head right back out for Stage 3. We helped him get some things together I think and then he was gone again. I am not sure exactly how long he was out, but seems he realized that his power was shot and that he needed to sleep so he turned around.
Got him all setup and ready for some sleep and back to sleep I went.
The next morning rolls around, maybe it was around 7:00 and I notice that Graham is still there. I would have thought he would have been gone by now if he was going to try stage 3. Looks like Pisgah has claimed another one and now we are both done.
We hang out around the fire a bit in the morning and chat with Eric and others. Scott Sidener rolls in on his SS fat bike to win the weekends event. He doesnt even really look tired at this point and I am pretty sure he just went nonstop through this thing. Its not long after that the next rider Tristan comes through. There is one guy left that just headed out to try and complete the last stage before time expired. That guy made it back in time to round out the 3 finishers.
Each new adventure is unique, however there are some consistencies between all these "Type II" fun activities. No matter where you go, what you ride, how fast/slow you are, you are always going to meet awesome people and build relationships out on the trail and back at camp.
More specifically to the Pisgah Productions events, I realized that I spend the year traveling to far away places to race and ride when the entire time there is an entire season of racing that goes down in the most magical place I have ever ridden and is an hour away from my house.
So this year I decided to ditch all of the NUE series races, except the Marji Gessick of course, and focus on spending more time close to home racing on the best trails and hanging out with the coolest people.
Thanks @EricWeever for putting together a fantastic race series that pushes you farther than you thought you could go. Looking forward to racing the full King of Pisgah Series this year and spending more time in the wonderful Pisgah forest!
Check out the details of the events that make up the series here
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