Mt. Pisgah ride & hike

The Workout:
bike 40 miles
hike 3 miles
total duration( 5hrs 45min)

This morning I woke at 4:15 am to start phase II of my Mt. Pisgah project. I downed my usual regimen of oatmeal and a banana and hit the road on my bike. Once again, I had a relaxed 8 mile warm-up to the B.R. Parkway. It was a moonless morning and quite dark which made for the perfect opportunity to test out my new head lamp. Temperatures were in the mid 40s so the double tights, double gloves, Marmot rain shell and balaclava really paid off.

I read a quote from Ian Adamson somewhere about how much weight to carry that was along the lines of "In adventure racing, if you are not hungry, then you are eating too much. If you are not thirsty, then you are drinking too much and if you are not cold, then you are wearing too many clothes." This is a bit extreme but I understand the intent. I take it too mean that you should only have enough food, water and clothing to exist just on the uncomfortable side of things. When training, I allow myself to get on the heavy side of things with my food/water supplies but I try to be militant about the temperature issue. Allowing oneself to get too warm in cooler weather can lead to a fast table turning towards extreme cold and possibly hypothermia. Excess sweating not only dehydrates you, but wet clothes suck at insulating you from the cold. Sure you may be hot on a climb, but as soon as you start descending, you stop generating body heat from pedaling and you can get cold dangerously fast.

Keeping that in mind, I stopped just shy of the Parkway on-ramp (2100') at the entrance to the NC Arboretum to reconfigure for the 16 mile climb that lay ahead. I stripped down to a single pair of fingerless gloves, long sleeve under armor shirt, bike shorts and folded up my tights exposing my calves. I hurried to get back on the bike as I felt my body heat escaping into the cold air around me. A few minutes into the climb, I warmed up to almost comfortable and only the tips of my smaller fingers were complaining. The air temperature continued to drop as I climbed but fortunately the road was steep enough to keep from getting too cold. Around 10 miles into the climb, the sky began to lighten and after 14 miles the sun finally peeked its head over the mountains to the East. I stopped to take a few pictures at Mills River Gap overlook (4032') and then again after Big Ridge Valley overlook(4210') to snap some shots of Mt. Pisgah. I was very impressed by how quickly I got cold just by stopping for a minute or two, taking off a glove and taking 4 or 5 pictures. I often get a little dramatic on my little adventures but it made me think about mountaineers on Everest who end up loosing all the fingers on one hand from having momentarily taken off a glove and snapping a picture on the Summit.

Back in the saddle for another 45 minutes and I was through Buck Spring Tunnel just before Mt. Pisgah parking lot. Just past the tunnel, I carried my bike into the woods 50yds or so and hid and locked it in the middle of a huge Rhododendron bush. After a quick duke (booyow for thinking to bring a bit of t.p.), I changed into my trail shoes and hiked up the ridge to Pisgah trail. 25 minutes of hiking/jogging later I was standing on top of Mt. Pisgah (5685') on a large wooden platform just below the WLOS television tower. Time to summit from my front door was 3 hours and 25 minutes. There were plenty of clouds in the sky but just enough gaps to produce stunning rays of sun slicing down into the valleys below. I was blown away with a 360 degree view between cloud and ground and 15 - 20 miles of visibility. I took several pictures (which of course hardly do the view justice), put in my triumphant call to the ladies at home and headed back down.

Back at my bike, I switched to thick wool socks and put on virtually all the clothing I had for the descent down Hwy 151 into Hominy valley. My only exposed skin was a few millimeters between my sun glasses and balaclava. 20 minutes in the shade at ~20mph, no pedaling required on the steep and windy road and my fingers felt like they would fall off even with 2 pair of fully fingered gloves. Thanks to the wool socks and thicker jacket, these would be the only body parts to suffer this time around. The whole ride home took just shy of two hours but seemed much quicker. I was much more comfortable riding around the traffic of 19/23 but still badly need a little side view mirror for my helmet. I actually felt pretty good when it was all said and done which I attribute mostly to staying on top of eating and drinking throughout the endeavor.

At home I grabbed a hot shower and we all went out to an awesome lunch at the Asiana Buffet. Later I took an hour and a half nap before being woken up and notified that we were to spend the rest of the day looking at 4 houses. I was pretty grumpy out of the gates but cheered up once I fully woke up. I am somewhat skeptical about how we're ever going to keep the sleep monsters at bay for a 30 hr race this September.