Assault on Mt Mitchell

Made it !

I started from Spartanburg at 6:30 in the morning with a great send off from Amanda, Lenny and Rick.   It was super to see them out there so early in the morning to watch the old guy set off for the mountains !

Ready to Go !

Rode out of Spartanburg through some flat country, then we got into some rolling hills.   I was with several groups of people in nice pacelines, and I got to Marion with an average of about 18.2 mph.  For me, Bill's Mountain was not all that bad, and I thought I rolled well on most of the other hills, only getting passed by a few other riders.  

At Marion, they had some lunch and I stopped by to check it out.  I got a BBQ sandwich, but my stomach was a little off, and only ate a little bit of it.   This was probably an omen.   I rolled out of Marion, setting off for the Blue Ridge Parkway on Hwy 80.    At about the 3 1/2 mile mark, someone had written the distance on the pavement.   That was a very long 3 1/2 miles, getting on up to the BRP !   I have a feeling for how long 3 miles is at home, roughly from Speedway to home, and this seemed like a lot more.

At the BRP, we got a little recharged with a Coke and some chips, and headed on towards Mt Mitchell.   But the little group that I was with were all running slow.  As one guy remarked, "16 miles at 4 miles an hour is going to take a while".    But we got there, saw lots of people getting SAG's, and made it to the rest stop where Hwy 128 heads up to the Mt Mitchell State Park.   There were rain clouds.  Lots of them.

Started up 128, which is pretty steep, perhaps 8% or a bit more.  This starts to hurt after having done about 100 miles, and then the rain came.   And the hail, and the lightening and thunder.   It was epic.  Glad I dragged the rainjacket along, and glad I had a plastic baggie that I could put the iPhone into.  At the top of Mt Mitchell, a lot of trees have died due to aphid infestation or ozone from power plants, so you are a bit exposed to the sky, and I am right out there in the elements !

Happy to get to the finish and to find my dry clothes bag, and since I had put my stuff into a plastic trash bag inside, it was all dry.   The tomato soup that they served was wonderful, and helped to take off a lot of the chill.   Then we got to sit on a bus for a ride to Marion, and then Spartanburg.  I think we got back to Spartanburg at around 9:30 at night, making for a long day.

My finish time was about 16:51, making for about 10 hr, 21 minutes or so.   That is about 1:30 more than I had hoped that I would do.  But it is what it is, and I did climb about 11,000 feet and rode over 100 miles, so well worth the experience !    And Dave's bike case worked well, with the bike arriving in Spartanburg intact and it only took 6 days to get there via Fed Ex ground, another good benchmark.

It was great to see Rick, Patti, Charlea, Jordan, Samantha, Lenny and Amanda in Spartanburg, and Rick and I got a chance to drive over to Tennessee and see Ted, Marie, Jenny and Roy.    A trip to Houston to attend my niece's graduation is next ( no bicycling ), and then it's time to head off to Seattle for the Big Ride Across America.  WooHoo !

All Ready for the Assault on Mt Mitchell

Well, let's hope the title for this post is true.   

Monday, May 21, I'll be riding the Assault on Mt Mitchell.   This ride starts in Spartanburg, SC and finishes up 100 miles later at 6684 feet on the top of Mt Mitchell in North Carolina.

Now, I just did the GABA Mt Lemmon climb on Friday.    Took my mountain bike and did about 7000 feet of climbing on a 60 mile ride, so this should be "doable", but it's a long way from home, and I know there are a lot of rollers on the 70 miles up to where the mountain really starts and all of that will take it's toll.

My bicycle was shipped by FedEx ground last week, so it should be delivered to a bike shop there and should be all setup and working when I get there on Friday before the race.   This is a bit of a "dry run" for shipping my bike for the Big Ride Across America.

Well, here's the picture of the top of Mt Mitchell.   Most of the finishing pictures that I have found are all of dudes riding across a time line with rain and drizzle coming down, and I think that's in the forecast for next week.  Till next week and we see how the old man did !

Whiskey !!

Last weekend was the Whiskey Off Road in Prescott, AZ.   It's another mountain bike race put on by Epic Rides.    I entered myself for the 25 Proof Ride ( about 29 miles actually), drove up to Prescott last weekend and pre-rode part of the course, then went back for the main event.

Awesome !   That's about the only expression for this event.   Prescott is a pretty little town a bit southwest of Flagstaff, bordering the Coconino Forest.   The ride takes us out of town on a paved road, which turns into a dirt road, then beautiful single track into the forest.   We had running streams to cross, uphills with waterbars, downhills with waterbars, a pretty rapid descent on loose shale, followed by a steep climb on a fire road.   Then more descents, back into deep woods, more stream crossings, followed by a stream crossing with lots of people watching !   Then back into town.   It was a hard ride, and I think I rode over my head quite a bit of the way, but you tend to get caught in the whole thing when you are doing it.   Only scary part was I hit one rock that came loose, and the front of the bike started to give way.    The guy in back of me goes "nice recovery"... he saw me later at the finish and we spoke for a second, he really thought I was going to go down.

I did two good training rides to help prepare for this.   The first was the Mt Hopkins ride that I blogged about earlier, and the second was doing the Mt Lemmon Control Road.  It's a dirt road that goes up the north side of Mt Lemmon here in Tucson, and looks remarkably like the fire roads ( FR53 and Copper Basin Rd ) in Prescott on the course.

Mt Lemmon Control Road ( Training Ride )

Prescott is a pretty little town.   This statue is on the Court House square, and the race began and ended right around the corner.

Cowboy at Yavapai County Court House

This shot is of Thumb Butte from up in the forest on the course.   I did a pre-ride on Friday morning, doing a piece of the course that I did not get done on my pre-ride.

Looking at Thumb Butte Just Outside Prescott

 Yeah, this about says it.   I can do this ( I think I can ! )

Yep, that's about it !

I lined up at the back.   After the start, I started feeling better, and climbed past a bunch of these folks.   Some of them passed me during the race, but I still ended up about 481 out of about 695 of the 25 Proof riders.  First time for an old guy ( Yeah, I am happy ).

I lined up at the back, and climbed past a lot of people on the paved ascent, then lots of them passed me on the descents, but I passed them again on the fire road ascent !

 Really pretty.   This was the highest point of the ride.

Sierra Prieta Overlook into the Coconino Forest

There is a creek called Miller Creek, that has water in it most of the time.   It was running pretty strongly on Friday morning when I did a pre-ride, down a bit on Saturday, and down more when the Pro ride came through on Sunday morning.   This movie shows Pua Mata, the leading women rider, coming across.  There is a big audience !

Will I do this ride next year ?   Would be cool to have some other folks go up with me, and I have to work on my downhill switchback cornering ability ( scares the xyz out of me ! ).  My strength going up the fire road was great, I passed EVERYONE, young and old, so if I could just rail the couple of shaley places, handle the steep descents without some serious pucker factor, then I could knock some serious time off my run.   Will have to see.    My next event is the Assault on Mt Mitchell.    

Assault on Mt Mitchell starts in Spartanburg, SC, and finishes at the top of Mt Mitchell.   It's not all that high compared to our mountains out here, but the climb is at the end of a 100 mile race.   Could be exciting.

Got the pictures from Zazoosh, the photo folks for Whiskey, and they have one of me crossing the creek, so I thought I would add it in.  

Mount Hopkins

This is one that I have thought about for quite some time.  Mt Hopkins is home to the Whipple Observatory, ran by the Smithsonian and the University of Arizona.  On top of the summit is the Multi-Mirror Telescope.  It used to have an array of mirrors that were ganged together to provide the resolution of one big mirror.  A few years ago, the array was replaced by a big 6.5 meter mirror, that was made at UA in Roger Angel's Mirror Lab ( located underneath the UA football stadium ( and I'd bet 1/2 of the 50,000 fans at a Wildcat football game don't know it's even there ! ) )

So, last Wednesday, I did a trial run up the mountain to the 13 km gate, and came back down.  I talked with some friends and they said that lots of people go around the gate and on to the summit, so that was todays task ( March 4 ).

So this morning, I parked at the Whipple Observatory Visitor Center and left at about 10:46 or so, and go to the top about 3 hours later.   It's about 12 miles ( or 20 km ) to the top, and the signposts are all in km's.    The road starts out paved, goes to dirt for about 1/4 mile, has about 1 mile of pavement, then dirt until you get to the 13 km gate.  Then it's pavement the rest of the way to the top.  The grade is perhaps 6.5 to 7%, but gets really steep when you get close to the MMT perched on top of an 8300 ft summit.   The road is narrow, but there was essentially no traffic.   I was passed by one car and one motorcycle going up, and saw two cars and a pickup coming down.   Three hikers and two deer, and that's it !   Quite the difference compared to Mt Lemmon, which is full of cyclists and autos.

Snow ( not a lot but there is still a little in the shadows )

The MMT sits on top of the peak

The MMT looks like a big white box

 Mt Hopkins Visitor Center to Summit

Looking at very steep final piece, and Mt Wrightston in the distance

The last little piece, is exceptionally steep.   It was steep enough that it was too freaky to try to stop, and seemed like the best thing to do was to just peddle like crazy and get on up to the top where I could rest.

Switchbacks, switchbacks and more switchbacks

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

Last weekend,  I raced the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo mountain bike race out at Willow Springs Ranch, close to Oracle, AZ. The race is put on by Epic Rides and they do an awesome job of it. We had a 5 person co-ed class team with one member not able to make it ( leaving us with 4 riders ! ).

I rented an RV, getting camp setup on Thursday, the Team showed up on Friday evening and the race started at 12:00 on Saturday and ran continuously until 12:01 on Sunday.   About 1500 riders on a 16.5 mile course through rocks, gas line/jeep road, cholla catcus, past cattle and watering tanks, a lot of singletrack and a good hill climb leading back down through  a partially technical section back to the Start/Finish Tent.

So, I take my new BMC 29'er SpeedFox bike out there and ride the course that I have ridden maybe 20 times before, without a flat.  Guess What ? Cruising along at close to 20mph on a flat section, feeling strong and great, after climbing the 7 hills on the gas line road ( known as the "bitches"), I feel something is wrong with the bicycle.   I look at the rear tire.  It looks fine.  I look at the front tire.  It is totally flat.  Then we hit a little bump,  and I go skidding along on my left side ( shoulder, elbow, ribs, hip, knee ).   A little bit of blood on the new bike, jersey, Camelback, a flat tire, and now my fork is not even close to alignment with the handlebars. A fellow named Michael stopped and helped with the alignment while I am changing my tire, and we got the thing back on the road, but I lost a lot of time. Finish the ride ( with an unacceptable time for me ) and go to the First Aid tent and get swabbed out.

Our team rotation goes through, and it's my turn, and close to midnight, so I gather up my lights and set out.  I felt pretty strong ( couldn't stand on the pedals because my ribs hurt ), and I get through about 3/4 of the course and another flat.   Change that by the side of the trail, and finish the ride.

Back to camp, and park the bike.  Go inside and then come back out and a THIRD flat ( back to the front ).   OK .. it is pretty obvious that when I pull over to let someone pass that I am hitting some prickly pear and spiking my tubes and I don't have sealant because I didn't get it together to get Stans setup on the new bike.  ( EPIC FAIL on that )

So, I borrow two Slime tubes and put those on and get an OK ride done on Sunday morning after sunrise without any flats.  Our team finished 29th out of 33 teams, so not as good as we had hoped, but we have to remember that some teams have done this a lot and are a lot better organized.    I can be riding along, feeling that I am really getting the hammer down, and then one of the better fellows comes by like I am just puttering around the park on a fat cruiser bike.

Next big ride, the Whiskey Off-Road 25 in Prescott on April 28.    We will be properly sealed !

Before the Race ( by TucsonVelo.com )

Starting on First Lap  ( by TL )

Will get back to CTS for some training on Thursday (after the sore rib heals a bit), and will get my plan together to get up to about 250/300 miles per week by early May on my road bike.    There is a lot of work ahead.

First Entry Feb 9

Well, here we go.   A couple of days ago, I committed myself to doing the Big Ride 2012 across the US from Seattle to Washington, and got my donation webpage setup at:

http://action.lungusa.org/goto/ingrammp

Now, you might ask why I would want to do this, and I guess I will say "it's complicated".   During the last couple of years, I have ridden and coached, with Team-in-Training doing various events to raise money for research into blood cancers and will do so in the future.   It's been fun to ride with lots of  great people and to know that you have helped to fight some very bad cancers.  

But when it comes to breathing, things connect a little closer to home, in that my wonderful wife of 39 years, Susan, needs to use an oxygen machine every night just to keep the O2 levels in her blood at something that she can get through the day with.    Also, some 30 years ago, I was a 2 pack-a-day smoker.  It was hard to quit, and I probably did so only at the urging of my 7 year old son.   ( I am continually surprised at how many young people take up smoking thinking that it's "hip" or "cool", the same thing that made me start smoking when I was 16. )

So, knowing that ALA helps with tobacco cessation, with fighting to support the Clean Air Act, with finding cures for lung diseases, it looks like a perfect fit.

I will get to fundraise for a wonderful cause with ALA, to , and I also get to go out and do something that I have thought about for a couple of years, to see my country from a unique and privileged perspective.... a bicycle seat !

I have read through lots of blogs of other riders in past years and think I can do this.   I looked at some of my Garmin data from the last couple of years and realized that I did about 5500 miles last year and about the same the previous year, so I know I can ride some miles...... BUT the Big Ride means that I have to do a big chunk of what I did in a year in a matter of 7 weeks.

Some Ocotillo with the Catalina's in the background 

Rincon Mountains along Cactus Forest Loop

Work is particularly quite today,  and it's 75 degrees here in Tucson and just a perfect day for a bike ride, so here's my first ride entry.  Just a little loop around the Cactus Forest Loop in Saguaro National Park East.  

I took my time this afternoon and ambled along.  We have a session at Carmichael Training tonight doing climbing repeats.   We'll do 110% of our Steady State wattage for 8 minutes, then 3 minutes off and then repeat 3 more times.   The last 3 minutes of those 8 minutes at 110% just take a lot out.  But it's good stuff and will help make me stronger ( to fight those headwinds across somewhere South Dakota ! )

WooHoo !