Pisgah Project Week 2...Tunnels

Well, it is the end of week two on the little hibernation gig, we have doing outside of Pisgah. We cranked the saws yesterday, to much disagreement from our Stihl's. My saw was particularlly pissed. It was a bit of a hard emotional and mental day yesterday, then juxtapose that to the hard physical day we had today. Rhodo is a beast. If you resign yourself to slow pacing and being patient, you can get through the stuff, and the pay off is amazing, nature regrows in amazing deep tunnels. If you have done some riding around the mountains of the east coast you know what I am talking about. The feeling that you are being wrapped in a damp little nature cocoon, the beautiful opposition to this is when you bust out into the open hardwood canopy that is southern facing slopes, you enter the room! There are a couple of these spots in this project, we did our best to design these with accordance to views of the cool house that sits on this property as well. Including extra thought in a project like this is one of my favorite things to do. Enjoy the photos and imagine the tunnels closing in on you, enjoy that through the weekend.

Design almost done, saws crank Thursday

We finished up most of the design today and will be starting on the corridor Thursday. Above is one of the many turns that we have been laying out over the last few weeks. This loop will have around 14 dedicated switchback-ish turns that we will have to contend with. About five will be real bears, the rest should be fairly straight forward. Below is a picture of Otie standing on one of the cooler features we found deep in the Rhodo glades. This tree must have had quite the story to tell, the trunk is imbedded in the ground for about five feet then begins its turn skyward. I don't know exactly how the trail will pass this yet, it will develope as we clear corridor and comein with the machine. Should be cool though.



Tomorrow is heavy on the computer time, I am working on a few bid packages and proposals right now, from the looks of it 2010 will be a banner year.

And away we go ..!

Well, the new project has begun. I went to the site yesterday and walked all the property lines. This place is amazing, imagine all of the great things about WNC riding, then put it out your backdoor. That is what these folks will have. We are shooting for about four miles total after the project is done.

Today we were able to lay out the "right side", and got about half of the "left side" rough flagged. Tomorrow will be the linking of the top and the bottom of the left side, then hopefully we will be able to dial that line.

The right side will be mostly open hardwood forest with a 5% drop and around 7 nice turns to get you traversing the slope. It should be a mix of DuPont style trail with Pisgah style forest. Then, the left side will be like Laurel Mountain for a climb, but without the nasty slick sideslope rocks, yeah seems pretty good. The "back nine" is a whole different story, that area has the largest Hickory I have ever seen, 6 ft DBH, no joke!

Things in the developement front have been crazy this week too. I expected this week to be quiet with the Holidays and all, but turns out everyone is cramming a weeks work into three days. Yikes!

Dreaming...

Sometimes the universe aligns and you get the opportunity to have great things happen. When we were in Charlotte this Summer the White Water Center gave us the place to rest and relax, but the whole while ideas were circulating in my head. The place represents the "ski resort" mentality and culture that is replicable ANYWHERE. Imagine a resort type environment where you have water, riding and good food and beer. Seems about like heaven to me. Well, the USNWC represents this kind of place. Today we went down and looked at new potential that can be reveled. Here is to fingers crossed!

Tomorrow? Well, first a few hours on Valmont stuff, then answer some emails and work on whatever those call for. Finally, the goal is to get back out on the moto to clear the head in the afternoon. Maybe a fire in the conference room after that.

Great weekend...now to git2werk!

Being back in WNC without getting to ride for a week was a hard fought battle, but worth it. Last week I knocked out a ton of work, now it is time to focus on the projects immediately at hand and to get reinvigorated, night rides in Pisgah here I come. Here are photos from the m-loop North Slope pedal on Saturday, then I went for a moto ride on the new tires...fuu--uun!

The Stairs and Boone...No CLT...Oh well

I guess Boone first. I am going to keep the name on this one secret to help from getting bitten (ie. biters) for a little while. But here are some pretty pictures.




Now the stairs. Here is the build, below is the texture. CLT got called cause rain and red clay don't mix. Next week looks like.

Office day with Ida...

Well, today was the first chance we have had in a very long time to sit and get the office caught up. I think we got about half way through. Thank goodness this storm came through dropping ridiculous amounts of rain or I probably would have put off the boring computer and jumped on the bike. Tomorrow we head to Boone to check out a new county acquisition then to Charlotte to see some old friends and see what they got going on. Office day number two will be Friday, finally Saturday it is RIDE TIME!

If I get any cool photos from either site visit they will make it on the blog so the week probably won't be a total wash, pun intended.