Blue Ridge WMA

Me and Travis tried hard to meet up with some friends of a buddy of mine this morning. But the directions we got, while accurate, also accurately described a very different place, which is where we ended up. By the time my buddy called back, we had already given up and rolled out. Maybe next time.



The weather was nice. Still technically cold, but the sun was out and for the first time in weeks, it actually felt warm.

A few miles in it was a very different story. The north face of the ridge gets zero sun.



The road was covered in all manner of ice and snow, in all phases of melting. Some spots were slippery, some grippy, some like sand, some like concrete. All sketchy.

At least the views were nice.





Pow! Popped my chain. I've been milking this chain for 2 and a half years. I guess it's got to go sometime. And, just my luck, today I forgot to bring a powerlink. I tried to fix it without one, but the pin kept going in sideways. Travis had one though. Thanks bro.

We had clean roads for about a minute and a half, and then back into the snow.



The entire north side of the ridge was garbage. Twice the effort for half the distance, and the very thought of standing would trigger a slide. We made the best of it, but we also headed south directly.

On the north side, our arm and knee warmers were barely enough. On the south side we were actually hot.

P'chang! Popped a spoke. Woohoo!

Back at the cars we realized we'd only ridden about 3 hours. That will never do. A quick lap around Montgomery Creek was in order. I realized halfway into it that I've almost never ridden the direction we went.

I also realized that my front left brake shoe was completely worn out and back at the cars again, I noticed that the slice in my rear tire that I've also been nursing had finally started growing. As my brother would say... total rolling junk show.



I think I may have to invest in a few new parts before the race season starts: chain, middle ring, cassette, brake pads, rotors, tires... I really need to get my wheel relaced, but I think I may just get the spoke replaced. Maybe when I've got 4 or 5 steel ones in there...

Junk show aside, the ride was pretty good. Not a tremendous number of miles, but still a lot of effort. Travis is always cool to ride with and the trails were, in fact, fun. I'd really like to see some better weather, but these days, I'll take what I can get.