Noontootla

In late July, I rode Noontootla/Winding Stair again. It had been a long time since I'd done anything even decently long or with any reasonable amount of climbing, and that felt like a good place to get back into it.

I remember passing a bunch of geese on the way in. I don't remember exactly where though. They were just walking slowly across the road, as geese do, and I had to almost stop to let them by. Funny what memories stick with you.

I parked in the Jake Lot and almost immediately noticed that my front tire was super low. I'd had to plug it a while back, and it just wasn't holding. I had a tube in the rear already, for the same reason. Looked like it was tube time for the front as well. Yay. Extra weight.

I remember that it had rained recently, thus riding Noontootla rather than Bull, Bear, or some other singletrack. And it was probably the right choice. The roads were pretty much perfect. Nice and solid. The gravel stuck to them, and you could glide on top of it.

FS28-1 and Cooper Gap went by really quickly, I made quick work of the rollers on the ridge, and really bombed down off of Hightower Gap. Turned out later that I set a couple of PRs on that descent. The road surface was perfect.

I tried to get a photo of Rock Creek Lake, but this was the best I could do.

Just way too leafy.

I managed a better photo of the fish hatchery.

Not so leafy over there.

When I got arond the back side out of the sun, it was far less ideal. There were a few puddles.

Almost all of them you could wall ride the inside rut for a second and stay dry, but a few of them were like this one, and I had to either splash through, or find some way to tiptoe around them.

The far end of Old Rock Creek Road was as nasty as it gets, and I walked a bit to keep the bike clean.

It's almost all paved along Doublehead Gap Road these days, which is arguably less fun, but I guess it's marginally easier to get good photos.

On the climb up along Noontootla Creek...

...I remember doing a weird triple-pass with two cars. One was coming up behind me, and another coming down the road. We all passed each other at exactly the same time. What are the odds?

I want to say there were rangers at Winding Stair Gap, but it's a little fuzzy at this point. I really need to make a better effort at journaling quickly.

I do remember that the descent down Winding Stair felt really fast, and it turned out that I set multiple PRs there as well.

I grabbed some food at Shane's Rib Shack on the way back, and I remember the guy behind the counter going "Why is it spicy?" in this weird voice when I ordered my chicken tossed in spicy bbq sauce. He seemed to think I'd get it, but I didn't. It was apparently from some meme that I'd never seen. ...And still haven't. I guess I should look it up.

Yeah, a great day at Noontoota!