M2C Day 2

 Wilkesboro to Winston Salem, NC 64 miles, 3700’ elevation 

I always look forward to the way of the road, meaning adventure and feeling tired enough to sleep hard until sunrise! Two out of three occurred last night. Hmmmm, we did it again, pitched our tent too close to the bathrooms. Not only the door slamming from about 2:30-4:00am but the outdoor light shines brightly into our tent! We have decided that we are of that age that can’t make it through the night without getting up to go potty. The demographics of this ride are definitely in that group. So we didn’t get great sleep but we had adventure and got tired!

We woke this morning to very heavy fog. Everything was soaked again. I swear my bag is so much heavier each morning when I pack up the tent and then it soaks the stuff in my bag. Really nice riding on beautiful back roads that rolled up and down all day. We just went up and down the same couple hundred of feet many times! Our first rest stop was at Bethel Baptist church and there is a Baptist church every few miles. I have loved reading their billboard sayings. The second rest stop was at Sanders Farm and Winery. We had pre ordered lunch there and it was such a nice break to have a sit down lunch. We had a great time getting to know Bill from PA during lunch. This ride is very well organized. No issues that we are aware of, probably because it is well staffed and executed. There is a picture of the charging station because none of us can do without our stats, blogs, or contact with our loved ones! The pictures are with our new friends Haresh and Jesse. More updates tomorrow. Rhonda 

M2C Day 1

 Cycle North Carolina(CNC)

Mountains to Coast(M2C)

Day 1 Banner Elk to Wilkesboro: 58 miles, 3163’

I’d like to see the Gantt Chart and the spreadsheets used by the  Cycle North Carolina organization….they are, well…organized. Each day’s camp includes camp sites, food vendors, porta-potties, a shower trailer, charging stations, entertainment, shuttles for luggage and excursions, a route!, with 8 NC State Troopers on motos to keep us save, multiple aid stations along the route and so much more. 

After a breakfast served at the Presbyterian church, we packed up our very wet tent and gear and tossed it in the uHaul. Then we took off down and up the road through Banner Elk and our first break at Blowing Rock where we were treated to some live Blue Grass, drinks and snacks. After another little climb along the Blue Ridge we had a ten mile descent into Happy Valley, another aid station and then a rolling ride along the Yadkin River. The local folk are so kind and the traffic extremely patient with all the bikes. 

Speaking of which, there are 825 riders, between the ages of 10 and 86! The medium age is probably closer to the 86. I base that assumption on my observation of the number of folks up at 2:30AM using the aforementioned porta-potties. 

 

After a shower we found some shade in a sea of tents. A gear junkies smorgasbord.  CNC is texting us that there’s some live music and a free happy hour about to start followed by dinner. Hopefully I can find some WiFi or solid mobile connections so you can read this. 

Mountains To Coast Day 0

Cycle North Carolina(CNC)

Mountains to Coast(M2C)

Day 0 9/30/23

Hey y’all. 

What would otherwise be considered junk mail was delivered in the mail a couple years ago. For some reason it was not discarded with the other unsolicited mailings. Rhonda read it and out came “I have an idea!”  

We signed up for last years event; a fully supported bike ride across North Carolina beginning in the Blue Ridge Mountains and finishing on the coast 7 days later. Unfortunately hurricane Ian arrived and our trip was cancelled and credited. 

Last year’s plan was good training for dissembling and packing  packing bikes for air travel. Rescheduled for 2023 I started preparing our road bikes for the the 2023 M2C. New tires, new tubes, tune ups, etc. Then Shimano announced a recall on a series of cranks which were part of Rhonda’s bike. A quick trip to the shop revealed her cranks and chainring were defective and now await a lengthy replacement. Fortunately we had a backup plan. So I quickly tuned, prepped, disassembled the Salsa Cutthroats just in time to board a plane yesterday at 5am and fly across the country. 

Landing in Raleigh/Durham, all our gear and bikes arrived! Thank you Lord for answered prayers. 

Because of all my practice with shipping bikes, I surprised Rhonda with my efficiency and mechanical prowess.  The bikes are running as they should. 

This morning we woke up in the hotel and began meeting 800 new friends. David, Harish, Alan, Bob, Charlie and Howard,  and others are our new mates. CNC loaded our bikes on trucks and we boarded buses for a 4 hour drive to Banner Elk in the Blue Ridge where we pitched our tents, ate spaghetti at the Presbyterian Church and await tomorrow’s take off. 

Mickelson Trail Day 4: Back to Hill City

 Mickelson Trail Day 4: Finale

Thunder storms threatened all evening, the worst with silver dollar size hail, stalled a few miles west of Lead. We were thankful we were not in a tent. We could have taken the motel shuttle to Deadwood for supper. The gold may have been played out, but the town still hustles and bustles with folks still trying to take your money. Maybe not as involuntarily as in the days of Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and the original Pam’s Purple door, but buyer be weary and don’t sit with your back to the door. 

Old mining towns are very similar. It was hard to tell if we were in Lead/Deadwood, SD or in Wallace/Kellogg, ID. Both areas even claim to be the center. Wallace of the universe and these parts of SD claim the center of the country.  

We opted to eat in Lead at the Sled Haus, featuring German style fare. The vittles were tasty. Rhonda had a turkey sandwich which contained a rather snappy coleslaw. I had a Jager-schnitzel on a bed of red cabbage. This was not your bland schnitzel from Vienna, it had a twang and it was tasty. Only served on Fridays and Saturdays. So get there early. 

Sleeping through the storms in the security of the Blackstone Lodge, we got up and hit the trail before 8. We retraced our path up and down through Lead and found the trail as we left it and started the climb up.   

The country here is also familiar to home. Ponderosa pine forest mixed in with some Spruce. However, the deer have a white tail compared to our muleys. As we traveled south we road through the  old mining communities of Rochford, Mystic, and Dumont eerily similar to the drive to Idaho City. It was all beautiful. 

The miles clicked off fast today. Maybe we are just getting our touring legs. Soon we were on the downhill into Hill City and the Splinter. We are showered and doing some clean up and lounging until we can gather enough energy to find a pizza. We need to make it quick. Forecasted t-storms loom and it could be a noisy night in the Splinter Van.  

Mickelson Trail Day 3

 Beautiful Climbs and Descents, Day 3 Mickelson Trail

Woke up this morning to lots of moisture and fog. Jon checked the weather app and just like every day that we have been riding, it said rain and thunderstorms. So far, the only rain we received was last night; a good, quick storm but we were in our van, no problem! Before 7:00am, we had hotel reservations in Deadwood/Lead. 
So off the bike came all the camping equipment (sleeping bags and tent) this makes for a lighter load and less to worry about everything getting wet. The news says severe thunderstorm warning right now but we are showered and laying around.
Another really nice day on the bikes. This trail has exceeded our expectations. The trail is very well maintained, really clean, well marked and has nice trailheads rest stations with and tool stations. Today we saw more cyclists than the other days. At one trailhead, we were just chatting with a group of cyclists and the man said, “is your name Jon?” His whole group started laughing and said, “you can’t take him anywhere, he knows someone.” Jon knew him from F & G from MT, a counterpart from his working days. (I think I have heard that before…). We had two climbs today. On the first downhill, we had three old railroad tunnels. They were the old wooden frames for the interior with the rocks all chipped away on the exterior in order to make them. The Aspen trees and forests were so pretty; you can tell they have had a nice spring because everything is very green. There were rambling streams and little waterfalls to entertain us along the way. Not really any towns in between Hill City and Lead/Deadwood. We quickly went to the grocery store and got a quick lunch as we rolled into town.
As I sign off, because we are hungry, a few thoughts about our adventure. We always look forward to the ride and try to prepare physically but there is no way to truly prepare without going and doing it. We did many rides and a shake down overnight trip in April. The weather always plays into the equation, even the humidity is a big deal when you aren’t used to it. The surface and load you are carrying makes a big difference also. We are tired and sore but can work through it. When we are done tomorrow, we will be sad to be done with a great trail. We will just be getting used to the way of the road when it is done. A couple more days and we would be over the hump and really in the zone. Still worth the hard work but over too soon. Hope we can keep going on adventures!!!!

Mickelson Trail Day 2

 Mickelson Trail Day 2

Edgemont back to Hill City

Pro tip:  always look up when you select your tent site. Upon arrival last night to the Edgemont Campground, I called the number and asked where to put my tent. The full hook up RV pads have reservations(no one was there). She said any place in the grass opposite the RV pads. Under the big tree with a picnic table would be fine. So up went the tent in a bit of wind. Showers were available and the water source was probably from the town of Hot Springs. They were refreshing. Then it was off to the Victory Steakhouse and Lounge where we listened to live music featuring a gal that sounded like Mother Mabel Carter. After my house special of chicken fried steak and salad bar, we waddled back to camp. 

Our chairs from our cross country trip were comfortable and worth carrying again.  Did you know that Edgemont sees 60 trains pass through a day? 60 trains in 24 hours and that’s, well you can do the math and then know how much sleep we got last night. Yep, the campground is about 50 yards from the tracks that see those 60 trains a day. And people reserve RV spots for the pleasure! Maybe they love trains. My dad loved trains and chicken fried steak, but he was smart enough to stay in motels across town. 

The trains were hauling coal, east out of WY and returning empty. I may not have had all my facts straight yesterday, as maybe the train I followed fighting fires wasn’t hauling coal and if it was, not back to WY. But remember, I was a newbie 44 years ago. 

Back to camp. As we were tired, we hopped in the tent and attempted to doze off. As it grew dark, an eerie orange glow shown through the tent. Maybe a train jumped the tracks and was headed straight for us.  Directly above us, not far from the tree was the yard lamp turning on. Look up! 

We were tired enough that we got a few winks. 

The sun comes up early here, like dawn starts at 4:45am. I forced myself to stay in bed till 5:30 before I built myself some coffee. 

After some oatmeal and more coffee we set off retracing our route back to Hill City(our plan is to leave the Splinter Van there and do the trail up and back from the middle). Yesterday we experienced a headwind and I did not realize we were riding downhill most of the day. No headwind today but about 50 miles up at a 1-3% train grade before we cruised the last 10 miles down to camp. 

Our first break was in Pringle. 

After college and a couple years proving my self to SDGFP, I was once again a newbie. This time a Conservation Officer(Game Warden) in Mitchell,SD. That’s east river, where folks are considered more agrarian, urban and genteel than the rough, independent, hard scrabble cowboy culture of west river. West river folk look towards east river folk the way most of Idaho views the state of Ada County back home. 

Back in Pringle: As a newbie CO, I was told stories of the Pringle Poacher Club(officially the Pringle Poachers Association).  The details escape me now, but if half of  their exploits of terror were true, there would not be any big game left in the Black Hills. Folklore mostly. The Pringle Poachers are more of a social club, meeting monthly in some dark and musty clubhouse, drinking beer, eating chislick, and telling each other lies while fundraising for the local volunteer fire department. 

After the break in the trailhead shelter while visiting with another biking couple, we saddled up and continued up. Today the first 20-25 mile ticked off fast, unlike yesterday. But as temps continued up with the grade, the miles slowed down. The Mickelson Trail had a series of trail side shelters with repair stands, toilets and hand pump water wells. We took advantage of them all, well no repairs needed but I did look them over real good. I was struggling when we entered the town of Custer. Although Rhonda loved her Mahi mahi lunch( we ordered a pork sandwich but hey), I was left wanting. Maybe it was too much on the bike snacks that included gels and such, but my gut just hurts. After lunch we had one last pull of 600 feet over 6 miles to the Crazy Horse sculpture turn before we cruised down a fast 10 miles back to camp. The Trailside Park and resort is one of the nicest RV parks I have ever stayed at. Very clean, green grass, clean showers, nice owners and camp sites are not packed in like sardines. And it’s just off the bike trail, go figure. 

Well, I’m looking forward to a shower then I off in search of a pizza.