MOUTH FULL OF DIRT : Super D's Blog: Smelling Like the Smokies

After two rough races, I took an easy rest week just to be on the safe side and make sure I wasn’t overtraining. I feel like I have been taking it easy to make sure I don’t get burned out with such a hectic start to the season, but maybe I am doing more than I think. The rest week gave me time to enjoy the spring colors on the farm and see some new plants coming up. We have some nice pink redbud trees and plenty of white dogwoods in full bloom.

Our biggest redbud tree in full bloom

Ajuga bugleweed is everywhere in the shady parts of our yard. Great ground cover.

Violets

Two rows of lilies and a row of buttercups in the backyard

The original owner of our house had a walk-through shade garden around the property and we are starting to see some of those plants appearing. The last owner cut most of them down, but the plants survived and are now making a comeback. We have found some very interesting flowers and plants in the woods. Everything from hostas to Virginia Bluebells to bloodroot is growing back there. I have slowly been moving things out to the yard and around the house so it’s like we are getting free plants for landscaping.

Iris blades are sticking up everywhere

Another type of violet

Hosta are all over the woods

This was a flower I had never seen before. It's called Solomon's Seal.

Small white flowers hang down off the stalk of Solomon's Seal.

Trillium. Kind of look camo.

Virginia Bluebell

Bloodroot

The next race on the agenda was the second race of the SERC Series on the Tsali trails of Bryson City, NC on the first weekend of April. Dina again made the trip with us. We all took off on Friday for a long weekend of fun. We were hoping to get in some extra ride time as the trails at Tsali are a lot of fun to ride. But the weather had other ideas and Friday morning was filled with rain, keeping us off the bike. The rain, however, did help with water flow on some small waterfalls along the Dragon (Hwy 129) and Hellbender (Hwy 28) portions of the drive. We stopped a few times for pictures and to stretch. We tried to show Dina Rainbow Falls in Fontana, but it didn’t have enough water in it to cast the rainbow we saw last year on our way home from Tsali.

View from the first overlook on the Dragon. Powerlines ruin many good views.

Small waterfall on Hwy 28

Saw some trillium here too

We rented a little house for the weekend in Bryson City and were sharing it with Gib and Jennifer Morehead. They had a longer drive than us, so we had to entertain ourselves Friday afternoon without having the option of mountain biking. We ended up hiking the DeepCreek trails just to the north of Bryson City inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest. The rain had stopped and the trails were actually pretty dry for hiking. We hiked about four miles with a good amount of climbing. Along our loop we saw three waterfalls and a couple of mountain streams that made for some good pictures.

Our home for the weekend

Across the street was the Tuckasegee River

Very nice place inside

Loved this bison canvas print on the wall of one of the bedrooms. Yes, I have a bison problem.

Mountain streams as soon as we started our hike from the Deep Creek Trailhead

Uphill all the way to the first waterfall

Coming up on Juney Whank Falls

Stone stairs down to Juney Whank Falls

Juney Whank Falls

Looking up at Juney Whank Falls

Shannon taking a break along a stream

Deep Creek

Hammer Branch

Nice bridge over Deep Creek along the trail

Me and Shannon on the bridge over Deep Creek

Going down to Indian Creek Falls

Indian Creek Falls

Stairs out from Indian Creek Falls

Deep Creek

Tom Branch Falls

If you look closely on the right side of the falling water in this shot, you can see a stream of water coming out of a hole under the first rock ledge. There was water coming out of everywhere at Tom Branch Falls.

Tom Branch Falls

I finally got a new camera just in time for this trip. It’s a Nikon Coolpix, one model better than my old camera, which took really great pictures and had killer zoom. We have been bumming cameras from people for the last few months. My camera got some major dust under the lens last fall after our Utah trip. You may have noticed some black spots on some of the pictures around that time, especially at the Florida vs. Vanderbilt football game. Apparently, it is a major ordeal to clean the lens. Nikon wanted as much for a lens cleaning as I paid for the camera, so I opted to try it myself. After a few hours of careful electronic surgery, I had the lens cleaned and put back together. Somehow I ended up with three screws left over. The camera was still operational, but the dust spots were still there. I have been on the hunt for a new camera since then. So far, this camera has been great. Pictures are nearly perfect every time. I rarely have to use any photo-editing software to get the contrast or colors right. If you are wondering about my pictures, I only edit them to the point of them looking like they did at the moment I was standing there. I don’t try to make the colors show more than what I saw when I was standing there taking that picture. I like nature, so I try to keep my pictures as natural as possible. This camera does that for me. It also has even better zoom than what the older model had, now zooming 20 times and showing a remarkably sharp image even at full zoom. It's a little scary what I can see with that zoom. I cannot imagine how good a professional camera is.

We followed up our hike with a trip to Na-bers Drive In in Bryson City for some burgers and shakes. Dina is starting to see how we travel now with hiking and food thrown in with all the mountain biking. Na-bers offered a pickle shake, but none of us were brave enough to try it. We then went back to our rental house and had a fire in the fire pit out back while we waited for Gib and Jennifer. We had a hard time getting the fire going as the wind was pretty crazy. There was some trash in the fire pit that Shannon was going to burn with the sticks to get things going. I noticed a plastic bottle in the trash and flipped it over to find it was lighter fluid…and half the bottle was still full. If I hadn’t seen that Shannon may not have had eyebrows a few minutes later. The wind swirled in the backyard and made for a lot of smoke in our face. It was not the most enjoyable fire we have ever had.

Gib and Jennifer finally arrived after 10pm. They had quite the journey, getting stuck in traffic for a long period in the middle of Tennessee. They also brought their two-year-old, Becca, who got sick from the curves on the Dragon. It was a long, long day for them. We ended up staying up late telling riding stories and watching the end of the UConn women’s college basketball unbeaten streak. That school has produced some amazing teams over the past few years and their streak of 111 straight wins will be hard to break for any team in any sport.

On Saturday morning, Gib and Jennifer wanted to go to the Nantahala Outdoor Center for breakfast. We didn’t really want to eat out since we had it for dinner on Friday, so we opted for breakfast at the house, then went exploring again. There was a book on the kitchen table at the house about sights of the Blue Ridge Mountains area. I found a waterfall and old mill that were in the Cherokee, NC area, which is the town next to Bryson City. We googled directions and in half an hour we were hiking up to Mingo Falls. It is a short hike at just 0.3 miles, but it is all uphill and the first 2/3 is on some steep stairs. The view is well worth the effort.

Raven Fork at the Mingo Falls Trailhead

Mingo Creek

Hiking up to Mingo Falls

The Mingo Falls trail

Mingo Falls

The mill was supposed to be inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so we hit the Oconoluftee Visitor’s Center near Cherokee to see if we could locate the mill. The Visitor’s Center has a gift shop and mountain farm museum in addition to all the park info you could need. We explored the farm museum first, then came in and found out where the mill was. We then wandered through the gift shop. I’m not much for gift shops, but this one was actually really good. It has a some really cool items instead of the typical touristy knick-knacks you usually find in gift shops. And everything was reasonably priced. I almost bought a bear mask and a few stuffed animals. Instead of teddy bears and unicorns they had raccoons, owls, bats, lizards and squirrels. They were really well made. I thought of buying some for my future kids, especially the owls. I would rather my kids learn about real animals than to play with a Care Bear or Troll.

View from the Mountain Farm Museum

This would have been my favorite house on the old mountain farm

Of course I tried on the bear mask

We each brought one hoodie for the weekend so all three of us smelled like smoke from the campfire the night before. As we are cruising the gift shop, an older lady standing next to Dina says, “It even smells smoky in here!” We smelled so bad that the lady thought they were blowing smoke scent into the room to add to the “Smoky Mountains effect.” That was our cue to leave. It was all I could do to make it outside without bursting out with laughter. We laughed all the way over to Mingus Mill, one of only two working mills left inside the park.

Mingus Mill

Rainbow in the run-off from the water that powers the mill

Mingus Creek is diverted here and the water is sent down a chute to the mill where it powers the grinders inside the mill

On the drive back to Bryson City, we stopped for some more pictures at a railroad bridge over the Tuckasegee River. Then we saw the shadiest motel I have ever seen. It was called the Teddy Bear Motel with a creepy bear on the sign. Of course, it was closed down, maybe having something to do with the crime scene tape that was still up in front of part of the building.

Railroad bridge over the Tuckasegee River

The Teddy Bear Motel. The name just sounds bad.

We spent the afternoon over at Tsali pre-riding the trails with Gib. Jennifer did not ride with us as she stayed at the trailhead with Becca, planning to ride after we did our loop. The race loop was shorter this year, yet we still did two laps. I am not liking this trend of shorter XC races. I have only done one race, Chickasaw, which got to the two-hour mark. Everything else has finished in 1:35-1:40. I still feel that a Pro XC should be about two hours in length for the winner, even though World Cup races are now down to 90 minutes or less.

We had a good pre-ride and stopped several times to enjoy the views of the lake. Shannon and I showed our rock island spot to Dina and Gib. We played on those islands for over an hour. Gib found all kinds of interesting rocks and rode back to the parking lot with his jersey pockets full of rocks. Jennifer eventually found some friends who were camping at the race site and they offered to keep Becca while Jennifer rode. She was hoping to catch us, but ended up coming out before we did. She must have gone by while we were on the islands. I sat in the cold river when we got back to the house for my natural ice bath to help the legs out. We then ended the night with s’mores by a much better fire, followed by watching supercross.

View from the main overlook on the race course at Tsali

Dina reaching the top of the tough overlook climb

Gib and I on top of the rock island

Dina, Shannon and me in the little row boat on top of the last island

Dina

Gib's bike

My Epic

Gib trying to ride back up to the trail

Me enjoying one last view

Dina leading Shannon and Gib on the race course

Another view of the rock islands

My "ice bath" in the Tuckasegee River

Sunday started off with a cold morning. We got over to the race a bit later than I planned and I did not get in the best warm-up for a cold start. The race length was two laps on a 12-mile course. This shorter loop saw us start with over a mile of gravel road which was mostly uphill before the singletrack. Our Pro group had the $50 Holeshot Award this week. We also had it here last year and it made for a hectic start. I really wanted it last year and got absolutely smoked. With the longer start, they also extended the holeshot area to about half a mile out at the start of the first real climb. It was a bad spot to sprint to because it would be hard to take the holeshot and survive the climb. Between that and the stacked field that was on the start line, I was thinking that I probably shouldn’t go for the money today.

Yellow Wave lining up with Pros on the front row

We had 11 Pro riders on the line, a good field compared to the four or five riders we usually get at races these days. Tristan Cowie was on the start line and everybody must have been scared of him. When we took off, Tristan got the initial lead and everyone sat on his wheel. I got a good jump off the line and was in the top half of the field. I tried to move up in the first few corners, but couldn’t get a clear spot to move forward. As we topped the first rise, everybody slowed down behind Tristan and I saw a small gap on the left side. I rode the edge of the ditch to the front and then hammered to the holeshot line, easily taking the $50. It seemed as if nobody really wanted the money, so I took it! As expected, I suffered up the climb right after and dropped from first to last by the top, going into the woods 30 seconds off the back of the group. Most of the starts from the various Yellow Wave classes were very competitive and intense. Shannon got video of the starts and it is posted below after the two pictures.

I took the holeshot money!

Photo by GoneRiding.com

Dina about to hit the singletrack on her loop which was a bit longer than our loop.

Photo by GoneRiding.com

Video: Tsali start clips

I was blown up for the first few miles, then I got settled down and started to get into a rhythm. I caught and passed one rider, moving me into 10^th. He was the only one I caught the first lap, but I had gained time on a few others and came through the feed zone just 15 second off two more. I didn’t feel particularly strong today, but I was better than the last two races and I was able to push hard. The gravel road was my weakness. I felt like I had no legs on that climb and lost sight of the two ahead of me. I also got caught a by a line of riders from the Cat.1 19-39 and 40-49 classes. The 40-49 guys had caught the other class and were dragging them down the gravel road at hyper speed. They came by so fast that I couldn’t even get on the back.

Going for my bottle at the end of lap 1

Photo by GoneRiding.com

Once back in the singletrack, I caught the back of the group that was now exploding from the pace. I suddenly felt good on the next climb and began moving through the riders from the other classes. I had good legs and good speed the rest of the way. It was definitely the best ride I have ever had at Tsali. I never seem to have a good race here in Pro. It may have been my best ride here, but also my worst finish. I only managed to move up to 9^th by the end. Tristan won so I guess the riders had good reason to be scared of him on the start. With me finishing so far back, I was pretty happy to have gone for the holeshot award. At least I went home with something.

A riding comes up the final hill headed for the finish

Pro winner Tristan Cowie

Dina

Mose Howard and Chris Lessing battled all day

Me almost at the end of my race

Gib coming out towards the finish

Becca snagged the camera and took this picture of Dina...

...followed by this snotty pic.

Pro podium

Photo by GoneRiding.com

After the race, Dina and I went out for another lap, then we hit the road for home. Gib had mentioned driving over Newfound Gap through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park into Gatlinburg to see some of the fire damage from last year’s wildfire that nearly destroyed the area. I didn’t really want to go into Gatlinburg itself, but a drive over the mountain sounded fun and I did want to see the fire damage.

We saw some elk in the river on our way through Cherokee, then stopped by the Oconoluftee Visitor’s Center again. I couldn’t pass on those stuffed animals again. I also wanted to get one for Becca. Gib had given us too much money for the split of the rental house and refused to take it back, so I used it to buy Becca a raccoon. She told us when they first arrived that she wanted to see a chipmunk and a raccoon while on the trip, so I made sure she at least saw a raccoon of some sort. They were well ahead of us on the road after us riding an extra lap, so I mailed it to her when we got home and received back some pictures of her playing with the raccoon, which she has named Rocky, and also a letter about how much fun she and Rocky were having. For us, I bought one of the owls and a bison. The bison is me, the owl is Shannon. And I bought that bear mask, which was fun to wear in traffic the rest of the drive home.

The stuffed animals I got at the gift shop

Becca and her raccoon

On the drive through the park, we found Cliff Branch Falls and saw several nice views of the mountains. The fire damage was not really that noticeable. The fire started at Chimney Rock, which you can see from the road. The rock sticks up above the treeline and is noticeably black. The hiking trails in the area are still closed, but most of the park is back to normal. Other than a lack of undergrowth and the occasional black log, I almost wouldn’t have noticed that there was a major fire here just five months ago. Gatlinburg is rebuilding and the forest is healing. That area is going to be just fine.