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Thump. Thump. Thump.
Uh oh. That’s never a good noise. I’m looking around for the source of the noise. Not hearing the rain falling around me or the wind that’s blowing leaves across the gravel road in front of me. I am simply hearing the thump.

My bikes in order. Tires have air & nothing is stuck in them. There aren’t any waterbars in site. I breathe in. Catching my breath I realized the noise. It’s my heart. Reminding me I’m alive & that it is still working inside of my tired core. Pedaling up the gravel road towards the trail head. Little warm up time, ok – no warm up time. My heart was trying to catch up. I see my friend standing up ahead. There’s the trail head. The rain picks up. Oh lord what am I doing? I’m catching a cold & beating the piss out of myself to ride up a gravel road?

Trailhead means singletrack. I enter first. I have two wheels, she has two feet to carry her. Down I go. Through the wet sandy puddles. Around torn down branches & a few trees. There’s the thump again, where had it gone? Retreated or stopped in excitement.

The trail stops. Left turn or right turn. To the left all I see is a rock bed going down hill. A wet rock bed – my worst fear. I went down. Stopping once for a huge drop. I rode down. (You hearing that taryn?)

A couple hike-a-bikes later, we are back on that gravel road. The thumping has ceased only because I am flying back down the road to parking and then a hot shower.

10 miles and I had more left. Good feeling.

Heading home to Charlotte tonight after work. Hanging out with the pup and girlfriend. Tomorrow waking up super early to go to Hobby Park. Hope loosing sleep will be worth it all. No racing this weekend. Just riding & enjoying my friends. Sunday I plan on sleeping in with the woman & making up for all the lost winks.

Purchased a map last night of Pisgah National Forest. (Scary drum beat.. NOW.) Sycamore Cycles stocks an illustrated map that has Topo, creeks, trails, and pretty well labeled at that. With map in hand, and a new chamios on my butt I headed back out to the fish hatchery. Mounted up Kate & grinded up the gravel to the top. Passed the loop I was originally going to take & kept going down the road till it dead ended. Hit the trail that looked like continued from the road. Seemed to turn into flowers & lovely green grass. I could see the path under it all but it felt wrong to roll over the last flowers of the year.

Rode back where I had come from. Hit Caney Bottom again. The correct way. The way that the markings pointed. The end of it I was a bit shaken. The trail was fast & stuttered, but more than that my legs couldn’t support me as well as I wanted after the gravel grinder back and forth. Thought about a second go around but it was getting dark. Arrived back at the parking lot & my partner in crimes vehicle was parked. Had he gone looking for me? Did I miss him by minutes? That sucked. It would of been nice to share the glorious day with someone.

I have been making little maps of the big map I had purchased. Jersey pocket friendly maps. I hope to make them water/tear proof too, once I find some plastic to heat up. Looks like I’ll be riding in the mountains 2-3 a week this winter. Hopefully hitting up the weight room on the other 2 days during the week.. Who knows what the weekends will bring.

This weekend – Hobby Park. Next weekend – running?? Weekend after – pitt crew. Weekend after – Savannah?

Ended up riding around Pisgah last night. Not with the original folk, but good folk. A co-worker. A co-worker that doesn’t mind waiting for me. That’s always a plus right? Rode up a gravel road out of the fish hatchery. Up & up. Then down Chaney Bottom. Think we’ll be doing the gravel road loop tonight. Up & Up, to down & down. Repeat.

The monkey was repaired prior to the ride. A bit of a time crunch. Couldn’t find an ISIS bb tool to extract the bb from my old single swizzle. Found an extra crank laying around. (Got to love square taper & standards.) Mounted up the ring, switched out pedals. Had to use one of them as a tap. Hoped the threads would hold through the ride. They did – No bother at all. Enjoyed the rigid, single speed again. The stutter bumps coming back down the gravel roads , was a bit shaky. Made my arms feel like they had been stuck on a vibrator of such. But no – it wasn’t a vibrator, it was Kate – my monkey.

Speaking of the galaxy. I’m helping take over the galaxy’s (plural) via the monkey’s blog. Someones got to do it. The monkey is trying first. Then I. I’ll try to refrain from stealing others blogs. It was a one time offense. No really officer.

Can you name the vehicle of the photo above?

Some mountain biking is in ordering. I’m hoping the monkeyphile’s lady will make my head shake less than her man does.

This weekend there might be a case of traveling & spending time with loved ones on a Dirt Diva trip. Let’s see if I can get a wheel built up to go along with a certain Maverick suspended suspension for. That would be nice. The other going on is a certain gathering. A gathering of mountain bike folk that like to creep out of the wood work a couple times a year. I’ve never been on one of these gatherings but I think I would enjoy one last hoorah before the monkey leaves the hills for the west coast. Hmm. Drink beer & ride with crazy fast guys that will get me lost in Pisgah…… or ride with ladies up at Hobby Park. Weighing the options. Let me see how I feel after tomorrows adventure.

Toying with the idea of getting a second Karate Monkey. Surly is putting out a blue one.. I’m thinking of turning the current one into a geared 29er with suspension on the front. Check it out http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=228712.

Until then I just need to ride my mountain bike. Fix my cranks tomorrow, adjust my disc brakes & ride.

Ashe-vegas here I come.

This thing on? I sure hope so.

http://arleighs.com

Check it. Comment. Feedback is healthy for us all.

First off. I’m sorry to inform all the well wishers – it wasn’t MY birthday. It happened to be my host and hostess birthday “week.” How they ended up together having their birthdays on back to back days AND having a cat with a birthday earlier in the week. Just say there wasn’t enough cake or beer. We shall try again hopefully in the following weeks. We simply have to spread it out as I’m a feather weight and 5:45am comes very early in the mountains.

Now where was I? Road riding. Motivating. Wool sweaters. Wool socks are even better with wool sweaters. Coffee. Tea. Oh and road rides with the boss.

The new job and 1/2 are working out as planned. Moving up in the world isn’t such a bad thing. The traveling is a bit wacked but that will be fixed in time. I’m back home for the three day weekend & I have much to do. Many photos to upload. Many miles to log on the ROAD bike & repairs to do.

It’s fall. Go enjoy the amazing weather & stop reading this BS.

Taking over the hills of Brevard for the past few days. The two gigs I have going on are racking up some milage on the short bus but well worth it. First customer last Friday. He seems stoked with his new steed but how could you not? A new bike is something to be so happy with. One of lifes little perks.

Been going back and forth of slamming the blog down and making it a one stop photo shop. Been taking tons more photos, to the point I need to purchase another 1-2 more 2GB cards. Oh hell my birthday is coming up right? Also been working on a site design for the new busyness. Waiting on my graphic designer to go to and back from Interbike & hopefully he will have a snazzy new logo with boobies on it. Ok no boobs but that would be a bit awesome. Speaking of. Go check out twinsix. New shit for 07. It’s rocking and rolling and all that goodness. Buy it. If you are lazy give me money and I’ll buy it for you.

Time for birthday celebration.

Change starts when someone sees the next step.
William Drayton

I have many friends that are flying & driving all over the country this week for various changes of life. Moving, school & most of all job interviews. It seems like my little realm of the universe is starting to be in the motions. Nothing is staying the same & there is something happening for everyone.

It is amazing to hear the happiness & the excitement of a friend on the phone once they found what they are looking for. To be the first (or maybe fifth) person to feel for a second what they are feeling.

Life isn’t meant to be lived in the passenger seat. You make lemonade out of the lemons that are given to you & you deal with as much as you can. These are the few things that I remember from growning up. It is very rare that the grass is greener on the other side but it is something you have to see for yourself.

Good luck to you all – may you find what you are looking for. Maybe you’ll find what I am looking for too?