Checked Out

This weekend, the family and I checked out of Charlotte and headed to the mountains of Western North Carolina. There are a million other things we "need" to do, but sometimes its just good to get away. When the topic came up a few weeks ago, I said yes immediately. It's so relaxing in the mountains. I love it when the whole family escapes to the cabin. The view in the mornings and evenings never gets old.

Since the wife is training for a half-marathon in a few weeks, Saturday morning was kids watch for me while she knocked out 11 miles. It's difficult to find flat areas to run near the cabin, so we headed over to Lake Junaluska which has a lake trail around 2.6 miles. They also have a nice playground which is where I would camp out while she ran. The interesting part of the visit was that the lake was gone. Vanished. Hmm, my immediate thought was that the dam was under repair, but a quick search of the interwebs this evening revealed that they are removing 25,000 cubic yards of silt. Of course I began to wonder how long it would take to fill a 200 acre lake. Good news. they answered that too. About 3-4 weeks. I also investigated the Waynesville Greenway as well. I've always seen it leading off Rt. 19 and wondered where it went. Now I know that it's a 5.3 mile greenway to near downtown. Pretty neat. I'll have to check that out next time I'm in town. The other playground we usually go to is at the end of the greenway, so it'll be a good excursion during the next escape.

After resisting a St. Patrick's Day beer at Nick and Nate's pizzeria, we returned home where I had a ride pass for a couple of hours. Since I didn't have time to head to Pisgah, I opted for a front door ride to Purchase Knob. I have hiked up there a dozen times, but never on the bike. Since it's part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park bikes are verboten EVERYWHERE. I assumed I'd be ok on the entrance road and I had no intention to poach any of the surrounding trails. I simply wanted to ride some hills. Shortly after exiting the neighborhood, I saw the sign honoring Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton. Let's face it, he's a legend in Appalachia (fer moonshinin' y'all)and just so happens to hail from Haywood County. Sadly, Popcorn met an untimely end as the feds net folded in on him. He was busted in Tennessee and some say had he stayed in NC that his moonshine would still be flowing. Oh well, would have been nice to pull over for a glass of moonshine, but instead, I kept rolling up to Purchase Knob.

It was a 5 mile climb to the top, but its a rather unpleasant gravel grinder. Some sections had me standing and mashing the pedals to survive the grade increases. Once you are up there, you are rewarded with awesome panoramic views of NC, TN, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's simply awesome. You can view the webcam at the top here. I stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view and take a few sips of water. before heading back down.

On the way back down, I remembered a road that headed up to the Cataloochee Ski Resort. The previous night I saw people skiing from the cabin. Given the unseasonably warm weather, I wanted to see first hand if they really had snow, so I hung a right on another gravel road. This particular road is nasty. So much so that there is a warning on it that says its impassable by car. Since my Silverado once made the trip up, I knew it was passable, but would probably be difficult on my bike. It got so steep, I considered walking at one, two, three points. This road averages about a 15% grade over 0.8 miles (the last tooth on the elevation chart below). I definitely pegged my heart rate on this climb, but made it up without walking (barely).

So, were they skiiing? Yes, yes they were. They must make incredible amounts of man made snow here, but still neat.

In the end, I had an unexpectedly hard 10.8 miles. The best part though was that I did it all from the front door.