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More picturesMy past two weeks in photos....
Visiting Lemma and doing some riding in Cary!
Lemma is getting speedy riding the tight, twisty, and fast trails down around Raleigh.
Campbell stops by to help me respond to SM100 emails. I don't historically like cats, but Campbell is a pretty cool little guy.
Tired me from trail woooorkin it!
Miles to go before we sleep...
Fruits of our labor....droool - Tunnel of Looove!
This is why we do it....
Big Forest adventure ride Sunday.
The BIG one is less than two weeks out!
Scott came into town for a bike ride and some grub yesterday evening. It was great to see him and hang out for a bit.
For your rocking out pleasure:
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Its August or something....
Haven't really known what day, what week, month, or time of day for that matter in a while. July really flowed into one big blob of tours, events, riding, working, races, packing, unpacking, driving, sweating, drinking, eating, and very, very, little sleep....ohhh my body is angry at me!
Ohh man big news in my vehicular department. The Rodeo, my trusted sidekick since spring of 2002, has rolled over 200,000 miles! She needs a little love, but I'll get to that soon.
Wooot!!
Along with working it, I got to race the Wilderness 101 this weekend. It was sweeet, and the conditions were awesome. Came in with a time of 9:24 which is by far my best 100 miler time, so I was stoked about that. It was a full week/weekend and I am paying for it this week. Almost got myself lost Thursday night marking a section after I got "darked on" in a place I don't know too well, and then realized how different the course looked at night...slight moment of panic averted, found my turn, found Chris and finished the marking. Little spooky at first, but makes for a good story and good experience now.
I get hungry a lot...
The Rodeo's Kenda pose...
At one point last week, our basement looked like this:
Awesome...yessssss (all 4 of my bikes are present in this photo) - find them all!
I was able to slide home to spend some time with the fam this past Monday and Tuesday. Lots of family birthday's going on. I had missed my Mom's so it was great to see her!, but I got to get in on the festivities for Grandaddy's birthday which was wonderful. It was great to get together and spend some time with him. Happy Birthday to Uncle Orran and Read as well. Whooops Thumbs' birthday is tomorrow, dang ya'll!
As always it was good to spend some time hanging out with Luke Dawg. He is sick, and perfect, and infinitely cooler than me...
Been missing being around for a lot of things at home lately, so it was good to get back. Hopefully in the fall the cousin clan can get together and dominate. Hope Carly can make it in from the Eastern World out there in China and we can all get together.
Its hot, and I've been getting in quite a bit of riding. Way tired from the 101 still, and looking to head up to Morgantown to race the Big Bear Ultra. Well, might be too tired to really race it, but it will be great to see my Morgantown buds, and get in some solid hang out time after the race.
Am I lost in the woods again?
Heading to Raleigh the weekend of the 14th to see Leeemmur-Bobber, so that will be fun, and then it is full on with work for the SM100! Woaaah, that one will be huge and busy busy.
This little dude say he wants to ride...might not be the best place to hang on though....
Till I write again...
- Jocko
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
More travels, critters, and some goofing around...
Some trail clearing work
Frog friend...
Some bike racing at the Hoo Ha!
Beautiful mountain scene in southwest VA.
Crazy orange mushrooms on the trail in Damascus
This salamander was wondering why I moved the rotten stick that he was under...sorry little guy.
Brightly colored box turtle
Some great trails in the high country, open to lots of users!
This Grouse was protecting her young hidden in the green behind, and allowing me to get a close shot of her.
The Iron Mountain Trail is the old AT and there are still some shelters kept up along the trail. Makes for some nice lunch spots, or great hiking, or multi-day riding loops.
Canaan Valley, WV was beautiful this past weekend for the Canaan Mountain Bike Festival. A cool shot of White Grass during the summer months.
Jumped on the Canaan Adventure Ride for the day, 30 miles of Canaan's amazing trails and beautiful scenery, lead by some great Canaan Locals. My buddy Ian Beckner was on the ride as well and it was great to see him. Thanks Todd and Sue for the ride!
Headed down the Camp Hilbert on Sunday to ride the singlespeed class at the third Camp Hilbert mountain bike race. Tried chasing Gordon Wadsworth around for a while. Brought home a cool 2nd, and a sweet, fancy new floor pump! After a hot day of racing, the only thing to do is...
Go paddling with Brandon Reynolds. Here he is showing off some of his tricks!
And me, trying to pull some of my own...
So great to be in the water on such a hot day. Makes me not mind that I get rolled a good bit. But I got some good practice, looking forward to getting out again soon. So many amazing views on the river.
Picked up Luke from his hiking trip and got in a fun night camping with Luke and Scott!
Enjoyed a couple days off, and now ready to get back at it. Got a cool trailer modification project to jump on, and then some tours and on to the Iron Mountain 100K. Going to be a busy busy next 1.5 weeks. I'll catch ya later on!
Enjoy the cooler weather coming.
- Jake
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Recent travels
I'll let some of these nice pictures give you the detail of my last two weeks:
Eastern Tennessee, Southwest VA, and Central PA.
This one is just outside of Harrisonburg, Lookout Mountain off the White Oak Trail. I took this one at the VA IMBA Festival.
Woohoo - Road ride through the Smokies.
Followed the road through the gorge following the river. Beautiful. (Little River?? Gotta check the name again)
Drool....that is crazy Gatlinburg in the bottom left corner way down at 1200ish feet, with the high mountains of 6000 feet up above!
Awesome singletrack on the Iron Mountain Trail outside of Damascus, VA
Blooms dominating all along the trail.
Lucas will pass this sign at the intersection of Beech Gap trail and the AT sometime this Friday! Good luck Luke Dawg!
The Virginia Creeper trail is beautiful and a great place to ride!
I almost hit this poor fellow on the Creeper trail. Don't worry, I saw him just in time!
Stone Creek Rd. Rothrock State Forest, PA
Gravel roads of Rothrock.
I've even got some video that Chris shot of me on the bike in Rothrock just this past week as we were prepping for the Stoopid 50. The trails there are super fun to ride, and all of it is just outside of State College, PA. - Yes, I know I blew it on the big rock line...I'll get it next time.
And...I've been playing lots and lots of NFG lately, so this works well...now...get your "rock out" on.
and...
and....of course.
..
Hoo Ha is this weekend....saahhweeet. Lots of fun riding to be had. And, I get to race short track, so that should be rad. See ya there!
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Stoopid
Stoopid 50 is tomorrow! Busy busy, but got in a nice ride yesterday evening..
So far on this trip I've seen a porcupine, and a small bear. That brings my total bear sighting count up to 4. Yess.
I'll have more later! See ya Sunday.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
I'm behind...
in my blogging that is...geez! Busy busy lately!
SDS 3 day, Corn Dawg's wedding, now getting ready for the IMBA Festival. It has been get up, full on long day, eat dinner late, go to bed days lately. Got to enjoy some great playtime in Blacksburg though. Looks like I have some time to get in something now though right??
Wrong...I've got 17 minutes of battery life and my charger is at work..ARG!
Hangin' with Luke Dawg at the wedding! Was good to spend some time in Blacksburg.
Scott was on hand too, we all got in a nice ride Sunday! Got lucky on the weather!
Yes, that's a huge black snake...
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
S-D-S was siiiiick
So, this weekend I was a Freshman again, a newbie, noooob. SDS was by far
Stooopid views all day long.on the SDS route...
I've been riding a lot this spring and I had my gear dialed in well, and I was feeling quite ready for the ride. As it is done by Chris, I had a lot of job duties pre-during-and post ride which made the weekend even more spectacular being involved on every aspect of it. Day 1 started at 4 am with little sleep the night, thanks to some lively neighbors of ours at the campground and their 3 am atv riding escapades...from there it was a very quick 1.5 hour long session of getting ready, re-heating the premade breakfast, eating, packing up the truck and trailer, and try to get everything together. At 5:45 we were on the trail, leaving the campground just as it was light enough to see.
And we rode and rode, and kept on. Stribling springs, Dowell's draft, SMT, then lunch stop about 5 hours in. I was super hungry, feeling good, but a little anxious for what was coming up. The singletrack/double track climb up and onto the ridge of Little Mare Mountain. I can tell you right now, there is NOTHING little about Little Mare Mountain. Steep pitches, and super slow rolling mossy, rocky trail make for a slog of an experience. Little use of any momentum can be made as the trail itself robs you of it consistently. Chris even got some footage of me riding up Little Mare which you can see here....oh sorry, that was just a clip of mushroom cloud....here is the actual video...Oh, that's not it either...well. I'm sure its somewhere...
The view from the overlook near the end of the Southern Traverse of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail.
Short, post-lunch road section to mentally prepare...sorta...for Little Mare.
Anyways...after the Little Mare suffer-fest, I made it down the suuuper sick downhill of Brushy Ridge, and even hit some bonus miles at Douthat, though I was pretty much in zombie-mode during those bonus miles...still super fun! Into the lodge, beer, shower, food, chilling with friends, and sleeeeeep. Man I dominated some sleep...
Sunday was up early again, big breakfast with the help of our support crew! Big thanks!! Get ready and roll out!! Up the mountain and hit up Beards Mountain Trail and Beards Mountain Spur out of Douthat which is a super dreamy section of trail. Rolling ridge and then a spectacular drop down the mountain on some skinny, off camber, contour trail.
Getting tired yet??
Clear blue sky above us! The weather was amazing all weekend.
Some road riding, and then lunch in the sun by the Cowpasture River from the crew again. Loooots of climbing up ahead, gravel road, fireroad, double track, and then single track, up, up, and up to Elliot's Knob. Toootaaally digging the Elliot's downhill, and then gaaaahhh the Crawford Mountain 5 pillars of pain. 5 hike-a-bikes that crush your soul. I can only ride numbers 3 and 4 right now, and need to start adding the others to my list. Its a hard section when you are fresh, and 1 full day, and 1 half day behind you, ohhhh....but now we go down Chimney Hollow........YESSS, fast fast fast, scary, fun ...woaaaah. Didn't crash...good, brake, noo, no brake, woah, ok...maybe some brake...
Still 11 miles to we reach the hardest part of the day...
James Kelly enjoying the Elliot's Downhill
Chris demonstrates proper STEEP riding...
By the end of the ride I had made good friends out of people I had just met, gotten to know others even more, and got to spend two full days riding my mountain bike. Totaling about 25 hours of riding, and about 140 miles. I'm tired...obviously. I'm happy with my riding during the weekend. Wish I hadn't sucked it up on Little Mare, but that is a tough place, need to get on the ball on those Crawford hike-a-bikes, but other than that I felt pretty strong. Stronger on Sunday than Saturday somehow...I think the excitement of finishing helped me stay strong towards the end too. One of my favorite aspects about long long rides, aside from the perfection of being on the bike and sharing that experience with those around you, is the noticeable progression in comfort level and ability throughout the ride. SDS is definitely on my calendar for next year....and the year after that....annnd so on...
More of my SDS pics here.
Update:
Pat Miller's Pics
Jon Posner's GPS Tracks
Day 1
Day 2.
SMT is doing the 3 day version this weekend! Check it out here!
Been finding out some more info on the Canaan Valley MTB Festival in June. Planning on hitting that for some solid riding in West Virginia and hopefully seeing some of my old friends up there!
Oh, and my new bike arrived Sunday night...getting it dialed in and ready to rock! Pictures soon...
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
An explosion of pictures and some nonsense words from the past two weeks...
Mountain biking in the National Forest is my favorite.
Some recent saw work - ride on through!
Burchy rocking... literally...
Yes, that is Bear crap...
Under the parkway through the dark, watery tunnel...yesss
Do not mess with me, I will bite the sh%& out of you...no seriously, go away.
Chris rolling with the saw.
Yo Yo Misty!
Sue enjoying the Elliot's/Crawford trail clearing day!
Howdy there Lizzard Dog...
Can you spot the Osprey in this photo?? He was fishing with me...
I love contour views
I also like to take pictures of benchmarks like this one. Someday I'll print them out and put them all together as a celebration of my dorkitude.
WTF are these things? I see them all over right now.
Balcony Falls
And here is the poorly-written, sleep-deprived, actual "body" of this post.
Tooootally digging my job.
Loving being outside doing something different all the time.
Putting in lots of good hours, hard work, riding, trail working, officing it up.
Tired often, feeling fit, stronger, hungry all the time, meeting tons of people, learning, learning, and learning more. Wow. Want-to-ride-bike....
Got some time with the folks back in Lynchburg. Did some fishing, some eating, some card playing, aaaand some bike riding.
This weekend I took out two tours on the Southern Traverse of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail. Awwesome rides each day, and enjoyed meeting the guys out for the ride. Really liking doing that, great to meet new folks and take them somewhere new.
Check out this link to the Virginia Mountain Bicycle Council out before you go!
Oh, and since I haven't done tunes in a while. This one is one permanent repeat in my car.
"Anything we can mess up, we can fix up"
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Spring-Time Adventures
There's been quite a lot going on in my world these days.
Spent my birthday weekend rocking out in New Castle for our first mountain bike race of the season, "Dragon's Tale," which went really well. I was stationed on the mountain marshaling and making sure the racers were cheered on properly and then helping sweep the course after. Long busy days, but a great way to be outside and enjoy the mountains.
The awesome ride of Dragon's Tale on
Got in a quick ride in Roanoke at Carvin's Cove with Ben Brown on our way to Damascus for a bit last week to do some recon for SMT's Iron Mountain 100K. Got to ride a 15 mile section of the Iron Mountain Trail from just before Skull's Gap all the way to Dennett Dwyer's pad right off the Creeper Trail in D-Town.
Carvin's Cove is smooth and riding well!
Lots of trees down, plenty of work to be done along the Iron Mountain Trail. The wind and snow from the winter was not kind!
Luke came to visit this past weekend and we put in some monster time on the bikes. Took him out on a big mountain bike ride Saturday up to Elliot's Knob on North Mountain outside of Deerfield and rode the ridge all the way out to Crawford Mountain and down Chimney Hollow trail. All in all it was about 30 miles and a long day as we also tried to clear up a bit of brush down from the harsh winter.
Woaaah BIG ride!
Luke rolling the rocky sections!
So much to see.
The on Sunday we got on the road bikes and went out for the Harris-Roubaix. A celebration of gravel road riding done in Harrisonburg each year on the same day as the Paris Roubaix. So the group (100+ riders) left from town and rode out to the start of the event. It is a great mix of riders of all levels and an event surrounded by the idea of just enjoying being on the bike. 3 laps of a set 14 mile loop was the plan for the day, with options to do however many laps you wanted. Some turn it in to a race, and most ride socially. The club also provided some food, water, and even wine at the start/finish/lap area set up on a farm owned by some very generous folks. It was an awesome day, the weather was perfect, and the loop was challenging and fun. In the end, riding from home to downtown to the start, and 3 loops Luke, Jason, and I got in about 70 miles Sunday. Yessss.
A very dusty post ride bike - feeling accomplished.
Tuesday got in some great clean up work on the Southern Traverse of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail with Matt Smith and Chris Scott. Good bit of trees down, but thanks to Chris' work Saturday and our work Tuesday its coming together nicely. Still a little bit to hit, but as the season progresses and more and more folks are out riding it will ride in well!
See, now you can ride through here!
North Mountain - where Luke and I were on Saturday. Its 4,447 feet at Elliot's Knob!
And yesterday afternoon I got in a sick adventurous exploration ride with Kyle Lawrence on Great North Mountain bordering Virginia and West Virginia. Rode up a steep singletrack trail that was pretty grown in and difficult to ride at times.
Once on the ridge, the left direction (South) is marked on the map, but there are NO blazes for a LONG time and is often difficult to follow. Going right (North) yields some wonderful scenery on a very narrow ridge top. The trail there is blazed well, but is not on the map at all? What/?? The map also shows the trail heading down off the mountain just before you hit Church Rock. However, we were not able to find this trail. After bushwacking our way down the side of the mountain we did find a recent, machine-built trail, and then markings for a new trail. It appears there is work going on in this area but it is very difficult to navigate currently. I'd like to get back there sometime and see what its like after some of the work is finished. After making our way back to the car we headed to Baker, WV to sit in on a Forest Service planning meeting to listen to comments and get in some of our own.
This is the new trail we came upon on our way down??
Kyle is a great and very passionate bicycling advocate, and it was a great way for me to begin getting more involved, learning, and understanding more about how the Forest Service operates. It was a very beneficial trip for me.
Ok, that's all for now. So much more to explore!
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Mountain Bike Racing is back
Spent yesterday re-realizing how perfect the riding is at Douthat....geeez. Long climbs that will work you, downhills of the dreamiest of dreams. Who could not like mountain biking after spending a day there???
Solid group to start the ride.
Look at that moss.Calling your name isn't it???
Burchy was riding hard.
Rolled to St. George today for the first race of the Virginia Off Road Series at the Blue Ridge School grounds. There was a solid showing of folks from Hburg. (and more!) The race was a fundraiser for World Bicycle Relief , so no prizes or big deal, just riding hard and supporting the cause. Rocking my second season now in the expert class, and that third lap
Dinner and beer, and now I'm toast, I mean really, I'm Tiiiiired. Gonna go find something to entertain me for the 1 or 2 hours left in the day that I may still be awake.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Weekend Waterfall Tour
A wet weather drainage on the way up Apple Orchard Mountain
Yes, there is still some snow at the top of the forest road. It almost got the better of the Rodeo at one point...but that is a story for later.
Apple Orchard falls in its big-time snow melt glory.
The Fallingwater Cascades were rolling as well. Beautiful right square in the 4PM sunlight (pre-dls change)
Crabtree Falls were roaring. Spray and a huge breeze hitting your face whenever the trail came near the falls.
A NATURAL-ly-occuring BRIDGE...
These are our turkeys...no hunting
Brandon makes the steep creeks look easy.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
More time in WV
Played in the snow some more last weekend in Canaan Valley. Tried learning some more backcountry skiing, trying to get my tele on. Whew, I was wrecked. Spent a lot of time looking at the sky...from my back.
Ran into Ian a couple times while I was there, it was good to see him. Met plenty of new folks, ate some great food, even got to ski Sunday with Brandon and Trevor.
Had a great time meeting and hanging out with Tomi and Emily. Tomi gave me some great pointers on tele turning that helped throughout the weekend. Met lots of other new faces staying at the Icebox. Awesome.
Headed to Richmond this weekend to see Luke, Scott, and hopefully Orran and go to this...should be a great time.
These guys are SOLD OUT in C-ville this weekend.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Hello from Raleigh
Met up with Seth, Evan, Bekah, Stacey, and Jim and toured the Big Boss Brewery here in Raleigh. There are so many great small brewers down here, we've been hitting at least one tour each time I've come down.
Matt and Linds came over for dinner last night, and we had a great time hanging out with them!
Lemma and I got outside for a while today while the sun was shining. The snow and wet conditions kept all the mountain bike trails closed today, but the American Tobacco trail was open and good for riding.
Supposed to get some more snow in Hburg this week it seems.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
The deep snow is hard
Ahhh totally sucked it up in the trees and on the dam in the deep deep on my board today. Took some more time to practice on the backcountry skis...need to just deal with the crashing and rock the skis now on the the woods.
I mean....wow
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Enjoying the snow
Yes its snowing, and its been doing so alot, I suppose it is February and all. Been making the best of it and getting outside.
Scott came up from C-ville on Sunday to meet me and head up into the mountains around Briery Branch Reservoir for some snowshoeing. The SVBC Super Bowl Sunday
Then on Monday I caught a ride back out there with Chris Scott and Mike Carpenter to try my hand on some backcountry skis (on loan from Mr. Dwyer). While Chris and Mike carved the crap out of the dam's hillside, I got used to ski legs and practiced a few turns...errr face plants of my own. At a few points I found myself wishing I had brought my board so I could be carving the good stuff in the shade with Chris and Mike. Its funny how something totally new can make you feel really out of place, goofy, and uncoordinated. I was about half-way getting the idea of doing turns down the hill by the time we left though, which left me excited and interested in more. Now I can add backcountry skiing to the list of things I really enjoy, but pretty much suck at. It's a long list that includes rock climbing, whitewater kayaking, skateboarding, and on and on...
I even made some food for the potluck meeting last night. Hooray for directions!
Burchy always has the perfect evening "rock out" tune selections. Tonight's jams were brought to us by Finch.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Woah, snowshoeing is raaaad!
Chris jumping off into the pillowy-goodness!
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Yipes!
Still coming down....
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
This winter is the real deal...
Snow...snow...more snow...again...and now calling for even more this weekend - woah.
Rode up 924 to Briery Branch Gap and then over Hone Quarry Ridge down to Big Hollow trail to Hone Quarry campground with C-Scott today. You guessed it....snow!
The sun was shining early on the climb up.
Chris rollin' it through the trees.
Back to down towards the bottom of the mountain...daylight is fleeting...
You're right again - Hone Quarry Run
A solid ride...made it most of the way up the first climb and as the car tracks disappeared it became significantly more difficult to keep straight and on the bike. Walked a little of the ridge section and the quiet descent on the downhill with power blasting all around my bike...
And since Burchy and I are stoked about this jam...here it is:
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
What he said...
As RobbieL said the other day on his facebook status "the offseason has become the preseason." - and I agree.
This past week, as painful as it kinda really was, I have crawled back out of my wintertime holiday-induced- post new year-cold weather-low motivation-hole, and gotten back to riding.
Delicious, sweet, and oh so gnarly, Virginia climbing, ridgelines, and rad downhill single track
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
New job, new digs, same me
Living in Harrisonburg, VA now with Jason Burch, (Burchy), a great friend of mine from Virginia Tech, and working at Shenandoah Mountain Touring with Mr. Chris Scott. I'm digging it! Just been taking care of a few things here and there this week. Winter time seems to be preparation, scheduling, and brainstorming time at SMT and I'm trying to learn the ropes.
Got in a ride yesterday with local dude, and previous SMT intern Ryan Fawley. The road riding around here looks to be stellar, so I'm super stoked to see lots of it once winter rolls on out. Been trying to get around and meet some more folks and there will lots more of that to come. Totally soaking up that I can rock WNRN in my car and whenever I want again. It's good to be back in Virginia. They even have it on two stations here....yesss! I hit up Shenandoah Bicycle Company (SBC) for some winter time riding boots that I've been drooling over for some time now, and finally made the plunge. Now that I will have warm feet, winter can do as it pleases.
So before I left home, Dad and I built me a solid, simple, and awesome desk and I finally have it set up here in the office room of Casa de Burch. Even mounted my Odell Brewing bottle opener to it....finally...Maggie gave it to me LAST Christmas, but I havn't had anything solid, or that belonged to me, that I could mount it to. Thanks Maggie!
New desk! Thanks for the drill Dad!
Just what I need, a bottle opener and a facebook connection!?!?
Got to spend last weekend up in Canaan Valley with the McLeans, and the weather broke for us on Saturday, softened up the conditions, and the skiing was quite fun.
Go Luke!
Lemma makes it look easy and smooth. She was doing some jumps that day too!
Yes, you ARE cooler than me.
Postcards under the glass of my night stand. Yess....send more please!
The ride Tuesday was good. Thanks Ryan for showing me some good new roads! I've been soaking up the time off and ate too many meals, awesomely large meals, while I was home...they were darn good though. Time to start hitting a few rides a week and getting back in shape and ready for spring. After all...it is part of my job now - and that....is.....awesome
Apparently I'm about to exceed my Pandora limit for the month. That is not awesome.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Three days on the AT with Luke Dawg were awesome
Luke and I headed out on the 14th to hike a 25 mile section on the AT from Oronoco, VA to Tyro, VA...which was sort of going from about Amherst to the a little past Montebello, Crabtree Falls area.
The Cow Camp Gap shelter was nice and served us well for the first days evening. Thursday was an easy half day hiking in to Cow Camp Gap and we took our time gathering firewood and hanging out at camp. On our way in, we were even buzzed by a couple F-18s flying low over the mountain! LOUD!
Friday was gonna be a long day. It was 16 miles to our next destination - The Priest Shelter. We set out at first light to get moving on a hard day's hike.
Stopping, of course, to take in the view on Cole Mountain. The clear spot on top was nice, and the view was exceptional at 3920 feet.
Lucas on Cole Mountain
More from Cole at about 8:30 AM
Well after lunch at the Seeley/Woodworth shelter and 10 hard snowy miles of hiking later, we came upon Spy Rock at about 3850 feet! Climbing up on the rock with the high winds was a little spooky, but the view was worth it!
More from Spy Rock
Darkness fell upon us and we still had a bit to go. This was a cool AT marker just as we crossed the dirt road that would take one to Crabtree Falls. About a mile to go, uphill to the Priest Shelter. It would be hard to describe how tired I was at this point.
About an hour and a half of hiking in the dark, and we finally found The Priest shelter! Cold and tired, a nice warm fire was certainly in order. Warm food, and it was on to bed!
The Priest Shelter was nice, and we were glad to see it. Looks to be a popular shelter for folks just hiking up the mountain and staying for the night. Lots of names carved in, from even back to the 70's. Some funny musings in the log book. Slept in till about 8:30 on Saturday, took our time eating breakfast and getting ready for the hike down the mountain to the car. Another nice warm and sunny day, we saw about 15 people hiking up the mountain to stay at the shelter...was gonna be a busy night for the shelter we had called home the night before.
So our trip was a great time, saw some great views, wore ourselves out, and simply enjoyed the time outside in the backcountry. Already talking about our next trip.
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
See you later!
So after a two and a half year tour in Morgantown, West-By-God-Virginia, it has come time for me to head on, for good, I'm not sure, but at least for a while. It has certainly been an interesting journey. I met hundreds of people during my time here from all over the country, and even from different places all over the world. Odd it seems that I had to come to West Virginia to meet people from Malaysia, Indonesia, Columbia, Argentina, Spain, Norway, South Africa, and England, yes quite odd indeed...and awesome.
I came to get a Master's in Engineering, but I really gained so much more on top of that. Of course, outside of school, my main influence was with the cycling and outdoor scene of Morgantown. There is such a solid community of cyclists and outdoor folks there, it made someone like myself feel very at home, and there was lots of adventure to be had.
I've had the pleasure of riding bikes with some super fast, and super awesome people, I made some great friends and learned a lot about riding on Thursday nights with Team Rowman, held on for dear life on the occasional Wednesday, suffered the cold on winter MonClub mtb rides and I raced and partied with the decade-long conference champion WVU cycling team.
I did some paddling, plenty of climbing, partying....yeah, and lots of snowboarding in the winters. I met an awesome girl who has showed me so much about the outdoors, life, love, travel, and of course...eating right! I've traveled, to Maine, Massachusetts, Georgia, PA, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, every corner of West Virginia, oh...and Ireland. I was a member of the Morgantown Municipal Bicycle Board, I broke my hand, I lost a camera, I broke a bike frame, I lived in three different apartments, learned how to properly build and work on bikes, found out about Canaan Valley, Toured the Cannondale plant in PA, climbed at the New River Gorge, raced the WVMBA series, upgraded to Expert, and learned how much fun trail building is.
I went to WVU football games, played paintball for Bachelor parties, spent quality times with old friends at the Lawson Hanger. I went to weddings, fry parties, night-time bike rides, Christmas night-time bike rides, election parties, backpacked Dolly Sods, managed to get in plenty of quality experiences with my brother, and always kept in touch and connected with my family.
Oh...and I worked hard, did well, and finished up a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering!
So, thank you so much to everyone who made my stay here so wonderful. Its amazing to think of how many great friends I made during my time here.Thanks again, keep in touch, and I'll see you soon!
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
This is awesome!
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Snow outside, packing, packing, reading, tv, boredom...
So...here are some of my favorite Simpsons clips that I found....
There are tons more, but I think I'll get back to reading...
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
Holiday Times
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my holiday travels that included goofing off in Richmond, at home, some good times, including a powder day in Canaan, and finally back to Morgantown.
Tour de Lights!
Snow Lemma
Sunset at Blackwater Falls
Happy New Year!
One last week in Morgantown, before heading back to Virginia!
FDJakeB[at]gmail[dot]com (Jacob Brown)
The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked.
~Amy Webster
Related Pages
West Virginia University ACCC List Serv ACCC Results ACCC Registration NCCA Rulebook ACCC Rulebook USAC Rulebook MTB Rulebook Road/CX Rulebook