The Mad Dash Home

The next stop on the trip was a 10 mile loop of trails in Northern Lousiana. The trails at Lincoln Parish Park are referred  to as "world-class" by the local university and "one of the best trails in America" by the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism. Considering I've never heard of this trail from any other source I had to see what all the hype was about.

When half the state is a swamp, the term "mountainous" is relative. Don't get me wrong, this is a great little trail system. The clay soil that lends itself to drifting and power slides, the short climbs, the opportunities to get some air, there's fun stuff here. Is it world class? No, but I think they've done the best with what they have and I would bet money its one of the best trail systems in the area. Also, they have a feature called the "ski-jump" which is a polished 120 ft descent into a jump ramp that ends in a 90º banked right turn.

I wonder if this has anything to do with that "helmets are now required" sign.

With only 2 days left in the vacation, it was time to make a decision as to whether to continue as planned and head north through Arkansas and Tennessee or to detour east through Mississippi and Alabama. Unable to find a good destination in Tennessee that was halfway between Louisiana and home, I decided to continue east. It was a 10 1/2 hour drive to Asheville, NC. At a pit stop in Jackson, MS I think I found my favorite souvenir of the trip.

Look Ma! I made the paper.

The first stop in North Carolina was the Tsali Trail System. I've been here before, but this IMBA Epic is one that is worth visiting on a regular basis. Situated along Fontana Lake, this trail system consists of several loops with suggested routes of travel that give short, relatively steep climbs followed by long descents. Its like one giant roller coaster of (mostly) silky smooth trail. It was interesting to ride this one in the winter. The trails were frozen and just starting to thaw, the green rhododendron bushes seemed to glow against all the brown, the low water level of the lake. Still very fast, and very worthwhile.

Much more aesthetic in the summer.

From here I was able to make it to another highly rated trail system in Asheville: Bent Creek Experimental Forest. I had high hopes for this one, but I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe it was all the mud, or maybe just because my legs were shot from Tsali. In hindsight, I probably should've made more of an effort to find the "Green's Lick" trail that judging from all the reviews must be either the best trail known to man or completely littered with mind-altering drugs. But at 3 PM on Friday, the parking lot was already full and on the trail I kept running into other non-biking trail users. To make matters worse, someone must've been fed up with all the mountain biking because I found several branches strategically placed at neck height going across the trail. Not cool. Honestly with how muddy it was I don't know why anyone would be out hiking. To each their own. At least the people that lived close to the park seemed cool.

Take note: the correct riding position.

Saturday was the last day of the trip and I had just enough time to get one more ride in. There are two trails in Wilkesboro that are always worth a detour when I visit Tsali, and not just because I have family in the area. The Dark Mountain Trail and The Overmountain Victory Trail are truly unexpected for such a rural area. Whoever designed these trails is very gifted. Dark Mountain offers climbs, roots, and flow, ending with a playground of a downhill. Overmountain its relatively flat and smooth out-and-back that banks corners like theres no tomorrow, and is ridiculously fast. Its a winning combination of trails in my book.

Make way! Damn Yankee coming through!

Last stop on the trip was lunch with the family. Showing up on short notice is the best way to find out which family members truly love you (just joking Aunt Susan). Thanks again everyone! I know I need to visit more often.

Finally got home a little after midnight last night. 11803.3 miles in the car, 380.2 miles on the bike, 18 states, and countless forests, parks, monuments, and friends. All in all, the trip was an awesome experience and definitely one of the most worthwhile endeavors I've undertaken in quite some time. With the grueling pace, I'm still trying to comprehend a lot of what I've seen in the past 2 weeks. Visiting Crystal seems like much longer than a month ago.

I guess this is where I admit that out of the last 30 nights, 21 were spent sleeping in the car. Despite outward appearances, I'm not made out of carbon bicycles and month long road trips. But if I had waited for that perfect moment to do the trip: when the weather would be ideal, where I'd have enough cash to burn on a hotel every night, when I didn't have other things already planned, it was never going to happen. Sometimes its important to just get things done, life's too short to sit around and wait.