New Years 2012!!!

Every year for New Years, my high school friends and I get together and party. In recent years we have usually camped out or partied on the lake. However, this year we decided to move it to the slopes.

Robert's place at Echota was open for the weekend so we made our plans accordingly. Friday morning I picked up Carrie at her parents place, loaded up the Escape and headed to Boone. We planned to meet up with Drew and Becca on the outskirts of Boone to pick up some groceries and mainly, beer.

From there we planned on heading to the profile trail so that we could hike along the side of Grandfather Mountain.

Heading West on 421, always a welcoming sight.

Once we had the amount of beer and water we felt was appropriate... we made our way to the trail head. The previous couple of days/night had been seasonably cold and with that a few snow showers had occurred.

The trail head was rather muddy from the rain and melting snow but the trail looked to be in pretty good shape so we carried on. From the trail head it was a little over 2 miles to the "Profile View Overlook." It was early afternoon when we started, so we knew we would have to move pretty quick in order to get back before night fall.

The trail was lined with snow as we started our climb up the mountain. As you can imagine, the higher we got, the deeper the snow accumulation was. At some points the trail was completely frozen over. Our pace was rather slow but we continued on anyway.

Starting up the trail. FRESH POW!

Around 4pm we managed to find our way to th Profile View. It was an amazing sight! I checked my altimeter app and we were approximately 5000ft above sea level at that point. Judging by the time it took us to get to the overlook, we knew it was going to be dark when we got to the base again. No worries, over prepared drew brought along his head lamp....

Profile View

When we got back to the cars (3,800 ft above sea level) the sun had already sat for the day. We changed clothes and got out of our muddy boots and headed to JVC's house in Banner Elk to meet up with the rest of the crew before heading to dinner.

Fluffy had built a mini ramp in his garage, which actually turned out quite nice. He and a couple guys from Alpine Ski Center were riding the ramp on skate boards and bicycles. It had been almost 10 years since I rode a skate board, but after some convincing I decided to drop in on the ramp. It had been a while... it wasnt pretty, but I did it.

From there we headed to an Italian place near Sugar Mountain. With 8 of us trying to eat at 7pm on Friday in a ski town, our wait was a bit ridiculous. After calling several restaurants to learn that the wait was about the same everywhere, we looked across the parking lot to see a Food Lion. Becca proudly exclaimed, "I'm a good cook, how about some bow tie pasta and pizza." SOLD.

A bit later we were up to Echota where we met up with Robert, his girl friend Claudia and his roommate Eric. I hadnt seen them since I left Raleigh, so it was good to see them once again. As we unloaded the cars, Becca and Claudia got to work on the pasta and frozen pizzas. The beer bottles started opening and the stories started flying. It was good to be back up there.

Nothing like having a nice winter lager while sitting next to the fire.

We threw a small party for Drew's accomplishment of hitting 200lbs! We hope this is his max and he can get back down in weight. This is our way of encouraging it. Humiliation!

Will rolled in around midnight that night as he had to work late in Charlotte. Unfortunately, we all partied a bit hard and were passing when he rolled in. As he walked in he let us know he had a nice present from playing Dirty Santa with his family...

The next morning I was up around 6am. Showered and began getting ready for a day on the slopes. By 7:15 we were rolling off the mountain and ordering our breakfast at the local country store.

By 9am, lift tickets were purchased and we were making our way to the lift line to catch the first chair for the morning.

Two things Beech has going for it, high speed quad and a hell of a view!

Good freeze the night before, so the runs were a bit crunchy on top. However, it didn't take long for the other riders and the sun to soften that up and make the conditions pretty good considering the lack of snow so far this year.

Drew and Will at the top of Beech Mountain.

Will and I about to make a run down the mountain.

Not too long ago a movie came out about Squall Valley and the game of GNAR. "Gaffney's Numerical Assessment of Radness." Its about having fun with friends and assigning points for doing different things on the slopes. Points are assigned for certain runs, tricks completed and shenanigans committed on the slopes. (Peeing mid run, calling people out, etc.) Points are deducted for crashes, losing you pass, etc. We we started playing our own version of this....

One thing that we took from the movie was, calling your mother while riding down the hardest run on the mountain. Well, seeing as how Lower Shooting star was the hardest one open, we did it on that one.

Drew was the first to call his mom.

Will followed Drew and completed his run with far less turns than Drew did. :)

This type of thing continued for the entire day as we rode. It really was good time considering the lack of runs that were open. For the most part we stayed on the Robbins Run/Shooting star as there were less people on it than Upper/lower Shawneehaw.

We stopped for a bit to rest. Robert, will and I went in to grab a few cold beers. They had Busch Light on sale for 2.00 a can. (for the slopes,that aint bad) However, things changed when we found out there was a 10.00 debit card minimum. We walked out with alot of beer.

Back on the slopes we continued playing our game and trying not to make fools of our selves. (oops) At some point we talked Becca into going up to the top of the mountain and riding. She was very scared, but she did pretty darn good.

We did pretty well to not embarrass ourselves on the slopes. However, the lift lines were another story. At one point we made it our mission to keep Drew out of his skis. We would hit the latch to release his bindings, then someone else would push him at the same time. This got alot of attention and laughs.

At another point, Carrie threw a snowball at me and managed to miss. (surprise) This ended up starting a snowball fight in the lift line.

Becca and Drew on top of Beech Mountain. Her first time up top!

Can't get enough of this view!

Through out the entire day of riding I was putting the Go-Pro camera up on my helmet and making runs down the mountain. I did this in order to make a short movie about the day. This was all fine and well until I ended up taking some kid out (really he took me out) while recording... Below is a link the to the video. The crash is at the end.

Enjoy. Beech Mountain New Years Video <~ Click

Walking back to the car we saw this thing. Parked in the Handicapped spot, too.

After leaving the slopes we stopped by our favorite restaurant on Beech Mountain, Brick Oven. We killed some more pasta, wings and pizza before heading back to Echota to celebrate the new year.

Every Christmas Carry buys us guys a nice dark beer. This year's was a aged stout from Trader Joe's. Was very good had a high alcohol content as well...

Chillin out around the fire place waiting for the ball to drop.

We ended up playing circle of death that night, again. Along with some other card games while watching the ball drop and the RedBull jump. It wasn't long after that we all passed out again... there is a reason why...

Will's present from Dirty Santa. Peach Moonshine. This ended up making laps around the table...

Sunday was a lazy day with some crazy weather. Woke up to an amazing view and temperatures in the lower 60's. We managed to get up and moving to make it to lunch at the Banner Elk Cafe. The food was great, fried chicken, green beans and mashed redskin potatoes. All for like $7.00! We were all a bit hungover still and apparently I was a bit rude to our waitress, but honestly the service was crap right from the start. But anyway...

Good Morning, 2012!

While we were at lunch the temps dropped like 10 degrees and rain came outta no where! It went from sunny and warm to cold and wet, quickly. So we went back to Echota to drink the rest of the afternoon away and lounge.

Becca ended up having us all craving some baked Mac and Cheese after telling us about her recipe. So we managed to make it down the mountain to the store and picked up the ingredients we needed. For 24.00 we ended up getting enough stuff to make two pans of the stuff and it fed 8 of us, well! I think we will be cooking more often!

Later that afternoon the temps kept dropping and the wind was blowing hard. It found its way through any lack of seal around the windows and doors. The blinds were moving and the doors were creaking due to the wind and the pressure. We later had fun with this by opening the front door then the back door... If the back door was open, it was all I could do to open the front door for all the pressure on it.

The next morning a few of us decided to go back to Beech for a half day ride for 20.00 since it was weekday and the holiday rates were over. The temps were well within blowing range so they had them all on that morning.

Drew and Robert decided to get some more GNAR points by parking at the top of the mountain and riding down the slopes to pick up their lift ticket.

All the blowers were on at Beech.

After one run down the mountain...

Conditions weren't as good on Monday as they were on Saturday thanks to the warm weather and rain. But it was still worth $20.00. We rode till around 12:30 that afternoon, called it quits and headed back to Echota to pack up and head home.

Visibility was a bit low again, but manageable.

All in all it was great weekend. Good times with friends on the slopes, lounging around the condo with drinks and good food. Really can't complain. Hopefully things will turn around in the weather and we can get a trip up to Snowshoe, WV soon!

Until next time... think snow!

Day Trip to Ski-Beech

As we approach the middle of December, Mother Nature continues to tease us with ideal slope conditions. After it got nice and cool for the season opener at Sugar Mountain, the weather turned warm and rainy for a couple days. That pretty much killed all the snow that Sugar had built up. However, following this warm rain was a good cold snap that brought some moisture with it. Boone and the higher elevations were hit with 4-6 inches of powder and highs in the upper 20’s. The snow guns were running non stop, day and night. With this, Josh Beasley and myself were constantly watching Ray’s Weather as well as the slope cameras for Sugar and Beech. With these types of conditions it was looking like the major runs would be opening up shortly.

In the following week, Travis and Josh were blowing me up asking when we would head to the mountains for some boarding. Honestly, I wasn’t ready to go yet as I was hoping to wait till the black diamonds were opened up. Didn’t really feel like spending the money in gas and lift tickets to ride the same greens and blues all day on poor snow. This was fine and well until Josh had finally had enough of watching the blowers on the computer, he wanted to shred. With this urge he offered to foot the gas bill in my truck if we went. Well, that wasn’t a difficult decision to make. So I called Travis to let him know that we were going, and well… he got a bit upset because he couldn’t make it on Saturday. He will get over it, I’m sure.

Friday night I headed over to Josh’s place to crash; we were planning on leaving his house early to ensure we were on the slopes right after they opened. After dinner, Josh and I watched, “The Art of Flight”, Travis’ Rice’s new video. One word to describe that film, EPIC! Any boarder or skier should really watch this film as it tops his previous film, “That’s It. That’s All.”

5:30am, Josh and I are loading up the truck with the gear and headed out of Thomasville, NC and making our way towards Banner Elk, NC. Once on 421, we made a quick stop at Bo jangles for a Cajun Filet and continued heading west with sun rising behind us.

That day was the start of my second season on my Burton Clash and unfortunately it caught some hell last year when I was taken out by a couple kids at Sugar. The board had a couple large gashes in it and they needed to be filled. Thankfully I have made some good friends that work at Alpine Ski Center. Before our trip, I made arrangements with, “Fluffy” to have him wax my board before we headed up the mountain. After killing 20 minutes in Alpine, Fluffy gave my board back with a hand shake and out the door we went.

While we were at Alpine we made the decision to go to Beech for the day since Sugar was having their “Sugar Fest.” They would have the K2 reps there and you could demo the new gear, live band playing, rail jam, etc. Seeing as how Josh and I had no interest in buying new gear and weren’t going to enter a rail jam, we decided Beech would be the better option with the high speed lift.

By 9:30am Josh and I were on the lift for the first run of the day. The blowers were on all over the mountain, including White Lightning, their black diamond. (Still closed though)

After a couple runs the cloud cover had moved in, add the blowers into the equation and visibility was poor. At times it became difficult to see 50 feet out but we made the best of it and typically the poor visibility was only for short section.

Josh ready to make the first run of the season!

Not my first lift of the season, but stoked to be in my own gear and getting the season going.

Blowers were covering mountain that day.

Blower on White Lightning doing work. Never noticed that road there... explain the ledge that is right there every year.

Good photo showing the grade of that part of the slope. Fun run, just wish more of it was like that part.

After a couple warm up runs I began working on riding switch. For those that aren’t familiar with these kinds of sports, riding switch is riding backwards to what you are used to. I have learned to ride, “normal” or left foot forward as I go down the mountain. So to ride switch is to go “goofy” for me with right foot forward. Once you’re so used to riding one way and having each foot do its own task on the board, it’s hard to re train it.

I would ride switch on the lower half of the mountain, trying to practice going from edge to edge. As you can imagine I fell a good bit, mainly when I tried to go from my heel edge back to my toe edge. In addition to riding switch I began working on my spins. After a few runs I was able to complete multiple spins to my right side while moving down the mountain. I am still working on spinning to my left. Not sure why it’s more difficult, but it is…

Around 11:30 the clouds got really thick, Josh and I were ready for a break anyhow so we decided to take an early lunch. In an attempt to save some money, we packed our lunch and spent an hour resting in the truck. During that time the clouds began taperi off a bit, making visibility better on the mountain.

After a few more runs down Upper and Lower Shawneehaw I was slowly starting to get the hang of riding switch. With that, Josh and I decided to make an entire run down the mountain riding switch. As you can imagine, I fell, a lot. My legs were shot and I had to take a couple rests on the way down the mountain. Eventually I did make it and I did ride the entire run switch.

After a 10 minute break, Josh came up with the brilliant idea to race down the mountain. (Normal stance) The slopes really weren’t that crowded and the visibility was ok at the time. Off the start I was ahead, but not for long. Josh came by me pretty quick as I made a poor line choice in the middle of the slope. I started to gain on him after turning onto Lower Shawneehaw, however, a skier bit the dust right in front of me about half way down and I had to make a hard turn to avoid him and I lost a ton of speed. I tried pumping to gain speed back but my legs just weren’t having it. Josh pulled ahead a bit as we made our way into Crossover and onto Freestyle. However, on Freestyle he took a bit of a wide line to avoid the snow blowers. I wasn’t about to get my ass handed to me, so I sucked it up and got as tight as I could to the inside of Free style and did my best to tuck below the blowers. By the time we made it to the drop off just before the chair lift line I was within a couple feet of Josh. At the drop off (which we called the finish line) I cut hard to get to the inside of him. As I made my way to the lip I lost my edge and my board went up, my ass went down and I began to slide. As this happened, I looked up to see that my board was within inches of Josh’s calf’s as he made the drop. I almost had him! Since I lost, I had to buy dinner… oh well. It was a fair race.

Josh and I were both shot after that so we decided to take another breather before heading back onto the chair lift. At this point the cloud cover was very sporadic. They would be heavy one minute and then clear up the next. So each run we made for the rest of the afternoon, we would sit at the top and wait for a few moments for it to clear up before we made our run.

A little cloudy down there....

Good enough... time to shred.

Blue sky eventually showed up, for a bit.

On Lower Shawneehaw, Beech had a few small park features set up, one of which was 1 foot diameter pipe with a slight ramp leading up to it. There were blowers all around this area which had the pipe extremely icy. With that in mind I wasn’t about to try and ride it. However the lip leading up to it was pretty good so I start jumping off it. After realizing my vertical hop was pretty good, I decided that I could probably jump over the pipe by crossing it from left to right. Success! Josh was able to do it as well. After doing this a couple times, we decided to take some video of it.

Me jumping over the rail.

Josh getting a grab off the lip.

Around 4:15, Josh and I were beat. Our legs were dead and the cold air was starting to move back in. We called it a day and headed for the truck. After packing up our gear we headed into Boone to visit, Mellow Mushroom for some good pizza and cold beer.

We made it home that night around 8pm. Overall it was good day of riding considering the run that was open and both took advantage of the easier runs by improving on some of our tech skills. Looking forward to the next slope session! (If weather co-operates, it looks like I will be spending New Years on the slopes!)

Side Note: Today (12/14/2011) it is in the 50’s with clear skies in the mountains.

First Session of 2011-2012!

Mother Nature is not being very nice to those of us that want to be on the slopes… In the last couple weeks it has been unseasonably warm and rainy. Sugar Mountain has been blowing snow for a couple weeks now off and on and been open for a couple days at a time. However, Beech Mountain had their scheduled opening day for December 3rd and was blowing as much snow as possible at night and during the day when the temps were down.

Winterplace isn’t releasing a lot of information regarding snow blowing or opening dates yet. However, Snowshoe is talking about opening up Friday, December 9th and has mentioned that they are blowing when possible. As you can imagine I am constantly checking the weather forecast and checking the slope cameras to see how things are coming along. Each day has been a disappointment…

A couple weeks back, Will Greene mentioned going up to Boone to watch the playoff game between Appalachian State and Maine. I was able to make the plans and decided to ride up there with him. I had a great time the night before the game as well as tailgating before hand. Unfortunately, App didn’t play too well and Maine won the game. So to release some frustrations, Will and I joined Josh Von Canon on the slopes at Sugar Mountain. Josh had plenty of extra gear for us to borrow and Sugar had the upper and lower flying mile open that night.

After packing up all the gear and stocking the cooler we headed out of Banner Elk and over to Sugar Mountain. (You could hear the snow blowers from several miles away)

“3/4 station” was the farthest you could go up the mountain at this point. This was fine and well until we got there and I realized which off load point that was. This off load point has one hell of a steep ramp leading to the slopes from the chair. First run on the season, unfamiliar gear, slight intoxication… this is not looking good. Thankfully I did manage to get down the ramp safely and continued to do so all night.

First run down felt good! The snow wasn’t great, but it wasn’t icy and all I had to do was dodge the blowers. It was warm 36 degrees out so I was comfortable as well, hot at times. There weren’t a lot of people out that night so we almost had the slopes to ourselves.

After a few more beers and few more runs I had started to get my legs about me again and was starting to push my pace a bit. I started moving out of the main lines and off into the fluff and choppy snow where few people ride. This is normally the area I love to carve, however the board I was on was a park board and it didn’t much care for the rough stuff. So it made it a bit of challenge to keep speed and not bust my ass when riding in it.

The slopes shut down at 10pm that night. We ended up making 7-8 clean runs that night. Well worth the discounted lift ticket price. It was a great warm up for the season and it proved to me that the leg workouts I had been doing to prep for the season are working great. I wasn’t the slightest bit sore that night or the following day.

Hopefully the temps will drop off here soon and the snow will fall. This short session has me even more pumped to get out in the snow, SOON!

2011 Riding Season Recap

As we work our way though the holiday season of 2011 I'd like to take a bit to look back of the riding season that has come to a close. It has been a busy year and unfortunately I didn't get to ride as much I would have liked. However, the trips I did complete were pretty spectacular and each one opened some doors that I would not have expected.

Dad and I opened the 2011 season with a huge ride. We completed a Bun Burner Gold with Mike "Hammerdown" Brown in March on our way to the IBA party in Jacksonville, Florida. We rode a bit over 1500 miles in 23 hours and 4 minutes. For more details see blog entry, "We Rode to Bike Week the Long Way."

Our "shake down run" a couple weeks before the BBG attempt. We rode around Rowan County and surrounding areas. Stopped a few times to discuss routes and trip plans, etc.

This was our BBG route. Map and points are taken from my SPOT tracker during the ride. Charlotte to Slidell, LA, over to Lake City, Fla, down to Tampa, Fla over to Daytona and up into Jacksonville. We left in the rain on Thursday morning at 12:00am and managed to get soaked in Atlanta. By Slidell, we were back on time, dried out and busted a trail across I-10 to seal the deal.

During the RTE at Flangler Beach the next day, we met this couple. Shane and Annette Cudlin from Australia. They are members of the Far Riders there and were signed up to run the IBR in the summer. (Which they finished, two up!) Turns our their family centers around racing and motorcycles as they own a shop and their sons compete in endurance road races. Damien has even competed in a few MotoGP events on a Ducati and has had a good showing at each race!

Chillin on the side of A1A headed down to Daytona. Nice warm weather in Florida.

In honor of riding my FZ for the BBG attempt, my hero, Barb Smith rode here FZ to the IBA party from Texas.

"Mock-Rageous" made it down to Jacksonville so he could come with us to the Daytona 200 on Saturday afternoon. He rode that small ass Harley from New Bern, NC to Jacksonville and then followed us around Daytona and back home. Jon, you sir are a beast. But you knew that....

Leaving the Daytona 200 got a quick shot of Jon and the sign. The guys in full gear and two with bags, you can see how we stuck out in this crowd.

After the BBG ride I didn't get to do alot of riding since I was keeping the bike back home in Lexington and I was living in Raleigh. In addition the chain and sprockets were shot and I was not comfortable riding on a chain that had the tensile properties of a rubber band...

Memorial day weekend I finally got the bike squared away and spend three days and 4 nights on the road to clear my head from some personal stuff that was going on. Night 1: headed to Mooresville to stay with Travis and his g.f. Rachel. Day 1: Partied on Lake Norman on their friend's boat. Day 2: (pictured) Rode with Travis and my parents up around the Boone area. Day 3: Josh and Jon ran their first track day event at VIR.

Dad, Travis and Myself outside of Blowing Rock for lunch.

On the way to Danville, Va I passed this guy on 58. I think he likes yellow...

Josh looking good as the day progressed.

Jon is on there somewhere... Again, "Mock-rageous"

Made it to an RTE in Hickory, NC when I returned from NYC on business. Good turn out of MTF folks. Got to spend some time riding with Mike Brown, Grizz and the parents.

On Father's Day, Dad and I always make it a point to do something involving bikes. This year we made a day trip up to WV. Dodged the rain and had a good ride up to Beckley and back.

I finally got around to submitting my paperwork for the BBG ride sometime in May. Certificate and backing plate arrived in August.

Working on making a fender with all those backing plates!

In mid August I left NATVAR and started working at TurboCare in Winston-Salem. So I left Raleigh and moved back home with the parents. During the change I managed to work in a week off. So with this, I went riding. No shocker there...

Up on the parkway with Beasley.

Went for a good long day ride with Josh. Started up Hwy 8 to Tuggles Gap. Then rode the parkway south to Boone. Made a pass on 421 and then headed home via 58 and south down to 21.

The Sunday before I started work, Dad and I got out for a day ride to the D-Day memorial in Virgina. Very sombering place.

One nice Saturday afternoon, the group got together for a little ride through the country. Josh, me, Travis & Rachel as well as Mitch on his new ride.

At the list minute I managed to make it to Founders Feast in Western, NC this year. It was held at the Iron Horse Lodge, so I was able to make my yearly Deals Gap ride. :)

The ride to the lodge Friday morning was a bit wet. In fact it rained from the time I left at 4am to the other side of Asheville. However the rain stopped and the clouds lifted as I entered "The Smokies." Amazing sight...

My hotel room for the weekend. Darryl nick named it "The Bates Motel." It wasn't much, but it was cheap and it was clean. Sure, I'd stay there again if I had to.

Saturdays group under Bridal Veil Falls on 64. Had alot of fun riding with this group of misfits!

Eventually the cats were herded for a group photo on the creek bank at the lodge.

Each morning I left my room early to catch a sunrise on the mountain and do a little agressive riding on my own. Sunday morning I made it to the Skyway for a a bit. Shot was taken at the base of the Skyway.

While I was at Founders Feast I managed to ride a Yamaha Super Tenere (S10 for short) and a Suzuki Vstrom. I have been throwing around the idea of getting a large bike for a bit now and those two were on my list. The S10 was just released and the base model runs about 13,000. However, the Vstrom can be bought used for around 5,000 to 8,000. The S10 is everything the Vstrom falls short at, but for the price difference, I think I could deal with it.

Three weeks later....

I found this bike on the Cycle Trader. Bike was located in Atlanta and the seller was a fellow IBA member as well. Wasn't really ready to purchase yet, but the bike was set up and ready to go for LD rides. I had to do it.

Riding the bike home!

Dad and I had a In State SS1000 scheduled for the following Saturday. So I had a week to go through the bike and install my J&M. One thing always leads to another. I ended up rewiring all the farkles on the bike.

The following Saturday, Dad and I completed an In State SS1000 as part of the Jack Shoalmire tribute. We completed a loop of NC in 21 hours I think it was. No shame in admitting that this ride was the toughest one I had ever done.

Now that the Vstrom is around the FZ needs to go. I hate to see it leave as I have enjoyed riding it so much, but to make the swing to the larger bike the old one has to go.

I currently have the bike listed on the forums, craigslist and ebay for 2,800.00.

Lots of fun miles on this bike.

I guess that about sums up the riding year. Not a record year as far as miles were concerned, but I did manage close to 10,000 and completed two IBA rides. I guess I can't complain too much.

I already have a few rides on the books for ext year that I hope to make happen. Dad, Mike and myself are looking to complete a SS2000 (2000 miles in 48 hours) on the way to Jacksonville this year. After that I am planning to make it to Moonshine, Illinois for the Moonshine Lunch Run in mid April. Following that is the MTF ride in Wisconsin in July.

The Vstrom is now parked for the year and looking to be torn down for modifications and maintainence. In the mean time Im looking to keep myself entertained with some snowboarding this winter. (If it ever gets cold)