Asheville Training Trip, Day 1

After a lot of travel over a day and a half, the training trip finally began in earnest.  We arrived in Asheville around lunchtime and grabbed a bite before hitting the road for the first training ride.  Since we just arrived and haven’t had a chance to evaluate one another’s relative fitness, we decided to go ahead and plan to climb Mt. Pisgah to get ourselves warmed up.  In retrospect, this route is more than warm up material, but we felt pretty confident, so away we went.

Before we get into the pictorial account of the short, but taxing ride, I’d like to comment on one bonus of making a spring trip to the area.  With the threat (or reality) of rock slides, a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway climb was closed to traffic.  So basically, we had the roads to ourselves (other than a good amount of broken trees and debris) for the majority of the ride.  This was a pretty good deal since we could converse and do more cruising without worrying about being run down by tourists. 

Anyways, without further ado…the climb to Mt Pisgah:

Early in the ride, we came across our first lookout point.  There would be a lot of these.  They are essentially areas for cars to pull off and take pictures of the scenery.  However, I liked them for giving us photo op plus the ability to track our relative progress up the climb (notice, elevation).

A little while later, we came across a road block…road closed due to danger of rock slides.  Luckily, the 2ft barrier was not enough to stop us…so onward we went.

 

Along the route, we noticed (among the other beautiful scenery) this tower.  We decided the goal would be to make it to the tower, although we had no idea where it actually was relative to the route.

Also, along the way, you pass through about 9 of these tunnels.  They’re terrifying for many reasons.  First and foremost, they’re clearly most likely the home of zombies although we managed to avoid them.  Second, some of them are quite long and it’s impossible to see the road while travelling through a tunnel.  And the worst part of all, there is no warning to remove your sunglasses before entering, which only makes them more terrifying.

One redeeming quality of the tunnels were the unique ice structures.  Take for instance this column.

Eventually, we made it to the top of Mt Pisgah, which was so memorable I forgot to get pictures.  The trip up (from Liberty bikes) took close to 1.5 hrs and we descended to the main road in about 20 minutes from there.  It was memorable being the first time I’ve ever climbed what could be considered a mountain, but there’s plenty more to be done in the next few days.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring a century ride (and better pictures), but we’ll see how the weather cooperates.