Pisgah/Swank pre-ride next Thurs or Fri

[brando]

Anybody else riding Swank this year?
I hope to pre ride the course next Thursday or Friday. Get a feel for what I'm in for. Gonna be soloing it unless somebody else wants to ride up with me. Have plenty of room in the truck. It'll be a day trip.
Let me know.

Brandon
803 634 0509

[mhanna]

I'm signed up and as of right now I'm planning on doing it. I'd love to pre-ride it with you but I'll be in Virginia starting next Friday for a week. Plan on getting some real mountain riding in there on the SM 100 course, Douthat and Southern Traverse.

Those three loops for Swank are tough when all done together. If you've never ridden them before you'll be in for a surprise. Be careful on upper Farlow. It's wicked nasty.

[brando]

Cool Mark. Yeah if I end up solo on the scouting trip I'll probably skip Farlow. From what I hear most people walk down it. I'm just looking to finish the race so I feel sure I'll walk it too.
You think the rest of the trails on the course besides Farlow warrant a preride? Or are they pretty straight forward and easy to deal with on the fly? I'd much rather spend the day at Dupont than climbing fire roads up in Brevard alone.

[mhanna]

It'd be good to ride it if you can. The only way to prep for all that climbing is to do that kind of climbing. DuPont is great but you won't be doing any 4-5 mile climbs there.

Daniel Ridge, Long Branch and Butter are some of the best singletrack in Pisgah and all have plenty of pucker factor even without Farlow. Only bad thing is you miss a great section of Daniel if you don't do Farlow.

Wish I could go with you. Have fun

[brando]

I survived Farlow. This time. Really not looking forward to riding (mostly walking) it again during the race.

[mhanna]

You can't describe it, you just have to experience it. It's even hard to walk much less ride this time of year with all the leaves down. Weather is looking good right now so I'm crossing my fingers it stays dry and cool.