Another one on the books.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was a great ride. Good times. Brother Dave came in from the U.K. to visit his parents and Mark had a rig for him to ride which in true Dave fashion he crashed. Hehehe love ya Dave. Ray came in from VA Beach and Rob showed up at midnight on Friday. Saturday morning we met up with Paul and Caroline at the BILO.
The cool thing about every time we do a ride in Pisgah or Dupont we stay at Mark's cabin the night before and usually have dinner in the little town of Saluda. A great little bar/resturant call the Purple Onion. Man that is some good eatin'. The cabin is 30 minutes at most from the trails. It is a great little place up on the top of a small mountain all by itself in the woods. Mark has done a lot with it. Very cool place to get away to. And he is always up for hosting riding buddies. Guess that's part of what makes him a really good friend.
We put the new Double Barrel rear shock on Ray's Heckler early Saturday morning before heading out. We did Black Mtn before lunch and had a blast. This time the Rainbow of Death was not attempted. I did do the second half of the down hill twice because I dropped my glasses at the mid point and had to go back and get them. Black Mtn is so fast and flowing with all those water breaks with some berms thrown in here and there. I didn't mind a bit. You can really push the bike hard into the turns. Make the rims creak kind of railing down that section. I love this trail. The day was a little chilly but sunny and beautiful. Lots O leaves that's for sure. It was toward the end of the ride on Sycamore loop that Dave ate it and lost the carbon cover to the rear shifter. So lunch time was spend at Sycamore Cycles. Dave ended up buying a whole new X9 shifter and they used the cover off that for the XO. If not the guts would have fallen out. Stand up guy that Dave. Then over to the fish hatchery. We only had time to do Caney bottom and whatever the other one is that dumps you out at the campground. Ray realized after the ride he needed to upgrade front the suspension to keep up with the Double Barrel. I believe he was pleasantly surprised at the performance of the rear though. Everyone usually is. Just can't beat the CCDB. Rob had to leave at lunch so, he didn't make the second half. Always fun riding with him. Excellent rider. Paul and Caroline, man talk about your hammerheads. A great bunch made for a great day of riding.
And of course I ride up just to come down. I do have to take my jumps where I can get them. One of my favorites is on the climb up the fire road to Caney Bottom. A gravel parking pad at a hiking trail head. Not really even a jump I just sort of started doing it one day. Kind of big. It puts you way out there. It's fun.