Well yet another thanksgiving has come and gone; along with a great deal of food and time that should have been put to better use. But even though I didn't get much studying done we did get in several good mountain bike rides over the very extended weekend.
Thursday morning Jake and I met a few people at Candler's Mountain for some turkey preparation riding. We rode with Brandon, Ben, Ryan and Bob for a couple hours and then headed back to the parking lot past the Snow-flex. While I think this place is kinda cool, i dont think that i will ever take it in...looks like super rug burn waiting to happen (maybe I'm just a snob). Upon arriving back to the car we ran into some other mountain biker friends and went back out for another hour. Then of course we stuffed ourselves with all sorts of delicious eats and visited with family.
Friday had big plans for all day epic road riding along the parkway and what have you, but nature intervened with cool temperatures and absurd wind gusts, thus we decided to alter our plans. We met Scott and rode the trails at Falling Creek park in Bedford; this was my first time on the trails and i will say that despite the cold and leaves the riding was great. We capped off the ride with a southpaw in the parking lot (well inside jake's car in the parking lot).
And for a change of pace we decided to go on a big mountain ride on saturday instead of the typical sunday. It was a little chilly in places and toasty warm in the sun in others. We drove down passed Glasgow and parked at the Locher parking area rode up a horse trail to the Sulfur springs trail, which crosses the AT a couple times, and rode down the Balcony Falls trail which forces you to get in some great switchback practice. We capped this ride off with a Starr Hill Pale ale and left over chicken biscuits from Mitchell's...awesome. We were able to get off the mountain just in time to make it back to Liberty Hall to catch yet another Thanksgiving; more delicious food. And to finish the night off in style the Hokies caught fire in the 4th quarter to defeat the wahoos for the 10th time in 11 years.
Sunday was spent relaxing in preparation for the weeks to come, we got a traditional breakfast and played some cards with the grand-rents and some quality folks.