How Was It?
As I just finished many of the segments of the “Mountains to Coast” ride I
figured I would write a quick report on how it went and the fun (and not so
fun) experiences that I had along the way. As a bit of background, the
Mountains to Coast ride is an annual ride that covers most of the state of
North Carolina from the ‘mountains to the coast’. It organized by Cycle NC,
which is part of North Carolina Amateur Sports. In
1997, North Carolina Amateur Sports, the North Carolina Division of Tourism,
the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Capitol Broadcasting
Company discussed the idea of starting a fully supported cross-state bicycle
tour in North Carolina. Two years later in 1999, the Cycle North Carolina
Mountains to Coast fall ride began its inaugural trek across the State of North
Carolina. Since then, CNC has attracted participants from all 50
States and 8+ Countries, stopped overnight in 95 North Carolina towns, traveled
more than 4,900 miles on the scenic backroads of the state and passed through
more than 600 North Carolina communities. Cycle North Carolina has been
voted "Best Biking in America" by the League of American Bicyclists
and selected as one of the best events in the United States. This year
the ride began in Waynesville, NC (just a bit west and south of Asheville) and
was scheduled to finish in Oak Island on the coast.
I got to
Waynesville by taking a rainy bus ride on Saturday and once I was there I
quickly found an indoor camping spot in the Waynesville Community Center.
“Indoor” camping is a nice term for a bunch of people sleeping on the floor of
a gymnasium or other wide open space. I chose indoor because it was raining in Waynesville
(see the theme yet?) and I was not thrilled about setting up a tent in the rain
much less sleeping in it. I put my mat and sleeping bag on the floor beside an
interesting old guy and among a bunch of other older guys. I would later read
that the average age of this ride was 56 years old… kinda cool.
 |
| A Typical "Indoor" Camping Arrangement |
The first day
of the ride started out in the rain and promised to be a real fun time with a
brutal climb over Mt Pisgah where the last four miles of the climb were going
to be at an average of 10% grade. Once I got into that part of the climb I had
to stop twice and just stand beside my bike in order to rest my legs a little
and to catch my breath. I made a conscious decision on both of those occasions
NOT to take even one step up hill – “I may stop and rest but I’m not going to
walk my bike” was my thought process. I later posted that I used every gear on
my bike except W(alk) and F(all). Once I cleared the top of that climb it was a
quick scoot downhill for a few miles followed by a couple of much smaller hills
before stopping in Hendersonville for our first overnight. Since it was still
raining I choose the indoor camping option again and setup my little area in
order to get some sleep overnight. During the ride that day I missed the lunch
rest stop and therefore ended up eating only about 3 or 4 bananas and few other
snacks during the whole ride. As a result I was famished and sought out a
family restaurant for lunch / dinner. I ate the fried chicken dinner and when
the waitress asked me if I would like anything else I ordered a hamburger steak
dinner and ate that also. I told you I was hungry. The ride covered only 61.5
miles but had 3,866 feet of climbing and I finished it in about 4 hours and 30 minutes
at about 13.2mph for the average speed over the whole route. These were themes
that were going to follow me for a while.
Day Two
started out raining also as did Day Three. By now they are all a blur and I
ended up taking advantage of the indoor camping in order to stay somewhat dry
each of the nights I was on the ride. The rain fell almost constantly the whole
time I was on my bike and had only slight moments of ‘no rain’ just a few times
a day. Day two went from Hendersonville to Shelby and included one of the most
fun segments on the whole ride. As we rode into the town of Saluda, NC I sought
out a diner in order not to repeat the mistakes of the day before. I sat down
and had a very nice breakfast before proceeding on and ridding down the “Saluda
Grade” which is a very smooth and wide road segment that allowed me to go just
about as fast as I would ever want and pass several people along the way
(despite the steady rain.) Many more ups and downs followed that fun segment
and as I rode into Shelby day 2 would be over after 76.6 miles with 4,219’ of
climbing. I finished the ride in about 5:45 at an average speed of 13.3 mph.
Day 3 was more
of the same as we rode from Shelby to Concord. This route was very poorly
chosen in that we spent about 35 miles of the entire 80 miles riding in and
around the Charlotte Metro area. Charlotte is a very congested place that is
populated by a large segment of drivers that could not care less about
cyclists. Lots of horn blowing and flipping off makes for a nerve racking time
on the bike and I was happy once I finished the 80 miles and pedaled into the
Concord Arena. Although we were fairly far from the mountains with their long
single climbs for the day we were now finding ourselves working very hard to
ride up the rolling hills of the Piedmont area of NC. My totals for the day
were 3,412’ of climbing, 6+ hours on the bike and averaging about 13 mph. And
all in the rain.
 |
| My Wet Bike After Three Straight Rainy Riding Days |
Day 4 was actually
a nice riding day and I found myself needing my sunglasses as we crossed from
the Piedmont section of NC into the Sandhills section. More rolling hills with
a higher chance of them being really long left me sore and very tired as we
rolled through Pinehurst and into Southern Pines. The day’s totals were 81
miles, 3,886’ of climbing and just under 6 hours of riding. It was about that
time that I decided to check the weather and see if I could figure out
something about the Nor’ Easter / Hurricane that had been bringing us all the
rain during the week. Several riders had
already checked out of the ride and once I saw that Thursday was going to be a
very rainy ride into Lumberton followed by a rainy Friday ride I decided to
‘call it a ride’ and catch a ride back to Greenville. I am ashamed to admit
that I actually left the ride earlier than planned but somewhat vindicated by
the email that I received from the ride management
stating that Thursday (Day 5) would be the last day of the ride since the coordinators
were becoming so wary of the nearby storm. So technically I will only need to
finish riding one segment and after that I can proudly wear my “Cylce NC”
t-shirtJ.
The totals for
my four days of riding show that I rode 299 miles with 15,383’ feet of
climbing. All that work took me about 22 hours on my bike and I ended up
averaging 13.4mph, which is considerably less than I ride around here…turns out
that going uphill actually slows me down!
That’s about
it for the Mountains to the Coast ride. It was very well run and laid out (with
the exception of the Charlotte piece) with lots of challenging hills, downhills
and flats. The accommodations were great and I met quite a few interesting
people. You should go! ! !
What's Next?
Next up on my
schedule is the Hincapie Gran Fondo ride on October 24. It starts just north of
Greenville, SC and rides up into the mountains for about 50 miles. If you are
interested in riding in it you should hurry up to the website
(GranFondoHincapie.com) and register. You can even use my discount code of
“FriendsofJames15” and get a good discount off of the registration fee.
I really hope
you enjoy reading these ramblings and look forward to hearing your comments
about them…until then, take care and be careful!
