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Deep in the Heart of PISGAH! Monday night arrived in Brevard late, got to the Gauging Station @ South Mills a little after 8pm the Bob Trailer loaded.
got rolling and it start pouring down rain and i rained hard till i reached the swinging bridge. It took me nearly 3 hours from the Gauging Sta. to Cantrell Creek.
Riding South Mills Trail down towards Squirrel was like riding a Flume Ride.
There wasn't a trail... it was a river flowing down the mountain the new switchbacks on Squirrel Gap were a challenge freshly cut hillsides with 4 inches of water rolling down 'em trying to hike up...with a bob trailer in tow... yikes....super slick peanut buttery goodness
Riding with a loaded BoB on Squirrel Gap takes a little getting used to... Well a lot of getting used to... Going into turns you generally need to take turns wide or the BoB crashes into everything or off the ledge... Only problem Squirrel Gap is not a trail you want to go wide into the turns on. Some sections are at most 12 - 20 inches of trail with 20, 30, 40 foot tumbles down the steep hillside. add that with the driving rain, fog, wind and the black of night... it was pretty surreal.
Just after i past Wolf Ford and before i got to Horse Cove. i had my headlamp on dim to save power and was zoned out in the fog...next thing know i'm riding behind this...
only bigger...
Holy shit that freaked me out; i was riding 12 -15 feet behind the largest Black Bear i've ever seen in Pisgah it was huge... running down the trail in front of me... Got to Horse Cove and there was no sign of him...
from that point on i was making as much possible noise as i could, ringing my bell, singing out load, doing my best hunting dog howls.
Got around the last bend and i could smell fire... then i saw headlamps...Sweet ! BigJ, Jonathon and Chip we're camping at Cantrell Creek & Squirrel Gap and had a pretty good set up. They came in the other way Turkey Pen>SMR>Mullinax>Squirrel
J said "Man we didn't think you'd make it". I made it fine, but the Nikon D80 camera didn't fare too well... i got soaked in the rain. i had it in a bag within the camera case, but it still go soaked... evidently water got into the circuit card? any time i turn it on, the cam goes into rapid shoot mode, shot after shot of nothing... the display doesn't work, and the menu window has all icons/items blinking. Not a good sign...
I've had it out baking in the sun all day trying to get the moisture out. tonight will put it in a bag of dry rice to see if that will absorb what moisture is in there... most of the folks that i've talked to that know anything about cameras all say "i'm screwed, send it to Nikon for repair." What suckass timing, busiest photo season ever and i'm out a camera.
Good camping with my homies!
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| Black Out with Your Sack Out! |
Tomato and his fire building efforts.
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| Deep in the Heart of it! |
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| Hey Look it's Sasquatch (upper left) |
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| Tearing it down |
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| Packing it up |
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| Big J @ Horse Cove |
What a beautiful day!
gotta have more cowbell!
Shrimper tapping into his DarkSide.
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| Rider up! |
Sam Koerber, Adam Craig & Jeremiah Bishop were flying coming up through Horse Cove; just over an hour from the start...man, that is a good pace.... i can't even do Clawhammer Rd. in a hour... let alone half way through Squirrel Gap....
Smiles
and Beers were had
photos by Chip
Thanks to Shrimper (aka DarthVadar) for bringing in the cold Dale's Pales, Momma Pils, and the bacon egg cheese biscuits for breakfast. man, you saved the day!
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| photo by Dan Bennett |
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| photo by Dan Bennett |
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| photo by Dan Bennett |
you know it figures! this was my chance to get photos into DirtRag (been trying for years = nada) and last week got an email saying "hey, send us a proof sheet when you get back..." and the camera is dead.
