Too cold up north, running south

[Reptilzs]

Hey guys just wanted to share my spring break trip. We headed down south, North Carolina baby. 2 buddies and I decided to head to the Tsali recreation area, located near Bryson city, NC. There are about 40 miles of trails their. We rode for 4 days straight and packed up a day early due to the rain on Wednesday. The trails are very different to what is here in New England. They have these things called hills over there, who knew. The trail conditions were pretty good as far as dryness goes but there are mud holes sprinkled about. Some bad erosion in some parts though. Beautiful and fast pure single track at Tsali, would do it again in a heartbeat. Well here are the pics, they speak for themselves

We started the trip by loading the car
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We arrived at 5am and slept in the car for a few hours, this pic is from around 8am or so
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Our first campground
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Messing around before the first ride
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Good views for sure
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What a good looking kid, ME!
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Tom doing up a roller/wall of dirt. They even have stuff to play with in the south!
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Messing around
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[Reptilzs]

Day 2 not too many pics, too busy riding I guess
Some single track
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we moved to a new campsite to get some more morning sun
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Day 3
I almost fall off the mountain. Look at the pile of leaves that I messed up. this was probably the scariest moment while on trail.
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day 4 well it started with a drizzle and ended with a down pour.
No pics because we shredded through this trail way to fast. Really fun in the rain. About 4 miles in we were all wet so we threw everything out the window and ripped down the single track and ran through all the water and mud holes. No point of trying to stay dry so have fun instead. All the fun proved to be abusive to our brakes. At about mile 6-7 out of 12 our rear brake levers were hitting the handle bars. A quick trail adjustment with the multi tool worked until the last mile of double track. My rear wouldn’t return after I let go of the lever. My buddy’s brake bottomed out his lever again. We got to camp and decided to pack up in the rain and head home a day early. I didn’t want to head home early but having no brakes was the deal breaker.

[AA]

Looks like a great time, I'm officially jealous.

[MTBME]

What were the temps like down there? Were most of the trails on the smooth and fast side?

[Reptilzs]

first day with clear skys might have hit 70. the 2nd and 3rd day was about 50-60 with the clouds. shorts and t shirt weather once the sun comes out but the mornings are chilly about 30-40. trails were definitely on the smooth and fast side. very few techy stuff besides roots and eroded fall line trails. its fast, smooth and on an actual mountain

[Slappy]

Sounds like an awesome time. I'm sooo overdue for a road trip.

Once the trails firm up, you guys'll have to make some more trips up this way too.

d

[Yeti_Ken]

I just got back from Pisgah NF in North Carolina yesterday, myself. Didn't make it over to Tsali this year; the lake was dry the last time I went (Feb 04) and took away from the experience. Pisgah NF and DuPont state forest were great considering the short trip. I have very few pics to share and they are all posed (i.e. no action), but have posted them with two very short videos on MY BLOG (http://kenkeister.blogspot.com/). Sorry, the angle doesn't do the steepness of the videos justice.

This is definately a good trip to take in the late winter or early spring. I will try to plan another one next Feb/Mar if possible.

Ken