2008 Double Dare - Day 2
I rarely sleep well except for after day 1 of the double dare. Sleep seems to be plentiful when you know you must wake in 4 hours. Oh well.
The morning came fast and with it a whirlwind of preparation. Where's the pump? Crap! I can't find my other sock! Do you have any Cliff Shots left? After a few minutes of morning delusion, the smoke in my eyes cleared and I realized what we were there to do. Eric of Pisgah Productions rode by our camper van Tahoe ringing a large boisterous cowbell at approximately 5:30 am. A cow bell seems to slice through the sanctuary of Pisgah morning silence like a hot knife through butter. I bet there were squirrels and raccoons kissing their loved ones goodbye because they thought judgement day had arrived, or maybe I solely owned those destructive actions.
Once I realized Eric's cow bell was not the doomsday tolling death bell, I shifted into high speed, gathered my things and joined Cissy who had been ready in at least 50% less time than me. She obviously finds my snail pace preparation humorous. I thought to myself "glad I can help" as we rode over to day 2 race start.
We knew what was ahead of us...another glorious day in the woods. We hurt. We were soar, tired, tight, droopy eyed etc. but we signed up for this fun and we were planning on finishing as best as possible.
The day started with a surprise (not) time trail up to the end of Pilot Mtn. Rd. @ Farlow Gap. We trotted up 276 at what felt like a sub day-1 pace and prodded our titanium steeds up 475 to Gloucster Gap. There we met a group of hooligans implementing obvious shenanigans. I needed a quick 5 so Cissy started her climb while I joined in the reindeer games. After what seemed like thousands of laughs from Mr. Tomato, I started the grind up to Farlow. I caught Cissy right at the top. We did our thing and pushed up the Art Loeb to the Parkway.
From the Parkway we hit Ivestor (Mandatory), Flat Laurel Creek, Sumney/215, Courthouse Falls, Farlow, Daniel/Farlow and Coontree. We had a good day but should have set out on foot for the John's rock hike. I'd never been up there before so was uncertain of the time necessary to grab the CP. We won't make that mistake again.
Day 2: 57 miles/+- and 10,400 +- climbing.
Much Fun.
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