As a Virginia girl, I've known about The Massanutten Ring for a while now. I'd even been on a couple parts of it during Le Tour de Burg back in 2017. Even my memories of those 'easy' sections were bad. My bike broke early in the stage and held together with zip ties I limped it through the stage, encountering countless areas that were cemented in my mind as unrideable (for me). I got destroyed. Completing a Full Pull was something I didn't think I would ever be able to do.
Enter the Backcountry Bike Challenge. I already had several of the routes on my post-fellowship summer bike adventure schedule, and most unfortunately I already had a flight booked home to Roanoke in late May. I pondered for a while if I was ready-- mentally or physically to even try. I'd spent 2+ years since my last attempt riding the VA backcountry and knew that my technical skills had significantly improved since my first time on the Ring, but I've also spent the last almost 2 years in the Bay Area mostly on pavement or gravel and was definitely scared that my East Coast rock skills had atrophied away, along with any upper body *aka bike pushing* strength I once had. Not only that, but after a major and poorly timed Achilles tendonitis flare in early April that took almost a month and a half to recover fully from, I have not been putting my usual time in in the saddle and no where near as strong as I had hoped for this point in the season. Oh right and all that spring skiing instead of bike riding. (zero regrets, 10/10 would do again! 🤷🏻♀️) 18+ hours when you haven't done more than 5 in like 3+ months is a good idea, right? After waffling for almost a month, I decided about 2 weeks out that I'd give it a go and did two things immediately: 1) Started doing daily pushups and 2) Reached out to Barry Croker for some beta.
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Carla told Harriet what I was planning to do.
(This is the appropriate response, possibly with a side of gas...) |
My first few days back home were focused on some bigger backcountry days on the bike, on some of my favorite trails with some of my best friends. A wet day on Dragon's Back though gave me confidence that my technical rock skills hadn't completely vanished. What those days did warn me though was that my gearing was woefully wrong-- more on this later. Nothing I could really do at that point, but at least knew that this would lead to difficulty on the Ring.
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| Trailhead food prep... |
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| Mellow Mushroom FTW |
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| Deceptively tame exiting Signal |
I drove up the night before. On the way I picked up an entire large pizza at Mellow Mushroom and some canned Starbucks cold brews for the morning and slept in the car at the trailhead. The alarm came early at 3:20...I was targeting a 4am start but I woke up and found another person in the parking lot was also awake -- also planning on trying the Ring that day. A bit of chatting and some extra coffee delayed me and I rolled out around 4:30a.
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| Rise and shine... |
The first climb wasn't bad with only a handful of quick walks for me and soon enough I had topped out on the ridge to the sky beginning to lighten and the forest taking shape around me. Just in time too, because soon enough the rock gardens became more frequent. The sunrise was spectacular and I was lucky to pass several overlooks which afforded beautiful views of the valley and river below. Little Crease Shelter came quickly. Knowing there wasn't water until the end of the ridge, I stopped to top off water and started back up to the ridgeline.
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| 'A line' and 'B line' re-converge |
The next stretch brought me my first "well, I've got nothing here" moment with a spot where the trail split. My GPS track kept me to the left which, thank you Strava is called the "A-line". Now, I don't know what the B-line entails (I was not about to walk back up and check it out) or if it even counts as a Ring completion but I'm pretty sure I walked almost all of that ~0.5 mile section and it was the first time I really wished I had different gearing. From Milford, I was in vaguely familiar territory and definitely rode more than I had my first time around which made me super happy. Going along the ridge, I kept getting flashbacks of TdB and half expecting Lindsey Carpenter to just come ripping by me on one of the many technical downhills. Along this stretch I encountered an overlook with a camping chair and took this as a signal that it was time for a more serious break and my first piece of cold pizza.
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| Snack break time |
After a small missed turn at the parking area, I was down Kennedy's and starting up Duncan's Hollow. I filled up water again partway up the climb, enjoyed the descent back down and then hit the Waterfall hike-a-bike. Yup, 2 weeks of pushups were NOT enough. After Waterfall, I headed into two of the hardest sections (per beta) of the ride. I actually didn't think Jawbone was too bad. I had to hike/carry-a-bike through some very large sections, but I felt like I was able to ride quite a lot between the bad sections. I found a small seasonal creek and topped off water again and ate some more pizza just before Short.
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| I swear, this one isn't even bad. |
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| Ok, fine. Jawbone/Short wasn't all terrible |
Short was horrible. By this point in the day, my legs were tired enough that I didn't have enough to power my lovely 34T gearing through techy rocks and found myself walking far more than I wanted. At some point along the ridgeline, Charlie got a text from me with a few choice swear words. Fortunately very shortly after I sent that, the final bit mellowed out and I took a break at Edinburg Gap to mentally regroup-- more pizza!
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| Snax! |
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| Post Short....cracked. |
The climb out of Edinburg was slow as I pondered how lovely a 28 or even 30T would be. The spring below Waonaze was running so I topped off water again knowing that I was going slower than I had hoped and I knew I wouldn't make it to Signal before dark. I rode as fast as I could along the ridge in the evening light. This section of trail is so much fun. I remembered it being horrible but I actually really loved it this time around even as tired as I was. Shortly before Woodstock Fire Road I suddenly noticed that although I was moving, my speed was no longer showing up on my GPS and that my map dot was at a complete standstill. At the road I stopped and after every troubleshooting attempt I could think of short of restarting the device (my total time was still running on it and visible so I didn't want to do that). I switched tracking to my phone, but unfortunately was down my easily
visible navigation. When I hit Mudhole Gap after dark, missed the trail signs and ended up about a mile down the road the wrong direction before I realized my error.
Finally, I was at the top of Signal Knob, looking down on the lights in the valley below. I steeled myself for the descent in both the dark and my current state fatigue. A few massive boulder gardens later, a lot of walking because at this point in the day in the dark I was not taking any risks, and nearly an hour to go 3 miles I rolled into the lot-- total time 18:59:06.
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| USFS for once is not exaggerating |
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'Only' 3 more miles down...
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I changed out of my chamois, loaded my bike, guzzled a cold brew, and headed to Harrisonburg for the night. Charlie is officially my hero for letting me use his place for a shower and a place to crash post ride.
Reflections on the day....
1. Arm day is critical. Yup, I've turned into a mostly soft Californian roadie and while that will fortunately change in 3.5 weeks (1 week of ICU and 3 more Stanford ED shifts exactly) before I return to mostly mountain biking, more than 2 weeks of 'training' would have been nice.
2. 34T was a terrible idea. While it's just fine for me out here, not so for the bEast Coast. I literally picked up this bike the day before I drove West and never got to ride it back East until now. Lesson learned. Ironically a 30T was already on its way for adventures later this summer....not in time though.
3. A lot of people have been asking me questions about what bike I used....Answer: the only mountain bike I have. (Open to sponsors though 😉) I have a Santa Cruz Tallboy 3 with Reserve Wheels. It was great. I love this bike. I ran Schwalbe Nobby Nic in the front and a Rocket Ron in the rear. I ran a Revelate Designs Full Suspension Frame Bag and a Gas Tank for nutrition/extra repair supplies.
4. Nutrition--The cold pizza was amazing and packed quite well. I finished the day with 3 bars and a couple of shot blocks still left, but if I'd had any mechanicals I would have wanted more food. I never ran out of water or really even came close, but I wasn't sure what would be running. Retrospectively, I could have stopped a couple less times (especially the section between Duncan & Waonaze which was 4 stops total) and been fine but alas. Finding some surprise water sources helped and had those been dry and/or I had mechanicals I would have been very happy I had stopped.
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| Near death by Type IV Hypersensitivity |
5. Since I was riding fully unsupported I approached the day with a mindset of 'ride safe' both for me and my bike. I had and ran my Garmin inReach Mini as an emergency device, and did have an emergency contact in Harrisonburg if absolutely necessary. That said, I also didn't take a lot of risks riding that I might have otherwise. I had zero mechanicals (STUNNED), and my worst injury was my right calf from where the dang pedal kept hitting it while I was pushing. Solution? Get better, get stronger, ride more!
6. Win of the day: Snuck in just before the summer overgrowth really kicked into high gear. There were definitely some blackberry bushes and thorns that won't really go away any time of the year and are kind of a given with backcountry VA riding, but F*&% YES I didn't hit a SINGLE nettle. Found some poison ivy though...somehow escaped with only one tiny spot. Fortunately, my Velocio Radiator Tee and Trail Shorts were the perfect kit for the day and kept me comfortable as well as more protected from many of the brambles.
My time was by no means epic, but I'm super happy to have finished and conquered my fear of these trails. I am so impressed by Britt, Libbey, and especially Lindsey who crushes all of us on any descent ever :). You ladies are rockstars and I hope I can make it out for TdB again next year to party with y'all!
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The Aftermath
(which is really just what my legs looked like
80% of the time I lived in Roanoke) |
Special Thanks to the Following:
--Carla and Jeff for the encouragement, Harriet & puppy snuggles, and everything else leading up to and after this adventure!
--Steph and Daniel for letting me borrow a car...without which I wouldn't have been able to get up north to do the ride.
--Charlie for the beta, shower, and place to crash after.
--Barry Croker for all the advice prior.
--DK and JB for not even batting an eye when I showed up to lunch/beer the next day covered in bruises and scratches....yup, Lauren hasn't changed a bit since residency. 😂
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| Extra Supplies. |
