Pine Log – My first time with a Bandersnatch
The exploration bug has bitten me again. Saturday Namrita and I rode at Pine Log WMA. Armed with gears (me, not Nam) and map this time, we planned to cover a little more ground than our last two attempts at Pine Log. Friday night I built up my new Vassago Cycles Bandersnatch and was very anxious to ride it.
We had two maps. One was an larger overview of the area and another a more detailed blow up some single track provided by Lisa Randall. Long story short, I took a wrong turn almost immediately. I had mistaken what area the blow-up represented and we ended up going in the opposite direction of the recommended route. We were pretty far in by the time I realized this and just continued on, but as I looked around to identify the landmarks around us I guessed we had some serious climbing in store.
We found the single track and rode for bit and then I was proven right about the climbing. The trail quickly pitched skyward and the rocks….oh the rocks. Soon enough this was the scene:
I was mildly regretting the heavy sets of leg work I did on Friday. Hiking in carbon soled shoes is rough. Still, it was beautiful weather, new trail and the scenery was great. Once we reached the top we could see for 20 mile or more.
We consulted the map and were left with a decision. The blow-up of the single track showed we were at a “T”….left or right. The trail to the left went off of our map, though I am fairly confident of where is comes out. Right was a serious climb, followed by a serious descent, but fully represented on the map. Give we had about 2 hours of daylight, we decided on the known route and up we went.
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The climbs were so steep that keeping close to any sort of base heart rate was not an option, so we hiked some more. To be honest, I’m not sure how the riding would have gone even if I could have just gone for it. Look at these leaf covered rocks…it’s the ones you can’t see that should worry you:
At the peak of Hanging Mountain there is some great views. I could see north to Fort Mountain and west to the ridges where the Snake Creek Gap time trails are held. I’d have some pics, but this camera is just not up for the duties these days. We followed the trail across the top of the mountain just as the map shows and then lost the trail. Trails can just disappear this time of year. The leaves just swallow them up. We wondered around the southern end of the mountain top looking and found a number of interesting things, but no trail.
Eventually we backtracked, found the initial trail we rode in on then tried again.
Then the camera was put away the downhill fun began. We found and lost the trail a few more times. Then we explored two routes that were shown on the map to possibly connect back to the one of the main roads…neither worked out. The first was covered in dead fall as far as I could see, so that one will have to wait for a day with more sunlight. The other look promising, but eventually dead-ended. We bush whacked from there toward where the known trail should be and found it quite easily. This one was a little rough too. The pine trees wanted to reclaim this one badly. We finally cleared that section and saw the main road in the distance with one last steep pitch in between. I dropped down first and then Namrita followed.
Much to her credit she jumped up and tried two more times before clearing it. Her skills and confidence improve with every ride. From there we rode on out…after we went back for Nam’s Tifosis lost in the crash.
The Bandersnatch performed well. The rigid fork took a minutes to get used, but it’s much more forgiving than the carbon one I had in the past. The seat post was slipping because of a stupid quick release clamp I was using. I don’t know where that one came from or even was QR seat posts even exist, but it’s going away ASAP. I’ll know more about how it climbs when that issue is fixed and I go some place with a little less elevation.