Women’s Weekend at Mulberry Gap
Namrita and the ladies of Mulberry Gap, Ginny and Diane, put together this little experiment of inviting only women to Mulberry Gap and ride the surrounding trails. I was only allowed to be there as a second class citizen, as in I spoke little and stayed out of sight most of the time. It seemed to be a success on their part and I had a good time too. When I was not riding I was entertaining the dogs, fitting Andrew (he lives there at Mulberry Gap) and drinking beers by the fire. This made for a very relaxing weekend for me. Mulberry Gap is just a big enough spread that I could be there, but not there at all.
The rides were interesting. Andrew joined me for ride up FS 68 to Potato Patch then over to Windy Gap, then back over to Conasaga Rd. My legs were still a little beat down from the FM.24.08, lucky for Andrew. He’s strong, but only has a year or so of riding under his belt. Give him another year and he will be dancing around those mountains (it doesn’t hurt that we just received a 55nine fit…). Anyway the climb up with rough, but it was a beautiful day. We stopped at over look near Emory Creek camping area to take in the sights, then bombed down Windy Gap. So much fun. I was hoping to catch the tail end of the FW50 party, but it was all over by the time we got over there. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.
Sunday I ate this huge breakfast of pancakes, sausage, eggs and coffee, reloaded my Wingnut pack and headed off alone to catch the Carteday ride up Bear Creek to Mountaintown. I passed the girls with a “good morning” and kept a steady pace up Bear Creek. I once thought about bailing and heading back because I was just lacking any real snap in my legs, but I pressed on for some reason. I caught up to Mike & Kevin from the Cartecay shop. We rode and chatted. Mike dropped back and Kevin and I rode and chatted, then Kevin dropped back. Even when I’m tired I can descend like a rock. My legs even felt a little better on the climbs. I dropped into the single track at Mountaintown on my own. I cleaned the two sketchy sections along the waterfalls when I spied a bike laying on the side of the trail. I expected to see someone looking at the waterfalls, but instead found someone hanging on the steep bank being held up by a bunch of thorny plants. “Not good” I thought. I stopped asked a lot of questions. I was leery of moving her until I was sure her head and neck were OK. She showed me her knee which had some deep compression marks in the shapes of various bike parts. She tweaked her knee and may have even broken a bone. I helped her into a sitting position and waited for the others to come down the hill. Mike Palmeri is a fireman and paramedic, so I figured I do as little as possibly other than comfort her (by now I had asked her name, Tracey). I had a her laughing about the great view she picked when Kevin showed up. He rolled on to call 911 and get some real help. Next came Vic and Alana, then Mike. Mike took over and had her on her feet and then soon on her bike slowly rolling down. I took off to call off the 911 call. Then I flatted….and I used my spare yesterday (how many times must I do this?). I ran for about an hour before I finally reached the bottom of Mountaintown and relayed the news about Tracey’s travel to Kevin. The emergency response was already on it’s way. I scored a tube and rode back to Mulberry Gap with totally toasted legs. So much for a speedy recovery from he FM.24. I hope Tracey is OK. I left her in good hands.
Mike P snapped a pic once she was up and mobile:
