Photo Essay: The First Trip to Brevard
A couple of weeks ago, we officially welcomed Brevard to the Chasing Epic family by hosting a sold-out group of riders for four days. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, as we rode in mid-70’s sunshine for four straight days!
Feedback thus far has been amazing; because of it, we plan on adding one more Brevard trip for 2019. Be on the lookout for an announcement soon, and expect the trip to be held sometime in early November. Until then, here’s a photo breakdown of the late April trip.
Day One: Cove Creek and Daniel Ridge
Kicking off the weekend, we like to “ease” riders into the rowdiness of Pisgah… and a Cove/Daniel’s route did exactly that. Cove Creek is a fairly mellow descent, but then we stepped it up on Daniel Ridge, where riders got to experience the chunk and tech of Pisgah first hand. All told, we rode 14.5 miles and climbed just over 1800 feet.
Day Two: Trace Ridge, Spencer Gap and Fletcher Creek
Enough with the introductory ride… let’s get into it! This ride has a little bit of it all, and is one of our favorites anywhere on the Chasing Epic circuit. Spencer Gap and Fletcher Creek give you a taste of “new school” Pisgah with more purpose-built singletrack, while Trace Ridge is good old-fashioned Pisgah with fall-line rowdiness. With the two laps here, we covered about 20 miles and climbed almost 3000 feet for the day!
Day Three: The Goods of Dupont
On the third day, we headed 15 minutes south of Brevard to check out Dupont State Forest. The riding here is noticeably different, with shorter climbs and much faster, flowy singletrack. It’s an amazing change of pace from Pisgah, and shows the true nature of the riding around Brevard. This ride saw us do about 24 miles with just over 3,000 feet of climbing!
Day Four: Bennett Gap, Middle and Lower Black Mountain
In order to make sure we got all three of these descents in before everyone departed town, we started off with a shuttle to eliminate the initial 1200 foot climb; strangely, no one was upset about that! Bennett Gap and Middle Black are about as rowdy and fast as it gets in Pisgah, and we loved showing everyone the goods. Follow that up with a smooth, flowy and slightly technical ripper down Lower Black, and that’s a wrap on this trip! Today’s ride was 12 miles with about 1800 feet of climbing (but 3000+ of descent!).
