Blacksburg, VA / Snowshoe, WV

With only a week to go before the Shenandoah 100 it's time I ditched the gravity bike and got on my XC ride. Well, sorta...



On Friday night Joey, Taylor, and I drove to David Verde's house in Blacksburg, VA. The next morning we woke to pancakes and gnar-e-o's! On the schedule for that day was shuttle runs on Brush Mountain. We took turns driving shuttle and cruising down the sweet singletrack. Taylor was on a borrowed Anthem X1 (for the first mtb trip of his life) but kept up with us just fine. We got three or four runs each and capped off the day with a trail that led straight to the VT Freeride Farm. There we spent the remainder of the day making trips down their newly built dual-slalom course.



That night we headed to our favorite camping spot near Slatyfork, West VA. Here's the view from my hammock:



The next morning we split into two groups. We met Jarrod and Joe at the summit so they joined Joey and David for lift-accessed riding at Snowshoe while Taylor and I headed out for a XC loop around the mountain. The ride was great despite missing one of the turnoffs and instead completing the loop on fireroad. My favorite trail of the day was 600 steps. It's a medium pace with lots of fun technical features to snake through. The coolest obstacles of all were the tree stumps cut six to seven inches from the ground. They've been in the trail for so long that moss has covered them, along with most of the trail, which gives the illusion that they're simply part of the ground. Another fun spot was the tree-laden mud pit we found:



We also found a cool Jeep Wagoneer built as a "troop carrier" for Snowshoe's Dining staff:



Once our loop was over, Taylor and I lumbered over to the store to replenish our bodies with some much needed carbohydrates - pizza! Soon after that Joey and David arrived back at the Jeep. We said goodbye to our Blacksburg guide, David, and headed back for home.