Day 5-One Last Ride and Time to go Home

John was still on his way back from Charlotte and Mark wanted to go visit his family cemetery, so Josh and I headed out for a ride. We planned an out and back route that would take us to the to of Flat Top Mountain. On the map the climb appeared to be in the 1.5-2 mile range, but looked really steep. As we rode along the country roads I was a little depressed knowing that my next ride would be back home in Chicago dealing with crazy motorist, stoplights, and no climbing, just headwinds As we approached the turnoff for Flat Top Mountain we were greeted by a fairly steep gradient. As we continued on the climb became steeper, and the switchbacks were super steep and didn’t give the normal opportunity for recovery. My legs were really feeling it today, but since it was the last climb of the trip I wanted to try and push the pace a bit. After a couple of miles I was chased by a dog, and I had to sprint to get away from the pooch. After that sprint I was done, and entered survival mode the rest of the way to the top. The climb ended up being 3.2 miles in length and with no flat sections it was one of the toughest climbs of the trip. After waiting for Josh we cruised back down. The decent was a ton of fun with a bunch of switchbacks to practice my poor cornering skills. We returned to the cabin on the same roads, and my North Carolina riding was done for now.

Overall it was a great trip; with plenty of riding, lots of good food and beer, and time to catch up with old friends.