Pisgah National Forest - Pilot Rock, to Buckhorn , to Black Mountain - Feb 25th 2017

On Saturday February 25th, I met up with some friends from Nashville along with a few locals to Hendosonville, NC and we made our way down to Pisgah National Forest. 65 degrees and sunny and with a little rain just a few days before, the dirt was tack tack tack. 

Our morning started at a local coffee and bike shop called Sycamore Cycles. This place is awesome. The barista was nice, god smoothies pre and post ride, and the staff was incredibly knowledgeable on local terrain. 

With their laminated maps, we were able to use sharpie pens to map out out all day epic. 

Luckily, we had two cars so we were able to shuttle and get a little more riding on and make best use of our town. We started by entering the forest from Brevard, and dropping off one car at the bottom of Black Mountain and headed up HWY 276 to the Parkway where we dropped in from Pilot Rock.

What we had in front of us was a 14 mile, 4,000 foot downhill. Friggin awesome. Now there was some pedaling and some hike a bike sections, but what a great ride. 

Getting to pilot rock, we had a brief hike a bike from the parking lot, where we had a small descent over to Buckhorn Gap, which would be our 400 foot climb over about 2 miles that would then put us at the intersection of Black Mountain.

This is where shit started to suck. For those of you who aren't familiar, Black Mountain has three sections. Upper, Middle and Lower. 

To get to Upper Black, it is a bitch of a hike a bike. Straight up, switchbacks. Rocky. Rooty. Sucks. 

Now the descent is what made all of this worth it. Peaking almost near 5,000 feet, there was only one way down.

Upper Black's descent is steep, rocky, rooty, drops, and pure awesomeness. Once you get to middle black, this is where things start to get more flowy. Massive wall rides, nice booters and other natural features to pop and jump off of. 

All equaling to a 4 mile descent over 3,000 feet. If you like descending, and don't mind some pedaling and hiking, I would highly recommend this ride to anyone. it is an awesome 15 mile ride that wont get your bored. 

Feel free to message me with any questions about this ride.