A Great Way To Start The Holidays

What better way to start the holidays than a 5 hour ride with some of my best friends! Russel, Jason, Adam, Kris and I started from Rice Pinnacle Parking area @ 7:30 am. We made our way over Bent Creek gap to Trace Ridge trail. Trace Ridge is a very technical descent and being covered with leaves did not help, as the leaves tend to hide the imperfections in the trail. My butt was off the saddle hanging precariously close to the rear wheel the entire descent. We made it to the bottom without incident and took a right on the "Never Ending Road" to Middle Fork Trail. Middle Fork is a great trail with one minor issue. This being the river crossing near the end. We forded the river without incident and continued on to the Hendersonville Reservoir.
We stopped at the reservoir to discuss our options on how to get back to the Rice Pinnacle parking area. The uhhmm group decided to take Big Creek trail to the Parkway and then descend from there to Bent Creek Gap and from there retrace our trail back to Rice Pinnacle. None of us had ridden Big Creek to the parkway. I have considered doing it many times but have not wanted to do it by myself. Jason persuded the group to do the Big Creek since none of us had done it before. I chose to be silent during the discussion considering my choice of routes the previous week. I was not sure the group would be as forgiving this week!! I was excited that the group decided to do Big Creek(I did notice Kris Bedsaul dropping bread crumbs).
The Big Creek trail meandered by a creek(Big Creek I presume) for several miles. We crossed the creek numerous times as we made our way to the Parkway. The trail was great with minimal elevation gain for the first 3/4 of the way. Afer this it abruptly turned up. The ascent from here to the Parkway was all hike the bike. This took ~1 hour and during this hour we ascended through fog, rain and freezing rain.
I fell off the pace on the way up and Jason feeling sorry for an AARP card holder retraced his steps and pushed my bike the last 1/4 mile to the top. I am sure Santa will leave Jason something extra in his stocking for helping an AARP card member.
Once at the Parkway we realized we were a tad west of where we thought we should have come out. I found this odd since we had no idea where we were supposed to come out the first place. The descent down the Parkway was frigid for myself. My fingers and toes tend to get cold very easily. We made it down the Parkway and back the parking area. I could not feel my fingers and had to get Russel to undo my helmet strap. I hopped into the truck and turned the heater full on and started thawing out. Once home i stripped hopped into the hot shower and started thawing out. Diana had a hot cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese waiting for me when I got out of the shower. What a great way to end the day and start the Holiday Season!!! Merry Christmas everyone!