Caesar's Head Loop

We squeaked in a fifth rain-free day on Tuesday. The three of us did an early morning ride right from the cabin before packing the bikes and heading for the airport. The route was a variant of the Assault on the Carolina's ride. We dropped nearly 2000ft into SC, looped around on quiet rolling roads, then began the 2200ft climb back into NC.



It was very windy and mild at 7:30am. Short sleeves were just fine for me. The humidity was extremely high, and even moderately high peaks were socked in from the low cloud deck. There is supposed to be a nice view from the Caesar's Head rock outcropping, but not this morning.

We were all feeling pretty listless. There's not much of a climb over the ridge into SC. The Brevard area sits pretty high. I feared the return though. My right knee was getting a bit finicky with all this climbing and no recovery. Had to get back up on the Brevard shelf to get back though.

Part way up the climb, I found my legs and slowly inched the pace up. Brett and Dave would have no part in it and let me go. I can never let a good climb go to waste. Foolish perhaps, as I need to run when I get back and recover so I can do intervals again.

Brett and Dave cresting into the clouds.

As expected, the visibility was <100ft up top. Didn't bother to walk over to the ledge. It would just be peering down into the abyss. We regrouped and had a gentle cruise back to our cabin. We finished with about 53mi, 4600ft in 2:53hrs on the Garmin (excluding the long, nasty 20% gravel driveway hike-a-bike). We had to drive back over Caesar's Head to the airport. It was clear now, barely.

Caesar's Head later on drive to Greenville.