Robin
Well-Known Member
Someone on the forum asked me for some info on our trip to Asheville - I thought I would also post here incase anyone does a "search" or plans a trip in the future.
So Asheville - we loved it and can't wait to go back. We stayed on the outskirts of the city in a Hampton Inn near the Bent Creek Trails - totally by luck that I picked that hotel. I would say we were about 5 miles from the city/downtown and about 25 miles from Brevard (where DuPont and Pisgah are).
We did 3 days of riding - one day at each "park" - Bent Creek, DuPont State Forest, and Pisgah. I reached out to a few people for advice and routes and they gave me the advice of picking up maps at bike shops (we got ours at the shop near our hotel - MotionMakers) and checking out SORBA (there is a "suggested routes" link). We did for Bent Creek. It wasn't that it was hard to navigate, but it was a pain to pull out a full-size map to check. So I will include my Garmin files/routes below.
Bent Creek
DuPont
Pisgah
As for terrain - they all have a decent amount of climbing. Not short punchy climbs so much, but longer climbs. I wouldn't really call the trails technical as far as rocks...more roots. I would compare Bent Creek's surface similar to 6-mile or Wiss. DuPont was more like Allaire/Hartshorne (fast and flowy). And Pisgah...well, 1/2 of it was gravel fire roads and the trails were washed out/not really maintained (we were warned about that).
For our 2nd day, we hired a guide for DuPont. Several people told us that it's a maze/can get confusing. We did a 1/2 day tour with Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventures. For us, it was worth the money. Our guides gave us a complete tour of the place, riding the trails with flow.
We heard about the legendary Pisgah. There are apparently 300 miles of trails. And it's quite rugged - most of the trails follow drainage and are eroded. We found this out on our ride. There are two shops at the base of the Pisgah trails, The Hub and Sycamore Cycles. The Hub has a bar inside and we spent some time there...great staff. I've heard fabulous things about Sycamore Cycles too but we didn't stop in there.
While we are on the topic of beer - not sure if you are a beer drinker - if so, you are in beer-heaven. Asheville itself has a ton of microbrews. We hit up Wicked Weed, One World Brewing, and Asheville Brewing. While we were down riding Pisgah, we hit the Oskar Blues brewery. They have a food truck with awesome burgers too. I know Sierra Nevada opened a brewery and apparently have incredible tours. So we heard...we didn't make it there. We also heard there was an hour and a half wait to get in. We also heard that they are building a New Belgium brewery...I will say, if breweries aren't your thing but like beer, there is beer on tap everywhere.
So Asheville - we loved it and can't wait to go back. We stayed on the outskirts of the city in a Hampton Inn near the Bent Creek Trails - totally by luck that I picked that hotel. I would say we were about 5 miles from the city/downtown and about 25 miles from Brevard (where DuPont and Pisgah are).
We did 3 days of riding - one day at each "park" - Bent Creek, DuPont State Forest, and Pisgah. I reached out to a few people for advice and routes and they gave me the advice of picking up maps at bike shops (we got ours at the shop near our hotel - MotionMakers) and checking out SORBA (there is a "suggested routes" link). We did for Bent Creek. It wasn't that it was hard to navigate, but it was a pain to pull out a full-size map to check. So I will include my Garmin files/routes below.
Bent Creek
DuPont
Pisgah
As for terrain - they all have a decent amount of climbing. Not short punchy climbs so much, but longer climbs. I wouldn't really call the trails technical as far as rocks...more roots. I would compare Bent Creek's surface similar to 6-mile or Wiss. DuPont was more like Allaire/Hartshorne (fast and flowy). And Pisgah...well, 1/2 of it was gravel fire roads and the trails were washed out/not really maintained (we were warned about that).
For our 2nd day, we hired a guide for DuPont. Several people told us that it's a maze/can get confusing. We did a 1/2 day tour with Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventures. For us, it was worth the money. Our guides gave us a complete tour of the place, riding the trails with flow.
We heard about the legendary Pisgah. There are apparently 300 miles of trails. And it's quite rugged - most of the trails follow drainage and are eroded. We found this out on our ride. There are two shops at the base of the Pisgah trails, The Hub and Sycamore Cycles. The Hub has a bar inside and we spent some time there...great staff. I've heard fabulous things about Sycamore Cycles too but we didn't stop in there.
While we are on the topic of beer - not sure if you are a beer drinker - if so, you are in beer-heaven. Asheville itself has a ton of microbrews. We hit up Wicked Weed, One World Brewing, and Asheville Brewing. While we were down riding Pisgah, we hit the Oskar Blues brewery. They have a food truck with awesome burgers too. I know Sierra Nevada opened a brewery and apparently have incredible tours. So we heard...we didn't make it there. We also heard there was an hour and a half wait to get in. We also heard that they are building a New Belgium brewery...I will say, if breweries aren't your thing but like beer, there is beer on tap everywhere.
