Revenge of the Rattlesnake

Once again the WV mountains call, and I find myself on Route 55, crossing over Great North mountain on my way to Canaan. The Revenge of the Rattlesnake is 55 miles of tough riding that will make or break you. Not only did it break me, it broke it off in me. Bad race, great weekend.
I arrived in Davis Friday evening early enough to meet up with Pete on the Canaan race course right in Davis. I'd never ridden it, and Pete gave me a nice tour, including Moon Rocks. So different riding here as the rocky trail surface beats away at any momentum you can churn up. This ride was necessary to aclimate to the harsh conditions to be met Saturday for the Main Event. Dinner was enjoyed at Sirianni's with a pizza (mistake #1) and pitchers of suds (mistake #2, but one I'm sure to make again) and then we retired to Gregs condo. Downtown

Saturday morning the temps were in the 30's, but closer to 50 come racetime. The start had us tearing down the main drag in Davis, headed for Blackwater Falls. A lap on Dobbin House turned us back toward town and a tough climb up Route 32 to Plantation Trail. I feel like poo (see mistake 1&2 above).
Plantation is extremely technical. IMBA had, at one time, listed Plantation as one of their IMBA Epics. It is no longer listed. Perhaps it is the pain it dishes out per mile that makes it not Epic worthy. Or the wheel swallowing bogs that suck the life out of your legs. Plantation is a rolling, rock strewn, wet corridor of suffer served up with a smack upside your face of rhododendron. We are not on Plantation very long, unless you are racer #250 who spaced out the hard left onto Fire Trail 6 and kept on truckin' down Plantation (mistake #3). 15 minutes later I realize what I have done. The backwards arrows gave it away, that and I ran across a hiker who showed me where we were on his "really good" map. I head back along Plantation for what seems like half an hour, and find the turn I missed, pretty well marked. They even went as far as posting XXX WRONG WAY XXX signs in case you were to miss the turn. I blew right past them. If the signs had been placed directly on the trail surface I may have seen them, but I don't recall my eyes leaving the ground 10 feet beyond my wheel for some time. At the top of Fire Trail 6, I don't make the checkpoint in time and get routed off course. There is still quite a bit of riding left to get back to town, on some super hard trails. But it's just that; riding, not racing. Where's the beer?
Sunday morning Greg, Pete and I hit up some beautiful backroads between Canaan mountain and Dolly Sods. Another wonderful WV weekend.