We just returned from 4 days in Tsali, NC. I don't know if it's a well known biking destination or not so I'll give details. It's just inside the smokey mountains and has miles and miles of single track by Fontana Lake. Thompson is a 1 1/2 mile smooth down hill that is just AMAZING!! We had a lot of fun but my first day was horrible!! We put a set of used hayes brakes on the bike and the first thing they did was lose a screw and slide into my shifters so that I couldn't shift my front chain ring to an easier gear. I was in the middle at the bottom of a big climb and decided I needed to go to granny - couldn't - so I thought maybe I needed to shift up and then down. Sometimes my bike will get picky like that...so I shifted up to my third ring and got STUCK THERE! It was a long, HARD climb. I was hoping the group I was steadily falling off the back of would wait somewhere close by but no luck....I had to ride several more hills that way - until my legs finally bonked and I walked. Finally DF came for me. He fixed the brakes (we thought) and we were off again. THIS TIME I had hardly ANY BRAKES!!!! Both sides were bottoming out and I wasn't coming to anything resembling a stop. Again the group was gone - so I had to get the death machine stopped and walk the hills until I got to the next break and could tell them what was going on. I don't think DF believed me until he touched the bike. He got so mad he was cussing!! So we short cutted out that day and switched the bike over. At that point I didn't care if I ever got on a bike again!! All I could think about was the huge cliffs and ledges I was riding beside as I was trying to figure out how to get the thing to stop!! I was scared that if I fell over the trail wasn't wide enough and I'd be off the side of the mountain. I finally fell INTO the mountain and that stopped me okay.

The next day was much better. I was terrified!!!! We had a rider that was on her second time on a bike. She was determined to ride, so we put on person in front of her and me behind her and we rode at her comfortable pace and the front person told her to shift up, down, roll through, get off and walk, all the techincal stuff and I reminded her to look ahead - pedal a little faster to straighten her wheel out, shift back up to a harder gear after down hills....all that stuff. oh and BREATH!! Just having to call it out to another person and having someone else to worry about helped me a LOT!! By the time the fast group lapped us I was ready to ride faster and over most of my fear. That's when we hit the down hill!!! Tons of fun!!!

The best part....our 3 year old Lab had her first camping trip and trail dog trip. She did perfectly!!!! Even ran 17 miles her last day out and was as eager to go at the end as at the beginning!! She stayed right behind the bike, no matter what happened. A natural trail dog!! We had a blast with her!!!

When we get pics I'll post some - if people want to see them...