F.A.T.S.

Dennis and I made our way to FATS on Saturday with hopes of completing all of the trails including the newer ones. We got an early start and arrived at the trailhead at 8:00 am. Our goal was to be back at home by 1:00 pm before the kitchen pass expired.

It was quite solitary at 8:00 am except for one other car in the parking lot and this guy was making enough noise to wake the wildlife. He had his radio cranking out Dance Music tunes echoing across the forest.

After glancing at the posted map, we headed down the trail. We did the “left turn only” route which takes you all of the way out to Brown Wave then Skinny Loop, then Great wall. After 20 miles of this we were joking about the lack of climbing. Somehow we both felt like we had rolled downhill for 20 miles. After regrouping, we headed down Deep Step and were going to intercept the connector over to Big Rock and Tower. Here we found some elevation and did a good bit of climbing. I really liked the connector trail and the short pavement and gravel road section. Big rock has some serious elevation to it, but they built it following topo so the limited climbing sections are short and sweet, but numerous. By this time, there were a lot of people on the trails. We also crossed paths with a hunter who was hiking to his favorite spot in the woods. I had my Red Wolfpack jersey on, so hopefully I didn’t look like a deer.

We ended up running short on time and had to bail early, but we ended up with about 35 miles and 3.5 hours in the woods, including a flat and some sag stops. I believe you can now get close to 50 miles out there. We skipped Tower and only rode half of Big Rock to get 35. I want to go back and do the full 50-ish soon.

Jim was on board to go with us until “something hit him” and he had to pull out the night before. I hope you are feeling better.

Carolina Adventure World, Winnsboro.

Exit 46 on I-77. Jim and I rode it Saturday am. I think they have a good start to a fun trail system. It is spanking new so the clay is soupy in a lot of places but the clay is also similar to FATS clay so theres will be times when it dries out and will allow you to rail. There are some banked turns, woop-de-doos, and switchbacks. There is currently a lot of deadfall and tree litter which I don’t mind too much except, sure enough, a stick hopped up into my derailleur and almost ripped it off. So my bike would not stay in gear for the rest of the ride.

You start out at the main parking lot and enter the trail by the ATV gatehouse. You then go down some twisty stuff and begin a climb to “Top of the World”, a helipad…that’s right a helipad. I would say that climb is around 200’ elevation gain, but I am no Garmin. This reminded me of the airstrip climb at Dupont, but for just a second. This climb gets the legs burning nicely and then you descend into some flowy and technical stuff along ridges and creek bottoms.

http://www.carolinaadventureworld.net/images/CAWBikeTrailmap.jpg
Our first loop we did: a>A>C>A>B>A>E>D>E>A>a. Look at the map and it will make sense. It is directional so this is the full loop and is about 11 miles. C and D were almost un-ride-able so on our second loop we left them out and the trail felt a lot like FATS or a Lost Creek with a lot more climbing.

$5 per day or $40.00 per year. I think $40 is too high but it is what it is. There are some nice employees out there who really want the trails to succeed and they said they just need to get ridden. I agree with that.

New York

We spent three days in the city and two days traveling there and back. I am glad gas was $1.80/gal just in time for our trip. This is a great trip for families but bring your savings account because they love tourists.

If you were an immigrant in the early 1900's that came through Ellis Island, you approached the US by boat and this was the first thing you saw as you entered the New York Bay area on your way to Ellis Island. The immigrants were said to shout with joy, whooping and hollering as they saw the statue and they knew what it represented...Freedom. They were going to begin their new life of opportunity where "you can do anything you want to do".

By the way, did you know that the base of the statue is star shaped and was one of four forts that protected the bay. No enemy vessel ever tried to get past the four infamous forts. It was considered impenetrable. Now it is the base of the statue. This reminded me of Fort Moultrie and Sumter in Charleston (except the impenetrable part).

The kids in Central Park.

Ice Skating at Rockefeller Plaza. This was the kids favorite part of the trip. We didn't get any great pictures here but did manage to get a shot of this local kid who offered to help my youngest daughter skate. This fella was about 12 years old and probably started skating when he was 1.5. The picture doesn't do it justice but he was twirling around the rink with Abby between his legs. I was amazed at his skating ability.

A trip to New York isn't complete without a subway ride. And of course you get to share a bench with all kinds of folks. This lady seemed totally out of it but content with her bag of donuts. I didn't realize it till we got back to Columbia, but the subways were under high alert while we were there due to a terrorist threat.