The Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race (PMBAR) is a race I’ve heard about for a number of years, but never actually been able to attend until now. The basic premise is that you race with a partner, making your own route to various checkpoints in the Pisgah forest, and returning back to the start/finish line before the cut-off.

My partner for the day was Nina “Machina,” who, fortunately for me, is a Brevard-local and far more familiar with the trails than I am. Our primary goal for PMBAR was to have fun riding bikes in the woods–which we accomplished fully!

At the start of the race, the race director asked one member of each team to come and get a “passport,” which we expected would have a list of each of the checkpoints we needed to reach. However, when Nina returned with the passport, it had only two pages: one with start instructions, and the other with finish instructions. Were we missing pages? Where did we need to go? Upon closer inspection, we realized that it also contained additional instructions for “passport pickup”–way out on the other end of the forest, at the top of Spencer trail.

The start up Lower & Middle Black was a bit of a congo line, but we steadily made our way forward, passing riders when we could, until reaching the top and descending down Maxwell and Clawhammer out towards Yellow Gap road, which we took all the way out to the climb up to Spencer. When we arrived at the “passport checkpoint,” already ~35 miles into our day, we were given a second passport, with five checkpoints, and started to plan our route.

Because our goal was to have a big, fun day riding bikes, we decided to go for all five checkpoints. After checking and double-checking the map, we descended Spencer to Fletcher Gap trail, and arrived at the first checkpoint, got our stamp, swiped our chip, and continued on to Pilot Cove. Along the way, some friends met us with Red Bull, a water refill, and some snacks, then rode with us for a bit as we climbed up to Pilot Cove. Apparently, there’s a really cool lookout off the trail, which we unfortunately missed, but we did get some pancakes at the checkpoint (and I narrowly avoided ejecting myself off a bridge on the way back down!).

Our next checkpoint was out at the Turkey Pen trailhead, and to get there, we opted to take Bradley Creek Trail instead of the road. It was VERY overgrown in spots and had SO MANY river crossings, and somehow we started repeated “we ain’t scared” every time the trail dissolved into rhododendron bushes. After a bit (ok, a lot) of bushwacking, we made it to the other side, and the party that was happening at the Turkey Pen checkpoint. There were snacks (Oatmeal Creme Pies and pizza!), gatorade, and friends cheering for us–so fun!

From there, we took South Mills River trail to Cantrell Trail, which was a new trail for both of us, and had considerably more climbing than I think either of us expected! At the intersection with Squirrel Gap trail, we were momentarily confused when we didn’t see the checkpoint, but after checking the map, descended Squirrel Gap just a few hundred feet and found the checkpoint around the next corner. Passport stamped, chip swiped, marble collected (?), and we were on our way to our fifth and final checkpoint!

The last checkpoint was at the top of Clubb Gap, so we took Upper Upper Black to get there, which was the only point in the day where I started to crack. Like I told Nina, “I’m still having fun…but I am VERY tired.” As a whole, we were SO WELL MATCHED when it came to pace and skill (and vibes!), and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner for a huge day of riding bikes in Pisgah! We made it to the top, got our final passport stamp, and then got to descend the top part of Avery (SO FUN!) en route to the finish down Middle and Lower Black.

Even though our goal at the end of over 10 hours of riding was to keep it smooth and safe descending Middle and Lower Black, we still rallied, and it was so much fun to absolutely RIP downhill with another lady shredder!

When we got to the finish, we discovered that we were the only female team to hit all five checkpoints AND had won by just 8 minutes (thanks to the 2 hour time bonus that came with getting that fifth checkpoint)! What a fun surprise and great day!