Ashville NC info needed

[shirk]

Anyone have some beta on the Ashville NC area. Headed down on Thursday 4/8 to Sunday 4/18 to do some mountain biking. The crew I am going with have been a few times before so I am relying on them. Fav trails? Decent pub for a cold beer? Cool shops? Any info would be nice. All are expert riders in decent spring shape (for flatlanders from Ontario atleast), looking for epic singletrack. My first week long mtb trip in a couple years should be tons of fun.

[zion zig zag]

Ashville is one of my favorite spots, the mountain biking is great and the vibe in the town is about the coolest anywhere.
A good site with some basic trail info:mtb'ing wnc
Pisgah national forest offers some of the best rides and it is right outside of town. Some of my favorite spots are Bent Creek and Black Mountain. For specific and up to date trail info just go in one of the mountain bike shops in town, most are super freindly and knowledgeable. Just tell them what you are looking for trail-wise and they will point you in the right direction.

You need to go eat at the Grape Escape, good beer and wine and really good food. The Bier Garten is another good choice. As far as shops the whole town is full of cool little eclectic, hippy type stores if thats your thing. The downtown area has the best bars/shops/cafes.

[Benny Profane]

Yeah, Ashville is a cool town. Litespeed didn't name one of it's models the Pisgah for nothing, but that's a bit of a drive from downtown.

2 things you would want to consider since your stay is ten days. Try to get to the Nantahala outdoor center - http://www.noc.com/instruction.htm - , considered to be the best kayak school in the east, maybe the country. They have MTB rentals for stuff close by. And rent a roadie and hit a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, easily top ten in road rides in the country. (Check out Lance's first book about his emotional comeback biking out of Boone) Just watch for the tunnels.

And then get your butt back to town and dig on those Blue Ridge girls - ummmm.

[zion zig zag]

Originally posted by Benny Profane
Try to get to the Nantahala outdoor center -

Good idea. If you do make it up there, they have a couple of short (6 miles) trails out the backdoor. This would also put you right next to tsali, which is about 25 miles of singletrack, not technical, but fast and fun with great views. Fontana village is also right in the same area and has some great trails. The guys in the bike shop at the NOC can tell you all about this area.
P.S. if you want to hit tsali keep in mind that two of the four trails are closed everyday (they rotate even/odd days with horses) and you would prolly want to ride the left and right loop, so check and see which days thats open.

[shirk]

Thanks for the info guys.

Gotta get my new frame all built up for this trip.