Getting Medieval on Squirrel Gap

Greg got all fussied up for the prom....a day on Squirrel Gap. The good thing about Greg is that he exists. There's been some setbacks on the new bike, so I'm not working with anymore deadlines, it'll get here when it gets here. Meanwhile Greg had his front end all SEX'd up. They basically turned my Magic into a Fluid, no more finicky dampening platform, just buttah'. Now he needed a shake down.

Hoping to start early, and hide from the heat in the already leafed out Rhodo. Katy was in tow again, looking to work on her tech skillz, a word she insists ends in Z.Katy eventually learned the fine art of trending uphill on Squirrel's off camber root sections, and progress was good. We were somewhere near the final descent to South Mills River when the blowdown picked up. We were happy with an out and back, and stopped to clear some trail. All I had was a 6 inch saw, but we had cleared a few small spots along the way, but this,
was our major objective, including those low hangers off in the distance. So now it looks like this,
But there are still a lot of little sticks lying about. I made the mistake of saying, and saying just loud enough for mother Pisgah to hear, "Glad I don't have a derailleur."

What's that Katy, there's something wrong with your shifty bits?

Oh my yes there is.

A little Pisgah magic engineering and we were on our way. Medieval Chain guide Version 1.0 (as if medieval folks used a decimal based model system)
Version 1.0 worked better than you'd ever expect, but I know you, and I know how you judge. You're right. It lasted for about 15 happy minutes, but did admirably for our first effort. Fortuitously, where it did decide to fail its final time, I found the perfect sized stick for version 2.0.
We were able to ride from well west of Horse Cove, all the way back to Turkey Pen parking lot with only 4 or 5 chain dumps, and most of those were on short steep climbs, or rocky downhills. Not to shabby. I'm gonna find some time to go out and help with the efforts on the Mills River Side, and also start looking at Turkey Pen west of Wagon Road Gap, but the trails under all the crap are in good shape. Just gotta get there.