Four Days, Three States, and One Bad Decision on a Bike Trail

Mountain biking in three states sounded like a great idea until day two, when we were airing up tires using a camp stove and a repurposed tire valve.

We chased elevation from Asheville to Roanoke, cramming four bikes, tools, spare tubes, and a half-eaten pizza into the trailer every night.
One of the guys clipped a tree and broke his derailleur mid-climb, but we had the backup parts—tucked in the corner compartment, just like planned.

We used the trailer ramp as a tuning stand and the side door as a towel hook for our parking lot shower in West Virginia.
It wasn’t glamorous—but it worked.

If you’ve got gear that gets wet, muddy, or trashed by mile 10, you need a trailer setup that handled the mess. That’s what kept the trip rolling after we stopped.