Andrews – Myca Mustin is a junior at Andrews High School, and when he’s not in class or playing basketball or running cross-country and track, he likes to do ultra endurance bike races that are over 100 miles long.
He’s been doing these lengthy tests of endurance and navigation for three and a half years. Some of the races he’s done include the Trans North Georgia (TNGA), the Tellico Highlands, the Rockstar Challenge and the Colorado Trail, as well as the Huckleberry Tour of the Towers, which is in Andrews.
Describing the bikepacking races Mustin does, he said, “It’s usually upwards to 100 miles or more, and usually it’s almost always self-supported. So that means you can’t plan for somebody to meet you on the trail at a certain point to bring you food. You can take money and stop at gas stations and stuff. It’s usually just a route and you have a GPS and so you have to follow that route. It’s not marked or anything, so you have to do your own navigating. There’s usually not prizes if you win anything, it’s just to have the ability to say you did it.”
He got into these bikepacking races through his father, Matt Mustin.
“My dad’s always been kind of into biking, but about 3 1/2 years ago he really got into it and wanted to train for the TNGA, which is an ultra endurance race,” Myca said. “He trained for probably a year to a year and a half and I trained with him pretty much the whole time. And then he went and did the TNGA and then the next summer I went and did the Colorado trail and after I did the Colorado Trail, that was kind of like the beginning of it.”
To prepare for the races, he said that he tries to get a lot of mileage each week on the bike and that it’s not very strategic for him, but the big thing is consistency.
He said doing the races is more mental than it is physical.
“A lot of times you’ll just be out there on your own in the dark, just riding up a mountain in the rain and so you got to be able to fight through that,” he said.
Mustin said one of his favorite things about doing the ultra endurance races is the experience of it, as well as the sense of accomplishment once he’s completed the event.
The most recent race Mustin did was the Huckleberry on Oct. 19, which is based in Andrews and was started in 2023 by his father.
Speaking on this year’s Huckleberry, Myca said, “My dad is the host, and so he just decided that he wanted to create his own race and have people come ride it. And so last year we had seven or eight people and went pretty well. And so this year, we had it again. And people just came over and hung out at our house for a little bit, and then we all rode to the start in the morning and went…It’s 250 miles and it basically hits the Tusquitee area, and goes up to Albert Mountain fire tower, kind of near Franklin. And then And then it. Goes up to Wayah Bald and then down through Nantahala to Wesser and then down into Needmore area and then it hits Tsali some biking trails and that goes through Robbinsville up to Huckleberry Knob and then back down. And then you go back up over Tatham Gap to Joanna Bald for kind of the last little bit. It’s called the Huckleberry Tour of the Towers because he wanted it to be where you get the tour of the towers.”
He said the terrain of the Huckleberry is mostly road riding with gravel and single track mixed in. He also added that the terrain of each race varies.
One of the big factors in bikepacking races in the riders nutrition. Mustin spoke on what he took with him during the Huckleberry, a self-supported race.
“I took a Camelback for water and then one extra water bottle. I never had to fill up the water bottle. I just used the camelback the whole time. As far as food goes, I usually take some type of protein, usually beef jerky.
“And then lots of carbs like these Belvita crackers, those are really good. I like gummy bears a lot. Combos, just super high calorie stuff. And I also take LMNT. They’re little packets of electrolytes, those are really good.”
Mustin said that balancing school and sports with training for the races can be difficult.
“Training for the huckleberry was almost impossible because of cross country. I think for the past two months before the Huckleberry, I rode my bike like twice and once was The Tellico Highlands route and then the other time was a week before and it was only like 26 miles and I destroyed my derailer, so that was about all I got in.”
Overall, what Mustin does can be mind-boggling for someone who has never done or heard of bikepacking events.
To put it in perspective, the TNGA is 357 miles, takes about five days to complete and has a total overall ascent of 38,690 feet–and Mustin has done it three time. The Colorado Trail that Mustin has done once is 539 miles and takes about 13 days to complete. It also has a total overall ascent of 72,500 feet with the high point being 13,270 feet above sea level.
Mustin’s mental grit to complete these races, as well as doing them when he is in school and playing sports puts him in a league of his own and makes him truly an elite athlete.