Samford plus light up the resistance

Tried the triple but ran into tire problems

Dog park with J

Church shakedown triple century tonight/tomorrow

MTB practice with the jags

458 cars, 2.7/mi, 0.6/min, 39.7mph(avg)
https://www.mybiketraffic.com/rides/view/169304
What a ride! Atlanta bike infrastructure is so amazing, 300 miles of trails! I was almost constantly in a protected bike lane or on trails from the Smyrna to Decatur and then back across west end. Then the ride to Douglasville had bike lanes for most of it (but not all).

The genesis for this ride was wanting to help Kristine with the late night drive back from dropping my daughter off in Atlanta for a flight to London. 

I was busy working from home all day Friday and couldn't find a time to get out for a short ride, so when I could finally ride it was already 4:30pm. Ran a couple errands and then had dinner with the family and watched some of the olympic trials including seeing a clip of josiah's javelin coach throwing. In bed by about 8pm and up again by 11pm to try to leave before midnight, which wasn't technically necessary since I hadn't stopped the ride. But I wanted it to count legitimately towards my Eddington 256 anyway (which would mean starting before midnight ... rides that start on the same day all count towards that day's eddington). Out the door again by 11:59pm and on my way to Atlanta!

The two highlights I planned for the ride were the Brushy Mountain loop-de-loop and exploring as many bike paths and greenways in Atlanta as possible.  The highlights didn't disappoint!

First, the Brushy Mountain loop-de-loop is something I made up when planning this ride. Probably nobody has done this before? But you can exit the Silver Comet Trail at McPherson Chapel Rd to the right and then return to the trail from the left at the exact same spot without ever seeing the trail in between because you are 150ft above the tunnel when you cross back over the trail. It kinda gives you an "around the world" type feeling.

Other than the busy section of Hwy 278 and the washboard gravel on some of the roads, it was great. Working on a timelapse video. 

Once I made it back to the trail, I was so far ahead of schedule that I decided I could ride up to the Smoothie King / Firehouse Subs before attempting the new section of the Silver Comet since I didn't know what I would find. With temps close to 95 degF in the shade, it was a great cooling stop.

Then it was back down the hill and the left turn onto the new section of the Comet, which only lasted about half a mile before a big "trail closed" barrier where you could easily follow the tracks of all the runners and cyclist who had ridden around the barrier.

The next section had perfectly finished concrete, but they are working on some sort of barrier/fencing on both sides of the trail. At the end of that mile long section there is another barrier (again with perfect ride arounds) before some deep gravel and a section that looked like it was about to be laid with concrete so I bypassed that up through a parking lot but I wonder how many people have ridden through it and mess up the foundation leading to cracks?!

There were two more sections with already finished concrete. One had a barrier, the other did not, before finally making it to a section where they hadn't even started work on it yet. This section is surprisingly close to an existing section (Whestone Creek Greenway) that takes you pretty close to the railyard. After whetsone, a short mile or so of road with bike lane takes you to Westide Park, which has a powerline greenway out the side of it taking you all the way over to the Atlanta beltline trail which takes you straight into downtown. 

Downtown was very busy with stopped traffic on most of the streets including the bike lanes and walls of pedestrians (I think a show had just let out). Police were directing traffic and I just had to patiently weaver around the pedestrians on the combo sidewalk/greenway. Eventually, I made it to a protected access bikelane street when I saw a biker come across the intersection I was waiting at the light for. So I turned and followed him instead of continuing on the route I had planned. This led to a two-way protected acess bike lane (curb separating it from traffic) which allowed me to zoom past all the traffic up to the next light. All lights had bike traffic lights AND pedestrian lights. It was much smoother flow, and this protected access bike lane took me back around to the original google maps bicycling directions route I had been following at the spot where it merged with the Stone Mountain greenway. 

The Stone Mountain greenway was fun but a bit tricky to follow in spots. I lost track of it at some point b/c at some of the intersections it's not clear whether you are supposed to merge onto the street with the bikelane or take the sidewalk. Sometimes you merge onto the street, sometimes you end up on a slightly wider sidewalk. Through one of the parks there was a big wedding party taking photos and they were all standing on the greenway ... no problem as I smiled and waved and just rode around on the grass. Based on the name, this greenway probably goes all the way out to Stone Mountain, but I turned south at Decatur to hit some of the other greenways I wanted to ride and still make it all the way back across to Douglasville at the spot where I was going to meet my wife and daughter to drive them the rest of the way to the airport.

The last major section of trail was the Beltline trail. I made it to this after following some singletrack trail through the woods alongside the Marta tracks, cross a few neighborhoods and then climb up a hill to turn left onto some kinda rough dirt/gravel on the old railroad tracks. Enough people had ridden it that you could bump your way along it fine (especially on a gravel bike) ... and through here I got passed by a fast rider on a gravel bike. I kept thinking "well, he doesn't have 230 miles in his legs right now, I'm pretty sure". I followed the dirt until you crossed a bridge back across the current Marta tracks and then drop back down onto the finished concrete section of the beltline, which would have continued on farther but I needed to start heading west to find a bridge to cross the Chattahoochie River at a spot close to the "green" bikelane River Rd I found on google maps. The bike lane was not well used so it was cracked in places and had some vegetation growing through, but it was still totally rideable and not too bad in terms of debris. There was a lot of traffic and it was hilly, though, so it was a much needed bike lane. This took me in and out of Douglasville a number of times ... 3 total entrances/exits ... until I hit one last Douglasville City limit sign and started to work my way through the very hilly Arbor Point neighborhood and popping out at the Popeyes to meet the fam and end my ride.

Timelapse video of the whole day coming soon!



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Brian Toone

ATL bike paths via Brushy Mountain loop-de-loop

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Samford plus light up the resistance

Tried the triple but ran into tire problems

Dog park with J

Church shakedown triple century tonight/tomorrow

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