Samford summer in the south

Samford west

Groceries with K

samford and bike link for fun presentation about my adventure.

Work commute summer heat

Got up before the alarm at 1:15AM, had some coffee and dunkin donuts sunrise wraps that I had bought the night before. By the time I got everything packed up and ready to go, it was just after 2AM. Originally I had thought about "sleeping in" and getting up around 3AM to leave sometime before 4AM, but I wanted to get home sooner on Sunday which meant even an entire day ahead of time getting an earlier start so that I could start even earlier on Sunday morning closer to midnight.

Temp was pretty cold when I left, but as you are leaving Gatlinburg you are immediately climbing up a gentle grade which gets steeper after the turn at the visitor's center towards Cade's Cove. I had never made that turn before as the draw of Clingman's Dome (highest point in TN) has always been so strong. This is the first time in close to 10 years that I didn't do that climb. The problem with doing that climb, though, is that it puts you a bit far west and limits your route choices to get back towards Birmingham without adding a LOT of miles. So I wanted to try something new this year, and I still got a big climb with the Cherohala Skyway (5500 ft). 

I hit the "Tail of the Dragon" on US-129 about an hour and a half before sunrise. I was heading south which was mostly a gentle climb, so all the fun turns were at pretty slow speeds. There was a couple downhill sections that were pretty short and fast. In the dark, I didn't take them very fast, especially since there was a lot of "ice warnings" and the roads weren't exactly dry everywhere and the temp was in the mid to upper 20s. 

I didn't run into any slick spots, though, so all was good. Cherohala itself had a ton of salt on the road from where it had been treated but there were sections that were clear and not dry and not wet either so even on the climb I was wondering if any of it was going to be black ice.

Before getting to the Cherohala climb, I hit the highlight of the ride for me, which was tracing the Little Tennessee River and the feeder rivers and creeks. The Santaleeh Lake dam on the Little Tennessee was ginormous. And there was a huge waterfall coming over the dam/spillway section. This caught me by surprise. The new Foothills Parkways west was another big bonus. Altogether it took nearly 8 hours before I was passed by my tenth car on the ride.

Also by about 8 hours, I had been in sub 30 degF weather and my feet were starting to get pretty cold. The climb up Cherohala helped but then the super long descent was tricky because of the uphills in the middle of it that got you hot again before getting frozen again on the next section. I had taken off my jacket and was just wearing my longsleeve reflective vest with no base layer to help regulate the heat on the climb which was great, but then it made the descent really cold. I was super glad to make it to Telico Plains and stop at a gas station and warm up and refuel with some potato wedges and cheese bread ... hot food!

After leaving the gas station, it stayed very nice the rest of the way into Dalton. To make sure I hit 200 miles, I added a loop that included a climb straight up from the hotel that is called locally "Mt Sinai" and it is a short super steep cat 3 climb (cat 2 if you start farther back in the valley) plus a lap around Dalton State.

Since the hotel was right there, I had stopped at Jersey Mike's and picked up dinner and then dumped it and everything else in my hotel room so that I could tackle the climb without all the extra weight. Was great! There was a runner running up the climb and we cheered each other on. It was a great way to end the ride. Made it back to the hotel in time to catch the end of the first half of the Auburn game.

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Brian Toone

2019/11/16 Gatlinburg, TN home from Gatlinburg via foothills and north georgia

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Samford summer in the south

Samford west

Groceries with K

samford and bike link for fun presentation about my adventure.

Work commute summer heat

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