F.A.T.S is PHAT!

After the aborting the slickrock plan, I took the long drive south to the Forks Area Trail System in the Sumter National Forest. This is also an IMBA Epic ride area.

My trusty Garvin helped me find my way to the parking lot at the trail head. The big sign on the road let me know I had arrived.

The large parking lot was very empty. Apparently some people actually have to go to work around here.

The trailhead was very well marked, yet I still went to the left instead of the right. The trail to the left circles back around to the parking lot, so I knew very quickly I went the wrong way. It was a good little warm up for the fun stuff to come.

All the forks in the trail are very well marked. I decided to ride the Great Wall trail, as it was describe as being the more difficult of the choices. Since this was going to be a short day I decided I could take the challenge.

I certainly was not disappointed with my decision to take this trail. This trail was like riding a roller coaster without rails. It was smooth, fast, with just enough uphill runs to make the downhill runs even better. This was an incredible ride. I wish I would have had more time to ride this loop again, I'm sure I could have done it better the second time around.

For me, there are two parts to every trail. There is the pork and beans, and then there is the candy. On every trail you must eat some pork and beans if you want to get the candy. This trail has a whole lot of candy for very little pork and beans. When you ride this trail you get to eat your candy with the pork and beans, just like it goes in my favorite Weezer song.

This is my friend Carla who I stayed with on Monday night. She was less then thrilled with me taking this early morning picture of her working in her sweats. I assured her she was beautiful at any time of the day. Don't worry Carla, anyone who reads this either already knows you or will never know you. Either way you're safe from embarrassment.

This is the view of downtown Atlanta from Carla's balcony. It looks like the sun will be out today, so I'm going to head north to Bull Mountain for my next ride.