Take the Bull by the Horns!!

On Tuesday I drove north from Atlanta to Bull Mountain in Dahlonega GA. This is another IMBA Epic ride area. You can see the trail map here. This trail was by far the most difficult I have ever been on. It was way beyond my ability, and it was way beyond the ability of my $600 hard tail bike. I suppose this area is a great challenge for someone looking for an advanced ride, it was just way too much for me.

From the parking lot, which is waaayyy up a long, skinny red clay road, you make the short climb up the fire road to the trail head.

This is the start of the Bull Mountain Trail. From here it was a very steep climb through a lot of roots and rocks. I ended up walking about 80% of the first mile. It was just too much for my meager ability.

It's hard to see in this picture, but somewhere on the climb up the mount on my saddle bag broke. If I'm breaking things going up the hill, I can't imagine how it could have lasted a downhill run through here. Hard core downhill riders would be well served going down this trail. I had no desire to beat myself up quite this much.

Luckily I had some zip ties in my backpack, so I strapped the bag back to the bike and went on my way. I made a mental note to not put my car keys in this bag any more. If I would have lost this bag I would have been in big trouble.

This is one of the few pictures I took of the trail. It looks OK here, but under those leaves is a cornacopia of rocks and big tree roots. This part of the climb should have been easy, but it was still a slow go. It was unbelievable how long it took me to get this far.

When your grandfather told you he walked uphill to school both ways, you can be sure this is where he went to school. This must have been his dad's truck that broke way up here in the middle of nowhere. Grandpa had to walk to school ever since. The path seemed like it was always uphill, never downhill. Lots of pork and beans so far, I need a little candy.

Near the top of Bull Mountain was the Bare Hare trail. This trail was a little better, at least I could ride it....

Lots of these little stream crossings on Bare Hare. So many leaves make the streams hard to see until your already in them.

Since it took me so long to get to the end of Bare Hare loop I decided to abort the rest of my riding plans for the day and take the fire roads back to the car. These roads were fun and fast. If only I weren't so tired from the climb.

This was a little bigger stream that I had to cross to get to the road back to the parking lot. It was very cold at this point in the day and I didn't want to get wet. I kept looking for a way to walk across it, no such luck. It was really easy to ride across...

Right after this crossing was when things got really bad for me. There were about three forks in the road, all of them not marked very clearly. The first two ended up being dead ends on private property with large "Beware of Dog" signs. Finally choice number three took me back to the car. If you get to this stream remember to take the first right. Don't go left, else you will have a very long climb to get back.

Perhaps someday I will return, once I am a better rider and have a better bike. I made through the Bull, but the Bull sure did beat me up on the way.

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.

When the slickrock is too slick

After the ride in Tsali on Sunday I drove through Pisgah National Forest to Brevard NC. I stopped at The Brighter Day Coffee Shop for a cup of coffee and some free internet access. Very nice place for coffee, highly recommended.

I made a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express in Brevard. Very nice hotel in a great location. When I come back here to finally ride the slickrock and maybe Pisgah this is where I will stay.

The weather forcast for Brevard on Monday called for cloudy skies in the morning and rain afternoon. I took the short drive from the hotel to the Dupont State Forest to go on the Eastern Slickrock ride. As soon as I got out of the car the wind was very strong which made it feel very cold. Then I got the bike out of the car, the back tire was flat. Then it started to rain. This was the point where I decided to abort and packed it up and headed south for the day. I was on my way to the Forks Area Trail System in the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina. I'll put the details in my next post.

Tsali goes left, Tsali goes right

I rode the Tsali Left Loop and the Tsali Right Loop yesterday. It was a killer for me and certainly pushed my limits. I look forward to the day when I can do this kind of ride and not fell like I am going to die by the time I get back to the car.

Tsali is an IMBA Epic ride, and it is also described here (scroll down to #7).

I followed the ride description that can be found on the mtbikewnc web site:

• Difficulty: Most Difficult
• Total Length: 18 mi
• Trail Tread Condition: Some Obstacles
• Climb: Hilly
• Total Elevation Gain: 900 ft
• Ride Configuration: Loop
• Starting point: Tsali Recreation Area parking lot.

Essentially the ride consisted of the left loop CW until it meets the right loop, then I rode the right loop CW from there.

Even thought it says 900ft elevation gain, it sure felt like a lot more. Maybe it felt like more because for every 50 ft you climb up the hill you were instantly rewarded with a 50 ft drop. The constant up and down on the left loop made for quite a bit of fun. The right loop went a little deeper into the woods, the climbs became longer, and the rewards became greater.

The trailhead pay station. Put your $2 in the envelope and keep the receipt with you. The left and right loops start here.

The famous chimney. An old house once stood here. Now the trail goes right through it.

The left loop follows the shoreline of Lake Fontana. The trail winds up and down through all the streams that feed the lake.

These are some people from Houston that I met with several times on the trail. They were king enough to take the next picture of me. Next time I'll take off the backpack so it doesn't look like I'm wearing a dress.

The trail gets much narrower than this in spots, and the hill to the right gets much steeper. You do not want to crash in some of these areas, which is exactly what I did. I took a really bad fall on one of these sections of trail. I was going a little to fast, the leaves were slippery, and I was falling of the edge of the path. I hit my brakes and went over the handlebars. This was the low point of the day. My rib cage has been very sore since.

At the end of a huge climb on the right loop it suddenly got very warm. Then I noticed the smoke and realized the area was still smoldering from a recent fire. I took these two pictures and then decided it wasn't good to hang out in all this smoke. Breathing became a little more difficult in spots. Note to self: Avoid biking in burning woods.

Smokey Mountain National Park

I took these two pictures when driving through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park on my way to Tsali. I've been here once before, and just like last time I was here the view at the top of the parkway (elev 5500 ft or so) is incredible.

On the road to the WNC

I loaded up the minivan Friday night. Notice the crafty PVC conversion of my truck bike rack for use in the minivan. I hope it is strong enough for the entire trip.

It's been cold, snowy, and just miserable in Cleveland all week. I won't be sad to not see this white stuff for a few days.

Random thought: My red convertible sits snow covered in the driveway while the minivan is loaded and ready to go. Perhaps the next toy vehicle should have enough capacity to carry a bike.

It was cold when I left, but at least I was headed in the right direction.

This was my destination for the first night, the Best Western Greenbrier Inn in Sevierville, TN. The room was nice, free breakfast, and free internet to update the blog. It took eight hours to get here, it's another hour and a half to Tsali. I'll be there by 11:00 just as its warming up.

I stopped twice on the trip down, Lebanon, Ohio and London, Kentucky. Lebanon Ohio has Skyline Chili. London Kentucky has country music at McDonalds. I prefer the Skyline. I had a large 4-way. It has a lot of carbs and protein, an insane amount of fat (boo!), and enough calories for a few hours of riding. mmm, mmm good.

I'm leaving for Tsali now. Look for a new post soon.

The First Post - Cottonwood Valley and Bootleg Canyon

Welcome to my blog!

In November 2007 I took a trip to Nevada and went mountain biking for three days. Each day was an incredible experience, never in my life have I experienced the big ego, confidence boosting accomplishment of the long climb to the top of the hill, followed by the adrenaline-rush producing thrill of the roller-coaster-without-rails ride back down. Since this experience I have decided to try to explore as many trails as I possibly can. I've created this blog to document my experiences and to share with my friends.

I am new to blogger, so I need to learn how to deal with pics and movies and such. Here are some pics and movies from my trip to Nevada in November, 2007. Enjoy.

This is my favorite picture of the Cottonwood Valley near Las Vegas. This was the location of the first day of riding.

This is me with the guide from Las Vegas Cyclery. This was the only guided trip of the three days. I would highly recommend doing the guided trip. The rental bike was top-notch, and the guide knew the best trails to take for the ability of the group.


The singletrack was smooth and fun. Nice gentle climbs with nice speedy descents.



The sunset during our last climb was incredible. The actual view was about 100x better than what is shown in this picture.

A view of the valley during sunset.


The second day my friend Joe decided to join me for a ride in Bootleg Canyon, near Boulder City, Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead. Joe needed a little rest climbing up the hill that day. Click this link to see our actual route that day.

This picture was taken from the same place where Joe was resting. We started at the little white buildings in this picture.


We still had to go all the way up as far as the eye could see. Nine months of spinning class at the gym (and 25 lbs lighter) made this easy work for me. I know its just a fire road, but it was still an incredible ego booster to be able to tackle this road with no issues.

Here I am near the top of the hill. We started at about 2500 ft, this shot is at a little over 3100 ft, then we dropped down to the park at 2400 ft. About 700 ft elevation change for the day. There were a lot of ups and downs, so the total climb would have been a little more.

I got far enough in front of Joe to have enough time to get the camera out and take this movie. He starts out as the little yellow spec near the top of the screen.

This is my favorite picture from the second day. I believe Joe had just taken a little spill here and was recovering.

The white building is the place we needed to return to. The ride actually took us a little further downhill then the rental building, then we worked our way back up the road.

Unfortunatly I did not bring the camera with me on the third day. The third day was the day I went back to Cottonwood Valley and ran the "Three Mile Smile".

There is a video of most of the downhill run here (not my video but it is the same trail). For me this downhill run was the highlight of the three days. Here is the Cottonwood Valley trail map:

The "Three Mile Smile" is the Red Valley trail starting near Wilson's Tank. I rode up Badger Pass to Red Valley to the overlook, then back down Red Valley (see the video link above), then on to a little bit of the dead horse loop. Then I worked my way back to the Latenight Loop to finish the day.