Working off Thanksgiving at Bear Creek

 5 hours of Cohutta is the perfect way to burn off that awesome Thanksgiving Day meal!

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We decided to meet Monte and John at Gates Chapel for a 8:30 am start and you know what?!?!?!?!  We were on time!!  I know, I know you don't believe me, so I got a picture!

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This is the Lindner's on time......right here  \/

Ready to roll....

The guys did a big loop up Bear Creek, Potato Patch, Pinhoti Terminus, Mountaintown, Bear Creek and lots of FS roads in between.  I did P1, P2, 68, Bear Creek, ascend  Mountaintown....yep, just because Shey told me not to....that took freakin' forever, crazy rocky climb.....then derailleur got a little bent and then I met the boys on their way down Mountaintown, so I then descended MT and rolled my wet butt back to the car.  Wet from hitting hard in the middle of TWO of those crazy creek crossings.

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Great 5 hours and tired legs on the way home.

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I had lunch here:

With my little friend.

The trails were amazing and the creeks and waterfalls kept me smiling.

This is not the one I fell in, but there were at least 6 creek crossings and I got to cross them twice!  Yea for me!  I rode hard into most of them, but the current caught me in one of the deep crossings and I went down pretty hard and  then I went down in a second creek crossing for no apparent reason other than to cool off my butt and get my backpack nice and wet.  Oh well.  Thank goodness I was wearing wool socks and gloves!

Beautiful trails!  And the guys really enjoyed hanging with Monte and John D.  Thanks so much for driving up from Macon you two!

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The Perfect Weekend Smells Like: burned sugar, coal smoke, fresh pine!

Spent an awesome weekend watching the boys work on rockets and pewter figurines.  I was the cinematographer and got some crazy video!  No better place to be than with my favorite guys!

 

Then, we picked out our fresh cut tree and found a place for it among the bikes.

There was riding, of course, but no pics, so boring post, really.  I'm anxious to head back to the mountains to ride, but it was soooo nice to hang out at home for a change.

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Chattanooga in Daylight!

Dahlonega's Hiker Hostel has a huge Walton style breakfast and Mulberry Gap's breakfast buffet is amazing, but Crash Pad...???...not so much.......... so we drove in to Greenlife, once again and filled up on some good stuff.

Then rolled out and yep, you guess it....slid down the hill again.

We toured the town of Chattanooga and rode along the river for a good while.

We hit a lot of bridges and they were pretty cool.

Everett was following a crane/heron along the waterfront.

Then....we slid down the hill a few MORE times.....then drove over to the open air market.

Next, it was time to hit the trails.  Enterprise Park at the Volkswagen plant is just a few miles outside of the town and there are a few trails there for walking, running and riding.  Everett forgot his jersey and didn't want to wear a t-shirt.  I kept catching a glimpse of orange in the woods and it was weird.....

The trails are smooth and hard packed and a lot like FATS.  It was fun and fast.  There was a skills areas...meh.

Mad skills.....

Smooth single track and several families out riding.

We hit all the loops and they were fun, but it would take a lot of laps to get in a long ride.  The drive around the park is really hilly and pretty cool.  The fall colors are amazing!

Everett remembers getting Superman ice cream when he was a kid at Chattanooga, so we went in search of something with similar colors and we found a punked out Superman sherbert?  Oh, well, close enough!

We had a great time and hope to head back up that way soon!!

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Shey and Jansen had done a long base ride in the Georgia flatlands with Charles Reeves and friends.  Jansen was happy with 5 1/2 hours.  Then they both raced the A's in Marietta the next day.  Jansen had a brake mechanical and had to stop to fix it, but they both had great races.  Jansen 9th and I think Shey 11th.  Not too shabby!

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UCI race in NC next weekend..........wahoooooooooooooooo!!

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Chattanooga Into the Night

Everett and I drove up to Chattanooga to stay at the Crash Pad hostel and ride in the area.

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First, we stopped at the hostel for check-in and a tour, then we drove over to Greenlife for dinner.

Mmm, yummy pizza and gelato! I got chai flavor and Everett got wheatgrass/mint.

Greenlife has a garden on the roof and they have bees to pollinate. Whole Foods purchased this store, so we have seen some changes, but it is still a pretty cool place to get our snacks.

We like to walk after our meals, so we headed off on foot to walk by the river. We came across this really cool hill with kids sliding down on cardboard boxes. Hmmm.....there were some extra boxes laying around.......

Everett soon became a pro at "grassboarding" down the hill. He was pretty fast!

This is what you get when you hand the camera to your son.....so, I slid OFF the cardboard a few times...can you tell?

After sliding the hill about 60 times, we continued our night walk along the river.

Back at the Crash Pad we had them start up the fire and brought out our snacks. We looked up directions to a new trail that was built by the Volkswagen plant on I-75. Easy directions and we plan to head over there tomorrow afternoon.

The bunks at the crash pad are made from reclaimed wood from the house that once stood on this property. The bunks have blackout curtains, a reading lamp and fan. The counters and cabinets in the kitchen were created by local artisans. I think the owners are climbers and there were several college kids there who were climbing in the area. They were funny to listen to, as they worked so hard on their witty banter.  he-he

Total Slacker Dog........................

Yea, so about that long run................I took the dogs with me and after about 6 miles, they both took off down the trail, Serena came back, Indy....the short bus doggie.....did not.  It got dark.  Jansen was riding with a light and I was finishing my run, and looking for Indy, by holding a helmet light in my hand.  So, after 13 or so miles I got a call from Jansen that Indy was at the car.  Serena and I finished up our run and headed back to the car, where a happy Indy was waiting and rolling in the grass.  He was not tired at all!!!  What a slacker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what Serena did the entire next day. 

Then yesterday I took them for another run (after breakfast with the guys and a tour of the bike shop, which made them very happy) and Indy stayed very close this time.  : > )

We were going to run on the dirt side, but look what was going on!!!  We stopped and watched these guys throw their boomerangs for a bit, but the dogs really wanted to "fetch" them, so we soon headed over to the granite side to run and play.

JAMAICAN ELECTRONICS

So, Jansen has been working on more electronics and building his own yadayadahoodoos, and soldering his own yudidoos, which he explained to me in detail.  My response was,  "Look the wires are in the colors of the Jamaican flag!!"  A sad sigh from Jansen and he turned to explain his work to Shey who made the correct comments and asked better questions.............  sheesh!

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Base Miles and keeping up with the calories!!!

 Ah, it's that time of year, again.  Base miles!  Night riding to get in the time on the bike and of course, lots of food!!

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Ice cream on the trainer.

Jansen made breakfast this Saturday, eggs, bacon and cheese on a blueberry bagel.  Shey made yummy coffee!  Man, this is the life! 

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Then we drove up for a five hour ride with Everett around Kennesaw.

An hour or so around Blankets, then the road, then some wonky dirt stuff, then Rope Mill, then the road, then Blankets again = 5 hours.

Then a ton of food at Chick-fil-a, followed by an awesome shopping trip to Hobby Town USA (rc cars/planes/boats, trains, models, games and tons of cool stuff!) then milk shakes at The Varsity! 

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Happy Lindners!

It was a great day for the three amigos and the weather was amazing!!!!!!

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Long run with the dogs and a ride on the agenda for Sunday.

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