Biker Hostel

The weather was amazing this weekend and we had reservations at the hiker hostel in Dahlonega.

It was just Jansen and me. Shey was racing and meeting with his group of kids from cycle youth and Everett was not able to come with us.

We stopped by Whole Foods, where they were serving hamburgers and grilled corn outside the store. This made us very happy. I got seeds for my herb garden. Jansen got these swanky gloves at REI.

We weren't in a rush, but definitely wanted to hit the trails for a least a couple hours today, so we headed up to Bull Mt.

The trail was okay. I guess we were expecting more single track , but the land was beautiful and the temperature was perfect, and that was nice.

Of course we just wandered around lost and rode whatever trails we came across. Then we busted out the maps and planned for Sunday.

At the halfway point of our ride, Jansen was like, " what kind of burrito are you going to get?" Then, we laid out our order from Moe's in anticipation of getting back to the car!

Once we finished our ride we headed into Dahlonega and hit Moe's for some burritos and tacos. Yum! Very nice and quite. Good food.

We drove out to the hiker hostel and got there just as the sun was going down. The first thing we noticed were the chickens. Yep, a chicken coop with some very sleepy hens!

They had bees, too and a worm composting bin.

We went inside and the place was amazing! Clean, roomy and very cool.

We were tired so, Leigh showed us around and we said hi to our roommate, then hit the hay.


A sleepy Jansen said, "Are we going to get up at 7:20?", "Uh, no I plan to sleep in a go for a ride when it's a little warmer." "But, Leigh said that breakfast is at 7:30 and don't want to miss that." Always thinking about food.

The bunks were super comfortable and we slept very well.

Leigh woke us up with breakfast in 15 minutes. It was a Walton's style family breakfast and we got to meet thu hikers from all over. New Zealand, Boston, etc. Apparently you must have a nickname while hiking the AT. So, these guys were working on nicknames for one another.



Moleskin, Na Dah He (the bearded one in navajo), etc.

After the AT hikers drove off on their shuttle, we toured the property with Maggie the dog, then packed up, grabbed more food at Wendy's and hit Bull Mt. again. Lots of horses. Jansen flew through all the rutted out descents, then 'ate it' when deciding at the last minute that maybe he shouldn't jump that hump..... Rasberries, scrapes, torn jersey, brake levers in the wrong place and probably a few bruises that will pop up tomorrow. It never seems to be the technical stuff that we crash on.

We headed into old town Dahlonega and Jansen found this sweet old hand drill at one of the antique malls. He loves wood working and old tools, so this was perfect for him.

This guy parked behind us.


Another fun weekend. BANNF Film Festival is this week and ING Marathon and garden work is planned for next weekend.

From Snow to Sunny Weather

The Rock Pile at the gaps.

One weekend it's snowing and the next it's 75 degrees! Shey decided to race Snake Creek, so the boys and I headed to "the gaps" to get in some climb time.

Russell set up ride time and he brought Matt and Dylan with him, so they had a great group.

Cross brakes are not so good on the steep descents, so I brought my xc bike and went my own way.



The AT (appalachian trail) crosses at the top of Neels Gap and there is a really cool shop there with all sorts of camping equipment. It was busy, as this is the time of year that so many people set off on the AT in hopes of completing it over the next few months.

There are so many types of hikers. Older hikers, in tye-dye who are living a life-long dream, college hikers, in the north face, who need time to think about the future, and so many others who fit in-between.

Dahlonega is a wonderful area, with beautiful rivers (I forgot my camera on the ride....ooops, so you'll have to take my word for it) and fresh air.

Everett got his xc bike together, so we hit Heritage on Sunday. Always a fun trail. Pics of the 'new to us' bike, coming soon.

Blowing stuff up

I still love to have a bon-fire in the backyard and I could sit for hours at our camp-site and watch the camp fire flames.

So, it seems that experiments and blowing stuff up, just never gets old.......especially for teen-age boys.

Here we see Jansen trying to blow-up a hot wheels car.

Well, it just blew the hood off, so we moved on to bigger equipment.......with a ramp!

Uh, the car flew off the ramp, with sparks flying everywhere and we were all diving for safety.

This doesn't really have anything to do with Jansen's experiments, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Snow in the South is a BIG DEAL!

Yeah, snow. Snow ball fights. Snow man.

No school. No work.

Love that snow!