L4adventures: The ME Trip

The boys decided to stay home and go with Shey to his race, instead of camp and ride in the mountains.

That left me with a great opportunity to take a day to myself. That is a rare thing...

So, I got a break from this guy

and this guy

and this guy!

I headed up to Ellijay on Saturday afternoon, after making a few fun stops along the way.

Normally, I hate to spend time on FS roads, as Aimee will be happy to tell you, since she had to spend a good portion of a ride trying to keep me sane during the Firewater 50!

But the sky had dumped an enormous amount of rain on the Ellijay zip code and FS roads seemed the best option for a climbing work-out.

The creeks were full (great for rinsing off the mud as I rode through) and the waterfalls were amazing.

Sometimes it's a great thing to have a husband with a "type A" personality. Hence the highlighted map, sealed in plastic.

It drizzled/rained on and off and there was a very cool mist on the road. This is awesome when you don't want to look up and see how much more climbing you have to do.

Once, I reached the top, the area was clear of mist and you could look down to see the clouds/fog in the valley.

The ride was so mountain bikey! Only three cars and no one on the trail, but me. Peaceful and fun.

Two markers: I was sliding down a trail and accidentally slid right under a branch that was hanging low...it was very cool, like those motocycle movies where they slide sideways under a big truck! I also am pretty sure I saw a mother bear and her cub. I say pretty sure, because I was out of there like a flash when I heard them and saw them moving up the other side of the creek.

Bees are the new cool thing and I saw them in several yards.

Muddy and happy, I headed back to Mulberry Gap for a fabulous meal.

Ginni and Diane served me a meal fit for a superstar! Yes, that is one monstorous yeast roll. You would not believe how delicious a yeast roll can be after 3 1/2 hours of sliding around in the mud.

Mulberry Gap is the most peaceful and serene place to be on the weekend. The two ladies who run the place are very cool and we stayed up late, as we solved many of the world's problem. (Obama will be emailing us shortly, I'm sure)

The offered me a very cozy cabin and I slept like a log, as it poured rain most of the night.

MG decore.

I love this sign.

I really wanted to stay in that lovely cabin and sleep in late, but instead I got up and drove up to the Kenda Cup race at the Ocoee Whitewater Center. Dave and Terry put on a great race and it's so cool that we have some local races in the XC national circuit this year.

Here Andy shows the crowd his latests Yoga move.

Wes explains just how "low he can go". Seth and Jesus are mesmerized.

Loretta before she played in the mud....

and after...

The big boys line up.

I love this shot of Anet on the line between two teenagers. Very cool.

I left right after Loretta came across the line and it was raining pretty hard. I drove until I saw lighter clouds and jumped on the road bike for a spin.

I stopped at all the neat places that I always want to check-out, but never get to because we are on the way to or from a race.

This farm was neat.