Jansen and I ate breakfast at The Cracker Barrel. Mmmm...pancakes with blackberry stuff!
Wes and Bob showed up with their super cool RV, which will make for a CUSHY ride, and we piled in Jansen's stuff.
Cory showed up.....a day late, but who's counting. He was supposed to meet up with Wes on Thursday, but was abducted by wild boars and was held captive until his parents paid a ransom of 42 bags of skittles candy. His parents held out, in hopes that Cory would come to love the boars and they would be able to keep the candy for themselves, but the guilt of good parents won in the end. Skittles were exchanged for a mountain biker and all is well with the world.
Jansen snapped this shot in St. Louis.
Jansen loves setting off fireworks, so they picked some up along the way and set them off last night. Not to be outdone, Bob bought the BIG ONES! Sounds like they had fun.
Saturday, J called to say he rode a really cool 'roller coaster' road. C and W hit a muddy trail and did not have as much fun, but they all got in some spin time.
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After I dropped Jansen off, I headed to the Chattanooga area and rode the Chihowee trails. The road up and down was pretty crazy. A "little" rutted. I thought for sure that no one would be at the top, but when I got to the parking lot, there was a beach FULL of families. (lake beach) Lot's of screaming and splashing. Then I hit the trail and it was peaceful and I was more-or-less alone.
When I took this picture, four dogs jumped out of the woods to cheer me on. I was so scared....I thought they were a bear. They cheerfully barked while I took this shot, them followed me down the road for a bit.
The trail was great. A cool singletrack decent, with some minor rock gardens and beautiful forest scenery. (clear creek, I think) A short hike-a-bike section with some large-off set rocks over small/med drop-offs, a bit of ride-the-ruts trail, then you get to the bottom where it's grassy. Lots of scene change.
The top:
Right before the bottom I came across one guy and he gave me directions to get back up to the beach. The climb up Clemmer was great and on gravel. It felt like a FS road, but was narrow enough to make you believe you were still on a trail. Very nice. There was lots of turns that would break-up the climb, so you wouldn't feel defeated by looking 150 yards ahead at the rest of the ascent.
At the top, I found three nice guys at an intersection and they said they would take me back to the beach, so that was fun. The last short section was an easy walking trail, which was perfect for a cool-down and we rode at an easy pace.
All-in-all, a very cool place to ride, paddle, trail run, camp and jump in the lake after a hot day.
After I changed, I decided to head back home on hwy 411 instead of I-75. Awesome road! It took me through all these cool little towns and through hundreds of acres of giant sunflowers. People were lining the sidewalks and parking lots for a parade or fireworks or something. Good times. (4 hours up and 4 hours back)
I had $2 and some change, so I hit the ol' Wendy's $.99 value menu on the way home. Mmmm, bleached flour, shortening and who-knows-what-grade beef. Loved it. Perfect end to a perfect day.
Tomorrow it looks like we are headed out-of-state, again. I wonder if I get to drive for another 12 hours next weekend? Probably!
I need a CD player in my car!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and I love this sticker from Endless Bike Co. Local bike companies rock. These cogs are made right in Asheville.
Everett ditched the road trip to work at Lifetime. That just means he will have $ to buy me an ice cream on our next excursion. I get to xc ride with him tomorrow.
Can't remember what Shey said he did, so it must not have been very exciting. The cookies do seem to be missing, though.............
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