Mulberry Gap

We had a great 200 mile ride this past weekend in north Georgia.
 
Shey, Jansen and I left Friday evening to drive to Mulberry Gap.  Jansen would stay the weekend to ride the area and Shey and I would be shuttled to the SC border to start our ride back to MG, following a route that Dave Muse created.

We got off to a good start when the temps were cool.  Andy came along to ride with Shey.

Everywhere I looked the scenery was amazing.  Green with mountains framing every view.

I had not really looked at the course or cue sheets, so I didn't realize the first 155 miles would be FS roads and paved roads.  No singletrack, but still very pretty.  Here is a road that was taken over by a runaway creek.

There was much climbing on the dirt and gravel roads and many of the roads ran right along side a creek or river, so the sound of the water was really cool.

I found out if you put your m&ms in the same bag as your bagel, you end up with a rainbow bagel......yum!

It started raining at 3:15 and the storms continued to follow me for the next 3 1/2 hours.  When I got to Moccasin State Park I was invited to hang out by a camp fire while I waited for the lightening to move on.  I LOVE camp fires, so I accepted the invitation and hung out for about 15 minutes before hitting the road again.

There were lots of creek and river crossings.

Even at night.....

 I got to Helen before midnight, which was my goal.  I bought some snacks and ate at Wendy's.  My bike wasn't heavy enough to trigger the speaker at the drive-through, but the guy behind me pulled up so I could order.  Then when I rode around to pick up my food,  all the employees had their faces in the small window to see the lady riding her bike through the drive-through window.  I ate under a tree and thoroughly enjoyed my fries. 


Then I headed off for a nice, cool, night ride on the pavement.  I stood up and hit this section at a pretty decent clip, so that I could make it to the 11 mile climb Shey had told me about.  After the paved section, I turned onto a gravel road and crossed a couple creeks.  I saw what looked like a camping area next to the water at one point and someone started flashing their light at me.  I looked down at them again and they were still flashing their light.  I got a little scared and was ready to head back to the closest house, when I heard Shey call my name.  He climbed up the embankment and asked me to camp with them.  I had planned to ride on, and told him that I wanted to keep riding so I could hit that 11 mile climb asap.  He sounded confused and told me I had already hit that climb and the next one was shorter.....oh, ooops.   I realized that I didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time, other than what I had planned for myself, so I camped with him and tried to warm him up, since his feet were freezing.

Shey made us a awesome camp fire the next morning and Andy slept in late.  We all got a pretty late start and that meant we wouldn't get to MG until late evening....but as long as we get there before dinner, all is good!

(Andy forages for bugs to add protein to his diet.)

I stopped at the Iron Bridge Cafe and had an amazing grilled cheese sandwich.  As I was eating I decided to cut out the last section that I had ridden two weeks ago.  I was 8 hours down on ride time from stopping overnight, and I had really wanted to get back early enough to hang out with Jansen.  So, I looked at a area map and decided to take a road that looked like it might turn into Rock Creek road.  It was a really cool, twisty , turny road and it did indeed turn into the dirt road I was looking for.  From there I hit the highway, which was very hot, with no shade and seemed like a very bad idea about 7 miles down the road, but then I hit the town square at Ellijay and took the super fun rolling highway out to MG.  I had lots of energy left and hammered down the dirt road to where the food was.  190 miles total for me and I figured Shey would finish up within 2 or 3 hours and we could all eat together.

Jansen following the dog path.

Dinner was yummy, as usual.  Gini is an amazing cook!  We had Pork Tenderloin, sweet potatoes, peas, artisan bread, salad and vanilla ice cream with strawberries.  MMMM-mmmmm!

Wes was staying at MG and helping Gini and Diane, so he helped with dinner and breakfast.  Jansen said he had a lot of fun riding the singeltrack while we were gone and he was very impressed with Gini's brisket for dinner on Saturday.  It's all about food, ya know!

MG has a lot of rescued dogs.  Here is Sasha with her piece of wood......

Everett needed to work this weekend, so he stayed home and took care of the animals.  He is still riding his bike to and from work, so he is staying in really good shape.  When we walked in the house, he had created a man-cave for himself in the living room.  Cool! 

We are so lucky to live so close to the mountains and have so many great places to ride!

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