Happy 4th
Woohoo! Just got back from the Cartecay Bikes 4th of July ride..fun time, as always. In brief, this is pretty much how the day went...
7:30 am - wake up (keep in mind, we have a 1.5 hour drive at a minimum, and the ride starts at 10am)
7:45 am - wake up enough to actually do something...this involves the usual pre-ride routine of taking the dogs out to play, feeding the dogs, transfering the riding clothes from the washer to the dryer, waiting for them to dry, making up bottles and gathering food for the Wingnut packs, gathering tools, and loading up the car.
8:20 am - I ask Eddie if he could change out my gearing..real quick :) I had a 34 x 20 on there, but my legs were still aching from the weekend, and Tuesday's ride..I really wanted an easier gear.
8:45 am - After much sighing and "choice" words under Eddie's breath, we finally hit the road to Ellijay.
9:35 am - We almost run out of gas..luckily we made it to the gas station and filled up 15.3 gallons in my 15 gallon tank..d'oh!
9:45 am - We realize that we forgot the bag with our food, drink mix, bottles, etc. SOL. We have to stop at the grocery store now..we're still a good 40 minutes away from the trail and Eddie's pretty much giving me the silent treatment..when he's not telling me this is all my fault that we're late :) The truth is, we're never on time for these group rides...and everyone expects us to be late. It's kind of funny.
10:15 am - We leave the grocery store with bottled gatorade, Oatmeal Creme Pies, and a butt load of Fig Newtons..oh, and a Cherry Pie. Yuck.
10:30 am - We get to the turnoff into Ellijay...Eddie says some more "choice words". Huh? The road is blocked for the Ellijay 4th of July parade...greeeaaat. The volunteer fireman gives us directions around the parade..but of course we get lost.
11:00 am - We finally roll into the parking area...and not surprisingly, everyone is long gone. We joke about how we're the "F" group. Eddie and I were both planning on riding with the "A" group, but the "A" group was probably almost done with their ride at this point. We figured we could at least catch up with the back half of the "B" group.
The ride route went up the gravel road to the Bear Creek trail..which is pretty much a long gradual doubletrack climb with some rocks, roots, and creek crossings. Then we hit the gravel road that takes you to Potato Patch...what a BI+CH it was today...it hurt..it felt like it hurt more than the gravel roads did during the Cohutta 100. Anyway, soon we were finally at the turnoff for Mountaintown Creek, which is a treat. It starts out uncomfortably fast..steep singletrack, with whoops, random rocks, and overgrowth covering part of the trail. It then mellows out and turns more technical..which I prefer because you can't get as much speed. A few technical descents...through a brazilian creek crossings (only 25% of which are actually rideable..for me at least). And then back to some wet, rooty, rocky, single and doubletrack...and fast gravel road back to the car.
Eddie thought it would be funny to ONLY take pictures of me walking the nasty creek crossings..HAHA :) The truth is, I rode the descents so fast that he couldn't pull the camera out in time to catch me.
We caught up with everyone at the end of the ride, and finished it off with some mmmmexican food. yum.
Good times! Happy 4th of July, everyone.
P.S. one more random pic from early June..aren't these the finest looking endurance racers in the southeast?? :).. my sexy husband cleans up niiiice.
7:30 am - wake up (keep in mind, we have a 1.5 hour drive at a minimum, and the ride starts at 10am)
7:45 am - wake up enough to actually do something...this involves the usual pre-ride routine of taking the dogs out to play, feeding the dogs, transfering the riding clothes from the washer to the dryer, waiting for them to dry, making up bottles and gathering food for the Wingnut packs, gathering tools, and loading up the car.
8:20 am - I ask Eddie if he could change out my gearing..real quick :) I had a 34 x 20 on there, but my legs were still aching from the weekend, and Tuesday's ride..I really wanted an easier gear.
8:45 am - After much sighing and "choice" words under Eddie's breath, we finally hit the road to Ellijay.
9:35 am - We almost run out of gas..luckily we made it to the gas station and filled up 15.3 gallons in my 15 gallon tank..d'oh!
9:45 am - We realize that we forgot the bag with our food, drink mix, bottles, etc. SOL. We have to stop at the grocery store now..we're still a good 40 minutes away from the trail and Eddie's pretty much giving me the silent treatment..when he's not telling me this is all my fault that we're late :) The truth is, we're never on time for these group rides...and everyone expects us to be late. It's kind of funny.
10:15 am - We leave the grocery store with bottled gatorade, Oatmeal Creme Pies, and a butt load of Fig Newtons..oh, and a Cherry Pie. Yuck.
10:30 am - We get to the turnoff into Ellijay...Eddie says some more "choice words". Huh? The road is blocked for the Ellijay 4th of July parade...greeeaaat. The volunteer fireman gives us directions around the parade..but of course we get lost.
11:00 am - We finally roll into the parking area...and not surprisingly, everyone is long gone. We joke about how we're the "F" group. Eddie and I were both planning on riding with the "A" group, but the "A" group was probably almost done with their ride at this point. We figured we could at least catch up with the back half of the "B" group.
The ride route went up the gravel road to the Bear Creek trail..which is pretty much a long gradual doubletrack climb with some rocks, roots, and creek crossings. Then we hit the gravel road that takes you to Potato Patch...what a BI+CH it was today...it hurt..it felt like it hurt more than the gravel roads did during the Cohutta 100. Anyway, soon we were finally at the turnoff for Mountaintown Creek, which is a treat. It starts out uncomfortably fast..steep singletrack, with whoops, random rocks, and overgrowth covering part of the trail. It then mellows out and turns more technical..which I prefer because you can't get as much speed. A few technical descents...through a brazilian creek crossings (only 25% of which are actually rideable..for me at least). And then back to some wet, rooty, rocky, single and doubletrack...and fast gravel road back to the car.
Eddie thought it would be funny to ONLY take pictures of me walking the nasty creek crossings..HAHA :) The truth is, I rode the descents so fast that he couldn't pull the camera out in time to catch me.
We caught up with everyone at the end of the ride, and finished it off with some mmmmexican food. yum.
Good times! Happy 4th of July, everyone.
P.S. one more random pic from early June..aren't these the finest looking endurance racers in the southeast?? :).. my sexy husband cleans up niiiice.
posted by Namrita O'Dea at
3:31 PM
2 Comments:
No better way to enjoy our countries celebration of our day of freedom then to go ride in the great big woods. I actually got to ride Pisgah yesterday. Cracked a cassette, bruised my shoulder, busted my knee open. Loved it all!
You are funny girl. Sounds like you two had a great time - especially with the Oatmeal Cream Pies! :) Hope you had a great day!
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