More Georgia under my wheels

Just before crawling into bed last night a semi pulled in & parked about 200′ from me and let the engine run all night. Otherwise the bright all night unecessary parking lot lights eliminated a need for a night light.

Entered address of high school classmate into gps & nailed it. Debbie had her first horse @ the same place we had our horses for several years. Made contact @ 40th HS reunion summer of ’07. She & her husband have a horse trailer sales / service business. Brief conversation as she was pressed for time (she said). Looked @ some of the trailers. Several had human quarters as part of the trailer. How great for horse people: they get to sleep in smell of manure. Lots of $. Us bikers are outspent.

Bought another bottle of Old Pulteney single malt Scotch, aged 12 years for $26. It could have been Junior Johnson’s moonshine for $19.

Drove up rt 81 to Fort Yargo SP and their ST. Overcast cool day. Checked out new shoes. Specialized made 2 noticeable changes: raised tread on sole that now provides 2 non sole bearing points for the Eggbeaters. This will make for a tighter cleat retention. I used old cleats and they were lock tight but released like a greased pig. And they moved the front pieces of leather to further out on toe. Toes will now rub against leather instead of fabric which caused visible pinkies.

Trail goes clockwise on certain days and counter the other. I parked in the non prime TH. I started in what I believed was prescribed counter clock wise. Encountered 2 riders going opposite direction. I thought they were wrong but none of us said anything. A few miles later the trail dumped into the prime TH and I see the CW and CCW arrows on pavement. I was wrong. Turn around & rerode back to van and continued rest of loop plus  rerode original rerode for 17 miles, 2093′ vert in 2 1/4 hours.

Brake still squeals. Researched bike shops in Athens & punched in 1st loc into gps. Ended up downtown on UG campus. No shop. Tried the next one. The wrench & I kaputzed about a solution. None determined. I am focusing on push rod that is stripped. Called Charlie @ Formula and he told me to bleed out a drop of brake fluid as maybe the pads were pushed too far into caliper that will allow essentially overfill of hydraulic system. Will try that tomorrow.

Drove S out of Athens looking for place to sleep near tomorrow’s ride. Found a likely looking bank lot but there were still cars in the lot. I drove down the road looking. I thought I was turning off highway into shopping center but it turned out to be a short road back to a dr’s office and a cul d sac. Just amazing the spots I stumble onto. Tonight’s dark and hopefully no trucks will make up for last night.

At the Park I asked if there were showers. I found the visitors’ center and asked the woman working there. Yes, they have showers but for $10. I balked and she stood her ground. I tried again and she dropped it to my suggested $5.00 because she was there by herself and nobody could tell her not to but that she usually charges the $10.

Showers run the gamet from comfortable homes to just get it over with. The final result is a clean body. I should expend half the effort to clean the Turner.

Couple more GA rides and then to FATS for weekend. Forecacst is for sunny 50 deg days.

Later.

1996 Olympic mtn bike race course

Sort of. i learned from Joe whom I globbed onto in parking lot. He initiated the conversation & I just asked if he would take me. Followed a racer considerably my junior. But this is way ahead of tails of events previous. Most of what we rode was part of course w/ pieces retired from wear.

Last night while still up & on computer a car pulled up & turned on parking lights but did not make contact w/ me. I was hemmed in. Sometime later I noticed it had left. GA woods.

Finished drive into Conyers w/ propane & a bike shop on point. Gas station attendant supplied the yellow pages & I was on it. Wrote down addresses & phone numbers of 2 propane & 2 shops.

Punched in first address of ACE hardware propane supplier. Just down the road. 3.9 gals in a week out of 5.7 possible.

Bike shop turned out to be just minutes from bike course. Purpose was to buy Endurolytes for body chemistry. Succeeded there. Also a Specialized dealer and I have positioned myself to buy a new pair of mtn bike comps should I find the opportunity. Several nights ago I researched sales tax rate by state and GA was only 4% which was the best until Oregon. And I haggled a little & received a break. I bought them. The high top soft boots seemed to irritate my foot tendons. The old ones little toes were sticking out.

Drove to TH which is nondescript. Almost ready to go and…… reread 1st paragraph.

Pisgah Works, Turner, Olympic course, & me
Pisgah Works, Turner, Olympic course, & me

Tough & challenging course. I was unable to ride 1 climb either lap. First lap was w/ Joe and he smoked w/o working @it. He lead & talked over his shoulder in almost normal breathing. Man, I am huffing & puffing trying to stay on his wheel. Good sport to allow me to affect his training.

Loop completes @ TH. I bid adieu & ride off for 2nd lap by myself. I experienced a bit more of trail being slower & leading. Other side of 4 lane paved road is Granite which goes up & down on quite a few long sections of bare granite. 1 tricky spot was an off camber @ bottom of steep drop, wet, & in the shade turn. Way potential of sidehill wipeout slamming down & abrading on rough granite. Made it. Second lap was tougher not following Joe’s wheel. I counter weighed the pedals & bar to stay perpendicular to rock surface. Whew.

Granite alongside golf course:

wild golf drive would bounce ball on granite race course
wild golf drive would bounce ball on granite race course

Trails all hand made. Slope angle percentage exceeded 15%.  2 laps, 14.52 miles, 2425′ vert. Riding these non mountainous trails to get the most of vertical elevation the trail plays w/ fall lines. The climbs are all normally short w/ a turn and slight traverse afterwards to allow catching of breath. The Olympic course had brutal short some steep climbs. Built in ’96. Rode a few feet in GA red mud. Granite is rougher in surface flatness than sandstone slickrock.

Woods section, 3 trails in this picture:

Drove back to bike shop to begin shower search. I ask Brian, the shop owner(?) for shower suggestions and he days he has the solution: shower in the shop. Way to score.

He said i could stay overnight in the parking lot. His shop is 1 in a small strip mall and they probably lease so he didn’t give landlord’s permission. But I will deal w/ that if it comes up. A bit of ways off hwy but still hear traffic noises. Sleeping under parking lot lights. Normal parking lot site but usually not this obvious. Difference between permission or permitted and dirtbagging.

Turned on heater to take chill off.

Gotta figure out future travels. Staying in GA until FATS in SC then back to mountains of N GA.

Dausset, GA

Slept undisturbed in bank parking lot. Slept w/o heater again. 50 deg AMs are fine. Sleep well & not overly cold to live in.

Hit I-75 North again for Dausset trails. Sauntered my way up interstate. Trail review gave address of TH. Again the gps got me in the parking lot. Overcast day, kind of raw but better than heat of upper 60s in FL.

Pulled in, there was a woman with a bike kind of standing around. Hey, I think she might be a local and know the trails. Yes she was and she was waiting around for whatever riders for a group ride that her husband posted on club web site. I worked her until she said yes she would show me around. Torturous slow ride, stayed on easier trails. Her husband joined us until he said he was going to ride something else that was more challenging and I split w/ him & had a better ride. Trails were hand built w/ more technical features. This even had some climbing. No palm trees here. Both of them called out technical features like they were something big. Maybe for there they were and what they were used to riding. Couple little drops & steep short downhills presented some challenges.

I posted the Google earth picture on ride data. Perspective: I measured the area we rode in. It is close to 1 mile square, 640 acres. W/ some reriding trails I rode 14.27 miles, climbed 1374′ and burned 2125 cals in 2 hours 17 mins. There were more miles of trails to ride but they were too muddy. Area received 1.5″ rain Fri & Sat.

Squeaky front brake. New pads still produce noise. Unsuccessfully tried to adjust the pad clearance but the allen set is stripped out. Rear brake works great.

Drove further away from interstate towards Conyers, site of tomorrow’s ride at the Olympic mtn bike race course. Parked in cabled off entry drive of a failed to develop development. Out in country a few minutes South of Conyers.

Eating fresh oranges I bought fresh from the orchards. Had a navel orange tonight. i was expecting ahuge difference between store bought & fresh. Maybe orchard picked was more tender. Have a picture of me picking an orange from the orchard but I’m experiencing troubles w/ Picasa.

Feedback: tell me if the virus is still in the web site.

FATS was closed this weekend because of rain.

People I rode w/ today gave me some more ride ideas. Going to be riding in northern GA for awhile. I would like to get back to Brevard for PT on ornery knee before moving west.

Fruita has a bike festival in April need to look into being there for it, I might enjoy myself.