Drive day South

Sleep interrupted about 4:30AM by tractor trailer doing trailer switches like right outside my fender. Slept late to make up for the interruption.

Plan was to drive to Cave Run Bicycle & pick shop brains for local ride. Arrived b4 10:00 AM opening & sat in parking lot waiting. casual winter time opening. Chatted with owner John about rides and conditions of trails & USFS involvement or lack thereof. Short of it was: wet spring, 3 month drought & 100 of horses mixed in damages the trails. Biker community participated in trail use meetings with their recommendation of separate trails for user groups to protect trail quality. FS lacks funds & perhaps where with all to make separate trails. John offered more of same trail systems and I bailed making a generalization of horse affected trails & snotty clay.

Took advantage of cold & windy weather to drive South towards Tennessee.

Last night I bought an eastern US map and am marking on the map the potential rides I have found. This presents a graphic picture of networking locations to maximize ride time and reduce drive miles. Plan is to drive tomorrow into Knoxville and do a local ride then over to NC down into SC, back to TN, and then down to N Georgia. Still quite a bit of wandering seeking out desirable rides.

Stopped in Williamsburg, KY for night. Diesel $2.54 / gal. Found bank parking lot @ edge of town. Cleaning up after dinner and looked out front window across a field from me and saw about 10 police cruisers w/ lights & sirens flashing plus 3 meat wagons bracket in a house right on the corner. In dark i was unable to view activity. Shortly a helicopter with a search light joined the action. I am parked in the next accessible road. At first I thought they were coming across the field for me and that something happened at the bank but there were no flashers in the bank parking lot. And the police rigs turned to face the house on the corner. Shortly a meat wagon left with flashers on. A while later the helicopter left; it might have been an evac flight and i couldn’t see if it flew a victim away or left empty. And then the cops turned off their flashers and drove away. I am still here in the parking lot and there are some people somewhere that they did not plan on being. Story might be in newspaper tomorrow.

So, scoot to Knoxville for ride and then over to Asheville, NC area for a longer visit.

Cave Run Lake on the slippery clay

Cheered Zags on to victory over Tennessee in a sports bar. Liquor laws on Sunday mean an early last call way early in the evening. Nursed 2 swigs of beer for 2nd half.

Found gravel parking lot among some motels. Slept well and a bit late.

Plan today is to ride what the weather and USFS info allow. Forecast is for 70% snow so i am thinking of a lay over day waiting out weather. Actual weather was just above freezing, windy, partially sunny and snow showers. Stopped @ FS visitor center at Cave Run Lake, a Corps of Engineering flood control dam. Somebody sent the $ for what appears to  be a mute issue: Big dammed up river.

Rode part of Sheltowee Trail S from dam, out & back w/ a loop added @ end. Trail tread is mostly clay covered by fallen leaves chewed up by horses. Non technical w/ little ups & downs for good hard riding. Going uphill on steeps I spun out in the clay. Snotty mud. 16.36 miles & 2121′ vert.

Note: I am uploading the ride data from Google Earth and placing them in the Rides page. Apparently you need a Google Earth to properly open the file to see the ride. Right click on file name, open in new window. If you have Google Earth it will open.

$2.00 bought a shower @ Outpost XG.

Back into town. decided to see a movie to spend some time in another manner. Choose Bond’s new movie, I enjoyed the nice seat and climate controlled environment way more than movie. Fixed dinner in parking lot as snow fell outside my windows.

Drove back to same parking lot.

Forecast is nice for next 2 days. Tomorrow I will hit local bike shop for more ride ideas in area.

Kentucky is my 30th state to experience my bike tires.

Waiting out the rain in Morehead, KY

Sometime during the night it started to rain. Again, I accepted the forecast as possible showers and put the bike cover over the bikes so I just listened to the rain on the roof.

Today I just drove to Morehead to wait out the rain and a Kentucky ride at Cave Lake that Rich, the IMBA Trail Crew person suggested. The forecast is for rain on Monday, partial sun on Tuesday and then snow. I plan to hang here today and Monday. The local bike shop is open Tuesday for beta on Cave Run ride.

Will find a bar tonight for GU game.

I saved the Mohican ride and added it as a graphic to the blog: Thanksgiving…. Mohican. If you open it, please tell me your results.

Go ZAGS.