Slept w/o heat last night @ crowded deer pass camp area. Why I remember back in rainy Jan I was the only rig there. Fair weatherers and one of then has my spot.

Plan is to go into town. Greet the MBH riders letting them know that rumors of my departure are greatly exaggerated. Dis wash. Picked up Golytley brew. Drove to TH where I fell and hiked the short distance uphill. I think I made the first roll over. The second one was about 20″. The line I chose really lacked a roll out. The surfaces were 90 degs to each other. I should have been able to roll it. It seems that I stuffed the front wheel and either the front stayed straight and I was thrown over the bars a la superman, or, the handlebar and wheel turned  under me slamming me into the rocks. Below these roll overs the trail added dirt. I wasn’t dusty so it had to have been the second roll over as described. Shouldn’t have happened.

Hung @ B & B for awhile than headed out to Beaverhead flats camp

Tomorrow is apple juice. Cleansetails served @ 4:00 until 4 liters are downed. Drive down to Scottsdale to motel.

Left side ribs hurt to breathe deeply. Xrays showed solid bones. Sleeping on my stomach is my most restful position. Last night I rolled face down for sheer enjoyment of the comfort but rolled away during sleep because of injury pain pressure.

So much has happened since I arrived in Augusta such that I have prolly lost chronological order. Met new people, remet several people I met along my travels, rode FATS 3x & going back for the fourth. I plan on updating this posting to recapture what i remember.

Today is a work day for all the others, or at least I have controlled the distractions to my time to catch up. Did some grocery shopping and doing my wash here in I think of Evans, GA Going back to FATS for a solo ride to learn navigation and ride all 4 loops turning right @ each intersection.

Wed afternoon arrived in Augusta in heat & dripping humidity. Host site is Marriot right on Savavnah river bank. parked in lot beside a Sprotsmobile Sprinter conversion. Later learned it is owned by Nat & Rachael Lopes who were part of IMBA trail crew care crew that shared their expertise in Spokane back when I was active w/ bike club. Up @ registration I was mingling w/ all these mtrs & government officials. Suddenly i was smoothered in a warm hug by Liz Victor, Bill’s wife. Warm greeting. Made eye contact w/ a guy that I couldn’t place and he likewise. he stuck out his stare and asked me if I was the guy in the mag article that he read about on his plane flight. I said Yes. We intorducded ourselves. Liz came back and started taling to both of us as if she knew the other guy. She realized that I did not know that Tony, the new guy, is a friend of theirs and will be staying @ their house along w/ me.  Stellar. Tony has a trail building company in Salida, CO. I told him I had ben there. i asked him if he knew Mark & Brenda. He said Mark is his webmaster as Mark is to me.

Chatted w/ Tim from Huntsville, AL who is responsible for trails at Monte Sano. Rick Moon from Dalton and the Rickettes. Rob from Ocola, FL is a friend of Bill’s. I rode w/ him @ Santos. Lunch was provided. One day i picked an empty seat at a table, sat down and stuck out my shaking hand to the guy on my left and introduced myself as if I were attending an AA meeting. Turned out he is Lou, editor of MountainBiking mag, next to him was Joe, owner of BikeMag, and to the right 2 people away was Maurice owner of DirtRag.

Night life on downtown mainstreets

Finishing laundry, drive back to FATS talk to Grace via cell phone. More later.

Monday:

Rode FATS. Bill told me that if I left the parking lot and turned right @ each intersection i would make my way back to aprking lot. That was my ride today: 2440 miles in 2 hrs 30 mins of good pedaling, 2050′ climbed in flat South Carolina and burned 3729 cals. Encountered 1 rider in almost a head on crash. Trail is closed if potential of too wet for good stewardship. Wet trails when ridden on mars the trail. This trail is so smooth. FATS is in my love affair.

Shared fresh strawberries & whipped cream w/ Bill & family. Spent night in driveway. Hard to leave great people I have met along the way.

Peaceful dry night out @ Jakes mtn TH. Chilled off enough to pull up light weight blanket. Trails are deemed too wet to ride per Jon @ bike shop once I arrived there. Jon & I sat around w/ him attempting to work but happier telling his bike stories. I shared a few. In his day Jon was quite the racer. His wife, Nancy, was every bit as great. Spent the AM visiting.

The IRS sent me a letter informing me of taxes owed from my house investments. The letter was mailed to my mail forwarding service, Earthlink. I requested a scan which was emailed to me. I chose to save it as PDF and copied it to my Flash drive. I needed it printed @ an office supply place. Chose UPS which was only 1 in town. Have it printed and determining course of action.

Needed a shower so I drove out to Hiker Hostel. Hatched an idea of offering sweat equity for payment. met Josh outside and made my offer. he said he and Lee were going to be planting their garden and I could help. I told him I am a good worker but I ask a lot of questions. he said, no problem, it’s really simple: Brown is down and green is up. He was leaving to pick up an ill AT hiker and I should visit w/ Lee which i did. She was preparing dinner giving me a captive audience for Talkin’ Dude. Josh returned rescuing her. Neat garden idea as it is raised beds and string marked off in 1 foot squares. They engineered the plants to go where. This design allows for higher density planting yielding more vegetables. It was a fun task for a shower. I made a comment about moonshine and Josh suggested a place up the mtn.

I showered and drove off up to Woody Gap where the AT crosses the hwy. Climbing twisting tight turns to Gap @ 3000′ where a pull out for the AT exists. Drove down towards Suches and turned into road to trout farm. Pulled in. Saw an older man and a younger man on the porch of shop bldg. Younger man was smoking a cig and drinking a bud. I warmed them up w/ free form Craig questions until I could state that I had a ticklish question to ask about moonshine. They each said No. I don’t really know if they meant no they did not have any or answered me as an untrusted person. I accepted No and stayed to chat some more.

I drove down to Suches which is a shadow of an old mtn town. Residents have left the land and little life remains.

Drove back up to Woody Gap and parked @ AT crossing. I walked a bit North on a path marked “Water” In a short ways I came upon a spring ushering forth from under a boulder. Sipped a few handfuls. Back @ Gap a CXT outhouse from Hillsboro Texas stood. Across the hwy there is a great vista out to the South. The land just falls away. Just very wooded. There were 3 backpackers satnding around and I chatted w/ them for awhile. Rookies, ill prepared and unprepared for their adventure. Their packs were too heavy w/ unnecessary gear and were physically unprepared. Their goal was the NC border or 7 days of hiking. They realized NC was unobtainable @ their pace so they relaxed. Another hiker joined them. He had been downsized. His goal was Maine but he was having a hard time. Interesting, this guy and 1 of the 3 were trying to quit smoking but the 1 of 3 scored a pack from someone else who was trying to quit. The single guy bummed a smoke and chain smoked a second. The 3 were looking for an easy way out. The single decided he wanted to go to the Hostel for the night and I offered to drive him down as it was on my way. He accepted. I dropped him off.

I continued to Dahlonega to other grocery store for h20. 2 women were in front of me @ check out. The first one told the checker to stop checking groceries when he reached $10. What was left were 3 bottles of baby food for her child. The woman in front of me told the checker that she would pay for the baby food. She had a $10 bill for her groceries. The baby food sale needed change. I held out my hand full of change for her. Between us the baby food was paid for. People helping people.

Drove back to Jakes for the night. I park in the day use parking lot as I can get internet and XM. The turtle left during the night last night as did the puddle.

Borrowed Kill Bill Vol 2 from Jon to watch.

Tomorrow is Augusta and IMBA.