Favorite Place on Earth (Austin, TX)

16-hour drives should end in a solid night of sleep. Mine didn't. How could it though? I mean, this place is just about perfect. I've had excellent hosts at each stop along the way, but somehow I lucked out and found THREE people to stay with in Austin. I slept about a half-hour this morning and have consumed three cups of coffee and two mexican breakfasts thus far...am I rambling?

Anyway, I'm staying as long as I please because the sun is warm, the people are friendly, and the guys at Lance Armstrong's shop let me know the right spots to ride.

Oak Mountain (Birmingham, AL)

Yesterday I drove to Oak Mountain State Park to ride. I bought a trail map at the park office and found that there was only one loop for mountain bikes. As I made my way to the trailhead I came upon a sign for a BMX track, so I turned in. I decided to run a couple of laps on the track before heading to the trailhead.

Once at my destination I went over the loop on the map. It seemed like the trail followed a couple of ridgelines and ran roughly 17 miles. It all began with a long climb up a fireroad, but once at the top of the climb it seemed like the singletrack would never start. I decided to come up with another route since it's the offseason and I'd probably not encounter another person if I simply took a few of the hiking trails. After I chose my route and turned off the fireroad the ride improved drastically. The singletrack followed an adjacent ridgeline and was much more exciting than the slow and straight lines of the doubletrack before. The leaves on the ground were thick and made it a challenge to keep traction. Some areas had steep rockgardens and others offered blazingly fast downhills.

At the base of the mountain I met the original mountain bike fireroad and followed it towards the parking area. Luckily it branched off into singletrack and made the mostly flat ride back much more exciting. It passed near the BMX track and I had to take one more lap. Soon after that the trail came out to the parking area. As I packed up I noticed that my camera wasn't in its pouch, so I decided to come back the next day (today) to look for it. I had no luck finding it, but did get to ride the trails again. I replaced my camera after leaving today, so future posts will not be without photos.

On the road again (Birmingham, AL)

Since I couldn't get any riding in over the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to sneak in a ride along the road. I woke at 6am and headed to Conyers, Georgia. I went to the site of the 1996 Olympic Mountain Biking Course at the Georgia International Horse Park. The course ran into the woods and over large slabs of rock. There isn't much elevation change, so the course felt like a constant up and down, similar to the Buttermilk Trail in Richmond. I didn't stay long, since I had to get on the road again and the damp conditions were starting to saturate all my gear.



I loaded up the bus again and headed west, along interstate 20 to the Talladega National Forest in Alabama. My destination was the Cheaha Park. The rain had intensified and calmed, which left a foggy dampness in the woods. I was able to climb to the opposite end of the trail along the road and then dip into the woods for an almost entirely downhill run. The ground was covered in wet leaves, but somehow my tires tracked the corners surprisingly well. In what seemed like a blink of an eye I was again in the parking lot. I decided to take a short break, let Dignon out for a stretch of the legs, and then make another circuit. This time I decided to climb to the pinnacle of the road and take a service road that connected to the main trail. I was amazed at how much trail still laid before me. This time, it was entirely downhill without any need to slow the pace or seriously downshift. That was especially good news, since I'd snapped one side of my front shifter mount on an earlier fall. This descent went even faster since I'd seen the corners before and felt comfortable taking them a bit faster. Once out of the woods, I loaded up again and drove to my final destination - Birmingham, Alabama.





As soon as I began driving the sun came out, which allowed a view from the roadside scenic overlooks in the park. What I'd missed on the drive there was breathtaking, so I snapped a few photos and headed on. I did find one more roadside attraction along the way - FIREWORKS!

Thanksgiving (Atlanta, GA)

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I don't normally watch football games on TV, but for some reason I love it on Thanksgiving Day. It represents a day set aside to chill. The only thing expected of me is an appetite - how can you go wrong?



The feast was exceptional and the company (James' folks) was wonderful as usual. We took the bus to the movie theatre on Friday to see the new Bond and I got a little bit of work done on the veggie system on Saturday. Unfortunately it has been raining all day and I don't think I'll be able to get out on the trails, but I think I'll just head out for Birmingham tonight since there's no rain in their forecast.

Bent Creek (Asheville, NC)

On my last day in Asheville I decided to take a solo ride at Bent Creek. The idea was to take fire road climbs to the peak of Hickory Top followed by a scorching downhill on Green's Lick Trail, but my ascent was interruppted by some wrong turns and mistaken trails. I basically ended up hiking through overgrown and underused trail in order to find my way to the top. Once at the peak I took a short ride to the beginning of Green's Lick Trail, the main attraction.



The hard work was immediately rewarded, however, as soon as I pointed it downward and picked up some speed. The trail was phenomenal! It was as fast as you could dream with bump after bump sailing rider and bike into a near-perfect landing just before the next hit. Every corner seemed to have a berm or wall-ride to keep me rocketing towards the bottom too. I reached a rhythm of sucking up about half of each jump and soaring towards the next, landing just long enough to setup for another. The trail was about a mile and a half, but was over in what seemed like seconds. I cut my tire on one of the rocks near the bottom and had to throw in a tube in order to get back to the bus. I took the Lower Sidehill Trail on the way back which offered a bit more excitement and soon after that I was back to the bus and on the road to my next stop - Atlanta, Georgia.

New Paint

Now the bus is almost fully covered!

Soon to Depart

In less than three weeks James, myself, and Dignon will embark on our journey to the west coast. The bus leaves on the night of November 22nd and will follow the route below:


View Larger Map

Our final destination will be San Diego. It seems to be close to the ocean and mountains, the climate will be around 65-70 degrees through most of the winter months, and the mountain biking appears to be spectacular in that area. I will be updating the blog as much as possible during our drive and once we're settled in California.