Cullman to the Magic City

Since I’ve moved here, I have always  dreamed about riding from here to Birmingham. It wasn’t a real big or difficult dream, but just something I had to make time and find some willing partners to go with me.  Well, I mentioned it to the CC cyclist and with a little coaxing from his wife, he was in.

We left  on a Sunday morning at about 6:15 and headed straight South down highway 31. Traffic was very light and the temp was nice. After we crossed the Mulberry River and entered the Bangor area, the ride became very picturesque. The fog lifting off the swamps illuminated the tremendous green and dense forest giving Bangor a green fluorescent hue. I have always loved this valley early in the morning.

At some point you have to cross the mountain. CR 7 is awesome but puts you out on busy Hwy  160, Smoke Rise is a good climb but still just a dull subdivision. I chose Cannon Crossing on the West side of I-65 .  It is a hidden path that actually goes through somebody’s yard at some point. I like to speculate that this path got its name from being the only practicle place to get the cannons across the mountain in the Civil War. On the other side of the crossing , we found our way back to Hwy 31 where we continued through Warrior to Birmingham.

After a couple of breakfast gut bombs in Gardendale, we made our final leg into the magic city. It is is exciting to see the city skyline as you top the last ridge in North Birmingham. We road a victory lap down the cobbles of old Morris Ave.  and had a painful finish on the 23^rd street climb that ends at Highland Ave, before coasting down to Rojo.  The big let down, was that we arrived early at 11:00. Because it was Sunday, Rojo couldn’t serve a celebration brew until Noon.

New Found Gap Again

I was glad to sleep late on Saturday and after a small breakfast, we made a chili start up the mountain. As it began to warm, I couldn't help but think about the fact that I had ridden the same pass with 8 to 10 inches of snow just a couple months before. We had a great climb but at about mile ten my brother unleashed a series of attacks that kept things interesting until we reached the top. After a couple of picture oppurtunities we started the almost routine descent. But much to my surprise something different happend this time. In a 180 degree turn and at about 45 mph, I heard a pop like a .22 rifle and had just enough time to realize that the sound was my rear tire. I went out of control, crossed the opposite lane and had a close encouter of the Ford kind before shimmying back into my lane and came to a stop. My brother was in front and didn't know that I fell off. My tire was trashed. I started to walk with my thumb out. I couldn't believe how many cars just blew right by before two nice ladies picked me up and took me down the mountain. All in all, it still turned out to be a nice ride and we finished it off with Cajun food and a PBR.

Smokey Mtn Parkway Here We Come

We took an easy and slow start to Gatlinburg after work. One fast food run and 5 hours later, we found ourselves chill'n in front of the fire at one of my favorite $ 50 dives. Tomorrow we plan to ride our road bikes up the parkway to New Found Gap.I Always love this ride. After the road ride, we are excited about moving on to a cabin at Tsali to meet some Fl co-workers for a few days of mountain biking. . . Tsali on a single? Might be tough. I may find out the hard way.

New Hipster In Town

It may take a while for him to transition into the skinny jeans and wool cycling caps. And of course the ML will have to be replaced with PBR. But, he has the bike right so far. One of our towns local legends has been pub crawling around town at night on this smooth SS. I'm Jealous!

Another One Bites the Dust

My Bro G has good reason to spend more time in our town lately. We have taken advantage of this by hitting SLP on lunch during the week some times. Unfortuantly, Bro G was watching two tiny dogs cross the infamous "Collar Bone Creek" when he got into my back wheel and made some racing stripes of his own. I hope he and his bike recover before our epic Clingmans Dome/ Tsali trip this weekend.

Sloss

The weather was great for Sloss Cross. This is such a cool location for a race. The hipsters were out in force. The course was more technical on one area than I prefer, but that is cross.
You have to take it or leave it. In the rear of the SS Chris O (the Tattoo wonder) put a whoop'n on me this week, But Brent was the real surprise of the day.

Throw back of the month.

Ok... the rumor that I invented mountain biking is not true, But this was pretty darn close. The other guy in the pic is,you guessed it,My Bro G. I don't remember what year this was, but I do remember that it was in Swanee Tn. Notice the rigid forks and toe clips.

Anniston Cross

The single speed racing was pretty tight at Anniston. Chris and I exchanged places three or four times. I even made contact in one corner on an inside pass (my fault) leaving my right brake lever at a 45 degree angle and then eventually broken. I finally was lucky enough to pass him on the last hill and hold him off to the finish for 8th. Thank you Captain! It is still hard to get used to crappy canti's after being spoiled by the disc 29er.

This race was a rave! The heckling at the 30 yard sand pit was at an all time high. The beer,Bacon and waffle hand ups made for a lot of fun.

On to Sloss this weekend. I've never raced there, but hear good things.

This Might Be Fun!

You never know?

I know that the blogging world has been slow lately.But, I've Got four Bamacross Single speed thrashings under my belt for the season.I'm looking forward to Anniston. Maybe BF can make some mushroom soup out of Ccup this weekend?

I can only wish that Bamacross Single speeding will be like this one day. You never know?

Brookside,Tailgating, Bamacross

I can honestly say that I would have never seen Brookside if it were not for cyclocross. It is kind of a forgotten little town very close to the interstate. It has a Russian church and , you guessed it, a Brook. One thing that I can say is the Mayor is trying really hard to make it a place to visit. With this park, he has built a nice campground on a very pretty bend in Five mile creek.

We got there on Saturday evening and camped. We set up right on the track, in prime tailgating location for the next days event. It was a nice night.

CCC has a slow start this year, but at least we are racing. The SS class is insane and the masters are as brutal as ever.

The grilling,heckling and swimming were the best part of the Sunday to me. We were in the perfect location for Ccup to offer an Oscar Myer hand up. It would probably have gone pretty well with the PBR hand ups on the other side of the course.

This could have been me!

Good thing I saw the giant mountain goat at SLP ,a couple months ago, before he saw me.

Cyclocross

I think I saw this happen in practice at one of the local crosser's ranch a few years ago.


I'm still in shock from the speed that the SS class shot off the line Sunday, But maybe it will get better....... I doubt it though.

Black magic at Oak Mountain

We had to run to Bham for operation kid pick up on Sunday. I used this oppurtunity to do a full test run at Oak Mountain with my new Voodoo frame that I built up this week. It rode great! The weather was much more warm than I expected, but really just right in the woods.

New Generation Wheel Sucker

LEEborday Weekend

We started the weekend on Monta Santo camping. The temps were great and the campground was full of kids. E was constantly occupied with the kids from a group of four Nashville families that were all there together. It was a good time. Another great thing about M S is the mountain biking. The trails were wonderful and endless. All this and only 10 minutes from Five Points in Huntsvile made it a place on my list to visit again.

On Sunday, the threats of God knows what from the left overs from Tropical Storm Lee cleared the campground early. Being there alone, we picked up and headed home also. We dropped the camper and headed to Bham to S's M and D.

In Mobile we always had a tradition. When a hurricane or tropical storm was rolling in, we would always take an urban mountain bike ride at the very latest possible minute. We usually ended up soaked and fighting 60 mph winds before the end. On Monday, with TS Lee making her way North, Greg and I decided to do our own tropical Storm Leebor day ride. Actually, it was pretty calm on the first half of Oak Mountain, but by the time we got to Johnson Mtn. We hit a rain ban and were drenched. It was a really a very nice weekend all and all.

Greg cresting the Red Trail.

Arm warmers. Finally!

AYSO has been cramping our Tuesday and Thursday night SLP ritual. I have been sneaking in some lunch rides. This is the advantage of having a great trail 3 minutes from my work. Anyway, today at 11:15 a.m. , I don't know the the temp, but I found myself slipping on the arm warmers, but by the end of the ride, the sun came out and I peeled them. It was a nice change anyway.

Although the storm brought down a few trees across the trail, it was nice to see water in the creek again. The yellow leaves on the ground from the wind and drought combined with the pleasant temps, sure made it feel like fall.

Billy Goat?

Well, I had a schedule change and had to get my SLP workout in on Monday instead of the regular Tuesday or Thursday or both. I rode Solo today and was buried in my music when I almost had a head on with a creature. No, it wasn't another rider..... It was a giant billy goat. We have seen many things while riding SLP. We have seen deer, snakes,frogs, turtles and even a falcon, But I was most surprised to see the goat. It had a full rack which curled into a complete circle like a ram. He was not too spooked by me. He was even a little curious.

25th Infantry Bicycle corps and the original Bicycle blog 1897

It's amazing how much the rigid SS looks the same as the ones today. Especially mine! 1900 miles in 41 days is pretty amazing considering that they hardly had roads. Lt. Moss kept a very detailed day to day journal. The original Cycling Blog.

http://bicyclecorps.blogspot.com/

Better Idea

At some point on Mitchell, this looked like a lot better idea than cycling.