Norris works quite nicely in the winter

We had a good group ride at Norris yesterday. Mile marker 8 to Eagle, up thru town and up to Spooky, up to High Point where we regrouped after Emerson lost a cleat. All the way down High Point to Upper Clear Creek. Up to Boundary where Micah tried to auger himself and Scott's bike into the sandy loam of Boundary Trail. Down to Upper Clear Creek, backtrack up to Belmont, down to Mockingbird, back up to High Point. Regroup at top again and down Camp Sam. We're done...No, one more time up High Point to finish down RidgeCrest. Now we're done. Thanks Micah, Eleanor, Jaques, Emerson, Joel S, Southside Randy (he looks funny in a picture without a trail building tool in his hands), George and Grant. Great ride on a day that almost any other trail would be a sloppy mess.

Busy week. Saturday we had a GA Marble workday in the snow. That was followed on Tuesday by a North Boundary ride that was cold! Thursday was a ride with Team Ed at Big South Fork (my favorite ride around E TN). Saturday had another GA Marble workday. Wet was the word for the day. The rain did manage to hold off until we got back nto the cars. Sunday was a Norris ride where I was able to show Jaques, George and Purdy some of Norris they had never seen. Monday was another Norris ride with Robb. Sorry no pics. Dead battery.

The funny part of the week is with all that riding, all on the single speed, I gained 2 pounds!


















North Boundary cold ride.
 

Dirty South All White

Johnny Del Fuego and I went on a snowy, frozen Diry South ride yesterday. We met at Meade's Quarry parking lot and rode all the new Ga Marble stuff. Snow and sleet was falling and it was really quite beautiful. The new trails were frozen solid and the traction was absolutely perfect.

After a trip thru GA Marble we cut through the Forks to BHanns. BHann and Southside Randy cut a new connector trail this week and it is nice. It cuts out a creek crossing that we could not keep in good shape. BHann used the Alpine Magnum and cut a nice benched trail. A couple of hours on the trail with good company followed by...

The ride home on frozen roads. I know I shouldn't have tried but I went up Hillside. As I was headed up following a small pickup a car came sliding down the hill sideways and t-boned the truck. I stopped to see if everyone was OK. The kid driving the truck stumbled out. It was obvious he had hit his head. He was stumbling around in the road. Before I could get up to him a van came sliding and slipping down the hill. It looked like it was headed straight towards the van, the kid and me. I'm not sure how the guy did it but he missed everything.

It was pretty obvious to me that I needed to position myself at the top to keep someone from getting killed. I stopped several cars including one kid that was hauling ass. The 2nd or 3rd car by had an off duty sherriff's deputy. He called to hurry up an ambulance. After 25 or 30 minutes an ambulance showed up. 15 minutes later a city cop and two fire trucks showed up. The patrolman parked his blue lights at the top of the hill to block traffic. The fire trucks came up from the bottom parking behind me about halfway up the hill. It took another hour or so to get two people hauled off to the hospital.

When we finally got the wreck victims cleared out the fire trucks backed down the hill. It was frozed solid. Each time the truck eased down the hill he slid sideways towards the ditch. Finally the firemen called for the salt truck. 20 minutes later the salt truck showed up and salted behind the last fire truck. They eased down the hill. The salt truck then backed up the hill to where I was parked spreading salt the whole way. They pulled back down to the bottom and backed up again to make sure they covered the street.

About 2 1/2 hours after I started home I was able to head to the house. It took me longer to get home that we did an entire Dirty South loop in.

The first Snake Creek Gap time trail of the year was yesterday. On the ride out to the start the temp was 19*. Normally that's not so bad but about 1.5 miles in we had to cross a small river

I thought I got too wet crossing until I found this picture of Kevin. After going through the water I thought the 3 mile climb would warm my hands and feet up to acceptable warmth. Nope. Close to the top I stopped for about 10 minutes to put toe warmers in my shoes. That helped until I got them wet again towards the end of the first half.

At the midway rest stop I took about 20 minutes to warm my toes and change into dry socks. It didn't help. My feet felt like two blocks of ice for the rest of the race.

My 5:04 time was one of the slowest times I've ever had at the Snake. All I could think of for the last half of the race was getting back to my car and warming my feet with the heater. Around the 20 mile mark my body was screaming "Hey you dumbass! You havn't done more than a 2 hour ride in months. What are you doing?"

NWGA SORBA always puts on a great event, even under tough conditions. Even though I was pretty miserable for most of the race, I'm looking forward to Feb. already.