Early (4:00) ride rolls from Red Bank this week.
Sat. 3/18
Option 1 – Roll from Mike’s Hole at 10:30 for at least one Hillz loop (map included). After that folks can choose from multiple options including a 2nd loop, Poop loops, or whatever suits your fancy.
Option 2 – Roll from St. Elmo Food City as 1:00 pm. King will be leading this 2 hour ride down Chattanooga Valley and back.
Option 3 – Roll from Battlefield at 10:00 for +/- 3 hours on roads less traveled. Tranquilo pace with Dean Poi. As always, Park in the lot on the northeast corner of the traffic light, diagonally across from the visitor’s center.
TB 3/18
Roll from Mike’s Hole at 10:30. Most likely route will be the Hillz to start with which will put us back to Mike’s around 12:00 at which point those with more time may head over and climb Elder or add another Hillz loop. (2 Hillz loops = around 3500 feet and 3.5 hours – ain’t sexy but the Hillz keep us warm and are pretty good about shielding the wind.) If the weatherman is wrong about how bad things will be, we’ll latch onto Bub’s wheel and let him lead us for a loop south or head into the headwind via Sunday makeup roads (heading north), climb Hotwater, and let the tailwind push us back. MAP STARTS FROM WHOLE FOODS BUT REMEMBER WE ROLL FROM MIKE’S!
Sat 3/11
Option 1 – TB route, but Easy will not be leading a group at a gentler pace. He’ll be there but he made it clear to me that he does not lead anything…..
Option 2 – Jingle to roll from downtown YMCA at 10:00 for the gravel bike 40 miler to Camp Jordan and back. (see map).
Option 3 – Dean Poi’s ride – Departing from the Battlefield at 10:00 for +/- 3 hours. Heading south to Lafayette with a U.S. 27 east/west crossover at Rock Springs. Tranquilo pace.
TB 3/11
Blustery out of the north again tomorrow so we’ll head north again in hopes of a tailwind coming back. Roll from Falling Water @ 9:30 (should be 45 by then) for a trip up Retro. Once on top we’ll check temp and wind (only supposed to lose a degree or two) and decide whether to continue with the mapped route or drop back down, head north, and add some loops along the way. As mapped a metric and 4000 feet with lots of bailout/alt route options. Yep, we’ll be on some of the same roads as last week but we’ll be going in a different direction so hopefully they’ll at least seem different. (Good grief – I’m over winter already.)
Sat. 3/4
Lot’s of options tomorrow.
Option 1 – TB Ride from Falling Water at 9am 60 miles with a climb
Option 2 – Falling Water at 9am, chase TB almost to Graysville but turn right up Old Graysville Rd. back via Pool, May, Mayflower, Back Valley, etc. 50 miles (see map)
Option 3 – Falling Water at 9am but turn at Sale Creek and return via Back Valley. 40 miles. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42141158
Option 4 – all of the above, but you jump on at the Soddy Ball Fields probably around 9:30am but don’t blink.
Option 5 – Barry Allen Ride from Jasper. Rolls at 10am EST from Tower Community Bank 4564 Main St. He calls it a Valley Ride. 50 miles and plenty of ways to short it.
TB 3/4
TB heads north this week to see if Link will come out to play. Roll from Falling Water promptly @ 9:00 to visit an old friend. We’ll also visit a few other friends along the way – Old Dayton, Stormer, etc. – as we make our way to Brayton Mtn. It’s a metric and 3700 feet but it’ll feel like much, much more. Carry what food you need – we’ll get water at the church on top but there may not be a store stop.
Sat. 2/25
Option 1 – Roll with TB at 9am. Plenty of ways to short the course if so desired.
Cancelled Option 2 – Roll at 11am from Battlefield with Dean Poi for +/- 3 hours at Tranquilo pace
TB 2/25
UPDATE (6:50 a.m.): FUTURECAST SHOWS RAIN STAYING NORTH OF TOWN AFTER A SHORT BURST AROUND 7:30. RIDE STILL ROLLS AT 9:00! (Fly says the weather is always better south of town…………..) WE’LL UPDATE AGAIN AROUND 8:00 IF THINGS CHANGE.
Roll from Steady’s Campground (St Elmo Food City) at 9:00. South via Creek to the foot of Burkhalter and we’ll then wind around to Byrd’s Chapel and Back Valley before making our way back to Trenton and then climbing up Sand. (Remember to take a right at that bad intersection going up or we’ll never see you again!) A metric and around 4000 feet – yep, I cheated a bit at the end by doing a loop down Broad to get it to the magic number. May be some route changes once Fly and King have time to study what I’ve done so wait a bit before you load it into your computers!
Sat 2/18
As usual Elite’s providing options
Option 1: Gravel – Roll from River Drifters at 10am with Bub 1 and to ride up Suck Creek Mtn. to Prentice Cooper. Conditions will dictate how much is done in Prentice Cooper. Exit and head over to Big Fork Rd. to ride to HWY 127 (Taft Hwy) on Signal. Either take Taft back down the mtn or just reverse course on Big Fork. Other options on Prentice Cooper include exiting and just returning to River Drifters and/or starting at the parking lot on Prentice and just riding in the park. Estimate Bub and crew to be there around 10:40 if you choose that option. Full monty about 54 miles. Map included.
Option 2: roll with TB from Mike’s Hole in the Wall at 11am. If you want to short his route, Blankenship will be turning right on 299 after Murphy Hollow and skip the stairsteps. Probably about 50 miles total.