Ride Report: Cheaha Two Day Tour

Press on Regardless

That phrase captures this ride. So does, “Epic.”

Let me start out by saying that I could not imagine doing a long tough ride with a better group than we had. Present were Ed Clark, Chris Muntzel, Matt Rinenbach, Ryan Summers, Cindy Whitley, and your faithful correspondent. The six of us completed the whole tour. Wow!

What kind of group was it? The kind where four of the six of us rode their bikes to the start. The kind where, when an incident happened, we fixed it and kept going. Cheerful, resourceful, determined, happy folk who enjoyed the beauty of the day and the ride, and faced adversity with quiet courage. Wow!

The weather was amazing. It stayed cool and lovely throughout both days of our trip. Astonishingly good weather at any time of the year, for mid July it was absolutely amazing.

Consider, we were doing this as a self-supported ride. That means heavy bikes, with loads. The lightest bike and load I saw equaled more than 25% of the rider’s weight. Most were heavier. The terrain can be variously described as, spectacular, challenging, brutal, amazing, fun, and torturous.

We did a lot of climbing. Make that a lot! We were in big rollers with a steadily increasing elevation from the moment we crossed that Chattahoochee. In Alabama, the 12 miles on Cleburn 10 were amazingly beautiful, and incredibly tough riding. And then we hit the mountain.

Cheaha is interesting. If you are used to “doing the gaps” in the southern Smokies, this will be especially significant. The climb begins at Hollis Crossroads. From there it is about 20 miles to the summit. The first four of those miles are on gradually tougher “rollers.” Then there is a ridgeline assault, and the approach climb begins in earnest.

The thing about Cheaha, is that the approach is actually tougher than the main climb. The grades average 10%. You tackle a half mile climb at this very steep pitch, and then find yourself descending just as steeply for the next half mile. Repeat almost endlessly. It’s hard on the legs, and it beats the rider up psychologically. Every one of us met some kind of profound challenge while climbing the mountain.

A special vote of thanks to Dan Christensen. We weren’t expecting this, but Dan and his lovely wife met us at the top of the mountain. They had lawn chairs, and a cooler full of sports drinks and iced water bottles. Wow! Dan and Linda, thank you and bless you.

So after riding 100 miles, through increasingly rougher terrain, and climbing to the summit of one mean mountain… We had to get down. The trip down from the summit involved about 12 miles of interesting riding. First there was a screaming descent for about 2.5 miles. Then a sharp turn onto another road, with rougher surface, and another 1.5 miles of hairy descending. And then..! We turned onto a dirt road. The dirt surface “descended” for the next seven miles. I say descended, but there were climbs too, and turns, and washboard dirt, and… And moguls??!! Yes and moguls too! Wow!

It’s safe to say that we were all tired and sore when we arrived in Oxford. We checked into our hotel, showered quickly, and went and devoured a lot of food. I don’t think anyone had any trouble getting to sleep.

Day two was just as tough. Of course we didn’t do the mountain again, but we were starting out stiff and sore from day one’s work. And the first 35 miles included some hard ridge climbing to bypass Cheaha, and then that long stretch on Cleburn 10… again! Then we started to make some time. But by then we were all pretty tired.

Day two provided us with more spectacular weather, cool temps, low humidity, awesome cloudscapes, and gentle breezes. The climb back up from the Chattahoochee to Palmetto seemed endless. And then we got into a pretty good stretch of “get-home-itis” at the end of the ride.

I’m leaving a lot out of this account. There was the rack that came unstuck, the flat tire, and a host of other incidents and events. There was laughter, and a lot of wonderful camaraderie. It was a great and good adventure, and we all made it in fine style. Wow.

Details:
Day One: 114 miles
Day two: 97 miles
Total on bike time: 17 hours 7 minutes
Elevation Gain: Lots and lots. Uphill steeply in both directions!!!!