Route Stuff

Annual Mid-Summer (Lughnasad) Celebration Night Ride

Goes on Monday 13 August at 7:30 P.M. (promptly)

Directions to Start:

To Senoia.  Find Seavy St, and turn west.  The “Brick Yard” is on your left, just past Maguire’s Tavern.  It’s only about 100 yards from Seavy and Main.

Route Description:

We’ll start by leaving Zombie town through the “back door,” out onto Stallings Rd.  Thence via Gary Summers Rd.  After that we cross GA-16 and head out into the countryside.  For the first part of this excursion, the route is basically fairly flat and gentle.  Eventually we’ll intercept GA-54, and do some good roller work.  We’re well away from Peachtree City by this point, so traffic is usually quite light.

At about mile 13, we turn off of Ga-54, onto Bear Creek Rd.  Bear Creek is quite pleasant and gentle, traveling through horse-farm country.  But then…  The road tips downward, and we run out of pavement.  We’ll make sure the group is close together before we do this unpaved descent, but riders are advised to descend inside of their comfort level.  We’ll regroup at the turn!

Shortly after the turn on Bear Creek Rd, there is a short, but quite steep grade, and it’s still unpaved.  It is do-able, with low gears, but some may choose to dismount and walk up the steep stuff, as the surface is usually quite loose.  After topping that hill, we’re usually losing our light, so we’ll regroup once more (if necessary), illuminate, and finish the gentle and smoother section of unpaved road.

We emerge from Bear Creek Rd at just about the 20 mile mark of the ride, and it’s paved from there back to Senoia.  The next ten miles are good, well paved country roads, with light traffic.  But then we turn onto Mt. Carmel Rd, and experience about four miles of moderately rough pavement.  After that, it’s a cruise back to Senoia, with the obligatory “welcome home hills” on Dolly Nixon.

Honest, this route is entirely navigable, on road bikes equipped with 700X23 tires.  Tourists will feel more comfortable on the rougher sections, but they will be heavier on all the route.

Bring lights and expect to use good manners, good sense, and good will, and we will have us one fine time of it!

“Original Triple Gap”

Goes on Thursday 23 August at 8:00 A.M. (promptly)

Route Description:

From the start, we cruise through the town of Dahlonega.  This is nice and flat.  Enjoy that!  Very quickly we pop out onto the highway, and then make a turn.  We’ll be going downhill, and quite quickly until the next turn.  And that is where this ride truly begins.  As soon as we make that turn, we begin climbing.  It’s an attention getting climb too.

The first 16 miles of this loop are an “approach climb.”  Some of it consists of big booming “rollers,”  some of it is wonderful descents, there are even a couple of nice long “flats.”  Difficult at it is to believe, this section is more uphill than down.

At the end of that sixteen mile “approach,” we come to Turners Corner.  We’ll make a left turn, and immediately begin the climb up to Neels Gap.  This climb is about six miles long, contains one “false summit,” and is a moderate mountain ascent.  The average grade is around 7%, but it can be a good bit steeper in right hand turns.  (This is especially true if there is follow motor traffic!)

There is a very nice store at the top of Neels Gap.  If necessary we can stop there.  (I prefer to “roll” the top of this climb and go straight into the descent.  The legs don’t stiffen up as much if we do this.)

Down for about four miles, and a sudden (and almost invisible) left turn, just after Vogel take us to the beginning of the climb up to Wolf Pen Gap.  This climb, while shorter, is a good bit steeper.  Best advice is to use the lowest gearing available, and just stay aerobic.  There are no facilities at the top of Wolf Pen, and inexplicably, there are usually a lot of mosquitoes.  Down we go!

The descent down from Wolf Pen is a real amusement park ride.  Use your best judgment, and remember, you cannot see through rock on the turns, and neither can an ascending car or motorcycle.

At the bottom of the Wolf Pen descent we get to climb again.  Mercifully it’s a short climb.  We’re actually going up the earth dam that forms Lake Winfield Scott.  We’ll pass the lake and begin a rolling “valley ride” to Suches.

I usually like to stop and re-provision in Suches.  But it’s always a bit of a gamble.  We won’t know if the store is open until we get there.

From Suches we begin the last major climb, and the most surprising one.  The trip up to the summit of Woody Gap is only a mere three miles, and the grade is much less than we have experienced to this point.  And then the magic happens!  The descent from Woody Gap is much longer than the climb that led up to it!

There is a long winding descent, triples of switchbacks recurring for over eight miles.  How is this possible?  Remember the “approach climb”?  Here is where we get it back.  Eight miles down to a false summit, a brief up-climb, and another four miles of quality descending before we are truly off of the mountain. 

The ride is almost over, but to finish, we need to negotiate a series of big rollers.  These are nothing like the climbs we’ve seen before, but they are good long hills, and we will be a bit fatigued.  Keep the end in mind.  We’re almost there.  There is one final steep hill into town, and then, almost as suddenly as it all started, we are turning right onto Main St, Dahlonega.  The Visitor’s Center is ahead, one short block away.  Arrive’!

Directions to Start:

Get on I-85 heading north.

At the northern split exit right to stay on I-85.

Take the exit to the right to enter GA-400, north (towards Buckhead).

(Mileage starts at the beginning of GA-400)

Stay on GA-400 for 53.8 miles.

Ga-400 ends.

Turn left on US-19 (toward Dahlonega)

Do NOT turn off of road as it enters Dahlonega.  Go straight at light at Morison Pkwy.

At mile 84.8 you enter the square at Dahlonega.

Turn right on Main

Turn left immediate to continue around square

Exit the square (straight ahead) on Park St

Go one short block and turn left onto Chestatee St.

Municipal parking lot will be ahead, one or two blocks on your right.

Mount your bike and return to the square and to the Visitor’s Center at the intersection of Park St and Main (on the side of the Square)

Be sure to check out tomorrow’s post.  It’s the next in new three year long series on developing as a cyclist.