Peak Appalachian Cyclists

What:  Back 3 from the Whatley’s

When:  Saturday May 30, 2009

            Rolling out at 8:00 am

Where:  Leaving from the Whatley’s

Description:  We will start in North Hall at the Whatley’s house, make our way to Clermont and then Cleveland before tackling the back 3 Gaps (Hogpen, Jack’s, Unicoi).  This will be an epic ride and one that you don’t want to miss if you plan to ride the Cherohala Challenge on June 20th.  The distance for this ride will be…….100 MILES!  Who says you need to pay money to ride a Century?  Below is a link to the ride map.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2859923

Even though there was a threat of rain most all of the holiday weekend, the PAC was fortunate enough to get in two great rides. 

On Saturday, we had 8 riders (Jan, Lee, Bobby, Marty, Mike L, Mike P, John D, David G) show up for the Skeenap Gap loop.  It’s been a while since we’ve done this circuit and it was fun to experience it again.  The group seemed to enjoy the addition of Hicks Gap and Mt. Pleasant Church Road to the loop.  If you’ve never done this ride, do it!  You won’t be disappointed.  I’ll post the route on the Ride Maps page.

We had two different rides on Monday and both were great.  Four riders (Bobby, Lee, David G, Mike P) showed up to ride 3 Gap leaving from the Whatley’s house.  This was a hard ride considering our mileage on Saturday, but it turned out to be very fun.  Everyone did a great job and the weather turned out to be the best we’ve had in quite a while. 

Jan met with Emily and one other cyclist (can’t remember her name) to do a ride in the Clermont area.  They ended up with close to 40 miles and they all felt great afterwards.  Great job ladies!

I look forward to some more quality riding this week and next weekend as we build our mileage in preparation for the Cherohala Challenge!  What Monkey?

What:  Skeenah Gap loop from R-ranch

When:  Saturday (5/23/09) rolling out at 8:00 am

Where:  Meet at the rock pile at R-Ranch

Description:  This is a 65 mile loop that starts with a climb up Woody’s Gap and continues through Suches on Hwy 60.  After a great descent and a few “risers” the route turns right onto Skeenah Gap Road.  From there we will turn onto Old Blueridge Hwy working our way to the ever popular, up and down but mostly up, Owl Town Road.  We will take some new roads (Hick’s Gap) to get us to Owl Town that the group will surely enjoy (can’t wait can you?!?).  From Owl Town we head up Wolpen Gap.  Of course that will lead us to the Valley Road and I think everyone knows what might happen at this point in the ride.  If not, show up and see!  After the Valley Road, we turn right onto Hwy 60 and climb the short side of Woody’s Gap and then fly down the long side to end the ride.  This is a great ride that has a little bit of everything.

What:  60 mile Pea Ridge Metric

When:  Saturday 4/16/09 at 8:00 am

Where:  Leaving from the Whatley’s House.

Description:  This ride travels from the Whatley’s to Clermont.  From there we head to the Skitt’s Mountain area for some great cycling roads and scenery.  After a brief, but sometimes unwelcomed climb on Old Duncan Bridge Road, we turn right onto Pea Ridge for one of the best roads in our area before returning to North Hall again.  This is another one of the rides we have found that would make a perfect metric century! 

After a couple of weeks of mixed weather, RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN, the group was able to get in a metric ride Saturday morning. We did have drizzle for about half of the ride, but I think everyone needed some time on the bikes.

Some of the group had tried to ride last weekend in Chattanooga, TN. ( 3-state / 3-mtn.) and it was a total wash-out. 

Two weeks ago April 25th a group had gone over to Athens to ride the “Gambler” metric, which turned out to be great weather; However Jan took a spill that day during the ride. She is doing very well now and is back on the bike.

Bobby N. has been on a trip of a lifetime to Alaska, please bring back some good riding weather with your return to the group. We will be posting upcoming rides.