The Tale of a Weekend

The pre-weekend consisted of me doing some vehicle maintenance and legalization during the day on Friday. The element was the vehicle of choice for 4 of our crew (myself included) so an overdue oil change and registration renewal was in order. Conveniently, the county clerk's office was about a mile away from the honda dealer, so I dropped my car off for service, pulled my bike out of the back, and spun down the road to pay the annual $80 that keeps the cops from pulling me over.

I Met Thad, Hennessey, and Neumeyer at my place at about 6. We were in no big hurry to get going. Afterall, one can leave from Nashville at 6 or at 6:30 on a Friday and probably get to Murfreesboro at about the same time. Mike and Dan put the rack on the roof and Mike put the 4th seat in the element, and then we packed to go. Three bikes on top and one on a rack off the back and we were rolling.

First stop was the customary Cracker Barrel stop in Manchester. Justin caught up to us at that point and after stuffing ourselves with some downhome food, we were on our way to the Jeffrey's apartment in Chattanooga. The Jeffrey lives in downtown in a cool old apartment building. As soon as we arrived and loaded our stuff upstairs, we headed out to find some beer and some greasy late-night food. Hodge had beat us up there and joined in the festivities. It just wouldn't be right to not preface a long hard ride the following day with a night of drinking and little sleep.

So.. the ride....

When we pulled up, there were already a bunch of people there. Not a big deal, we were following the main ride organizer up there. We had plenty of time to change and prepare for the long ride ahead of us. After a while, everyone was ready and we gathered to begin. They didn't hand out maps. They explained a couple of route changes that meant nothing to me. My only hope was to hang onto the group or be around people that knew where we were or were going. We all sang happy birthday to Barry (the firewater 50, afterall, is an annual birthday ride for Barry) and then were off.

In my mind, this ride was like the offroad Mitchell ride; a long race around the back of the pack of which I would hang out and eventually grunt out a finish. My teammates, as usual, were off the front. Hodge was back with me as were Ivory and a couple other guys flying the wings. From the gate it was uphill. Not just a little uphill, but a few miles uphill. No warm-up, no easing into this one. Those with gears were starting out in their granny gears to get a feel for the climb and get the muscles warm. Those of us on single-speeds (the Yazoo guys and Dougie from N. Georgia) couldn't do anything but hurt with a start like that (though I am not convinced that Dougie was hurting at all - just the rest of us). I could tell it was going to be a long day, and the geared riders around me confirmed that to me.

After a long climb and then some rollers, we started the climb up Tibbs. It is over a mile of steep uphill that is covered with rocks of all sizes. I walked about 98% of that climb. I saw Ivory at the very beginning of the climb. He was on his Nomad spinning up and eventually cleared the entire climb without dabbing (quite an accomplishment). I didn't see anyone else for the rest of that climb. I got to the top and guessed on which direction I was supposed to take. It was a gravel road, but I managed to see a few bike tire tracks, so I went right. I hadn't seen anyone in quite a while and was convinced that I was off the back. I also had no idea where I was or where I was going. In my mind I started to make plans on how I would get back or try to contact everyone else when I ended up lost in the middle of no where. After a few minutes of these self-deprecating thoughts, I decided I could probably better spend my energy trying to catch up to Ivory, so I kicked it in a little. After another mile or so, I finally saw Ivory up ahead of me and felt some relief. (I think that he was sort of waiting for me since he knew I had no idea where I was.) Ivory and I caught back up to some other people, and it felt good to no longer be the last one on this epic ride. After a little more climbing, I came out to a clearing to find the rest of the Yazoo guys hanging out, eating some food and resting some. That is when it really became fun to me. That is when it hit me that this was a "fun" group ride and not a race. We all waited for all from our group to get back together before we started out again. We started again in shifts, but we were all in the same general vicinity.

The we split ways again. Some of us got off on the wrong trail, and others took the correct one. Again, not knowing the area really hurt our navigation because had we known where we were going, then we would have known that both ways came out at the same place. Hodge, JR, Brandon and I went around on the gravel road because the trail didn't look like 40 people had traversed it. We made our way around and were about to jump back on the Pinhoti 2 trail when the rest of the crew rolled down from Pinhoti 1. We chatted for a bit before a couple of the guys started up the road instead of onto the singletrack. One by one, people from our group were heading that way until it was clear that everyone who had an idea of where to go and how to get back were heading back along the gravel road. So we headed that way, too. It took a good couple of hours to get back. This included what seemed like a 10-mile climb on a gravel road... again, very much a grunt on the singlespeeds, then some rollers, and then a long descent on a really loose and rough motorcycle trail back to the parking lot. We were out there about 6-7 hours, and we were all pretty worked.

Upon arrival back at the parking lot, we were greeted with beer, food, and conversation. We hung out for a couple hours before heading back to Nashville. On the way back, we stopped on top of the mountain near Sewanee for some mexican food. Really good stuff. Walking back from the restaurant to the car I got my first real chill of the changing season. It was certainly welcome. Once we made it back home, I crashed out and slept about 12 hours.

Sunday was a mostly uneventful day of sleeping, eating, a little running (at percy warner park), some cleaning, some laundry, and some beer drinking. It was a good day to get organized and get my mind right for another week.

So that was the story of the weekend.... Here are a few reflections in list form...

• Scott Hodge is a tough guy in 2 respects. One, he pushed through the Firewater 50 on a fixed 29er bike with cyclo-cross tires. The other toughness has to do with how much abuse he puts up with from the guys but still comes out smiling. It's all in fun, but c'mon fellas....
• There were 2 ladies riding out there on Saturday. I think we need to get the word out a little more. I know they need to keep it smallish to avoid having to get an event permit, but there is certainly some room for some more ladies.
• I think I missed out on some of the fun aspects of the ride by riding a singlespeed bike. For one, it wore me out so much early on during the first big climb that I entered into tired mode pretty early on in the ride. Also, the Tibbs climb looks challenging and fun if done with a granny gear. I walked about all of it, but would have been technically challenged had I been able to spin up the thing.
• I think I am figuring out the food and eating thing for myself because I never felt tired from a lack of sustenance, I was just tired from the course being so tough.
• I am still pleased with the Element as a vehicle that fits my interests and recreational needs. Kinda crummy that the A/C is broken, but that wasn't an issue at all this weekend.
• I am glad that summer is over and the riding, camping, and good times can kick back in again.