I Shut Down 400! Hospitality Highway Bike Ride

Over 1,100 riders participated in the second annual Hospitality Highway bike ride held Sunday, July 11, 2010. The ride is a fund raiser for the

Georgia Transplant Foundation (GTP) and has two compelling reasons to elicit your participation. One, the GTP is a great cause to support. No one knows when (if) one of our “intelligently designed” organs will go kaput. It is nice to know that there is an organization that will be there for us. Secondly, you get to “SHUT DOWN 400!”

Through the cooperation of bike-friendly Mayor Jerre Wood of Roswell, the Roswell and Sandy Springs police departments and Brandon Beech representing the Georgia Department of Transportation, GA 400 southbound lanes were closed for 30 minutes between Exits 6 – 7 giving cyclist free reign on this typically forbidden fruit.

A short 8 mile “I Did It” ride option allowed just about anyone to claim temporary dominance over the concrete lanes of GA 400. Other mileage options included 25, 63 and 100 miles. I opted for the century.

The organizers did a great job on their website. The site provided access to ride option maps, online registration, hotel information, a link to a Facebook account as well as directions and timings for onsite registration. A top-notch job all the way around.

Starting on the Exit 7 southbound ramp of GA 400 at 6:30 am, the thrill of zipping down GA 400 was over pretty quickly.

Riders then settled into the yeoman work of pedaling their selected option. About 270 riders who opted for the century rider exited GA 400 and then turned northward to cycle Roswell, Alpharetta, Milton and Mountain Park.

Generally the road selection was good to excellent. Most roads were smooth, well maintained and free of traffic. Course markings were good, but at times inconsistent. Many turns had roadside signage and/or colored road markings. But with any century there were the inevitable missed turns and course re-tracings. SAG stops were well stocked and bicycle mechanical support was provided by Roswell Bicycles.

This year’s century course was not for those who are mulling over the idea of doing their first century. I have been riding the road network north of my Roswell home for more than 20 years. I thought I had encountered every combination of upward inclines possible in this generally hilly part of north Atlanta. The course planners exceeded my discovery skills. They appeared to have made an effort to incorporate more climbs than would typically be found on a hot July century ride in Georgia. Even a small knot of 30-something strong riders, 25 years my junior, mused about their ability to clear the last set of 4 – 5 sharp climbs at the 75 mile SAG stop. We all motored on. My hope is that the course planners will toggle back on the climbing next year and create a more balanced ride profile.

The ride organizers hoping to expand participation for this great cause are considering future course options that will be more appealing to mere mortal cyclists.

Parallel Universes

In 1954, Hugh Everett, a Princeton University doctorate candidate, explaining why pesky quantum matter behaves erratically postulated that the existence of parallel universes mucked up our neatly ordered way of living. “Hugh you need to get out more often,” I thought until I met Betty and Bill Clark and their trove of “collectables” and a bevy of young gals making videos of “brushing your teeth with mustard.” All this can’t be going on simultaneously, but it is.

While on bike ride along the Silver Comet, I had my chance encounter with the Clarks at their treasure emporium housed in an aging cotton gin constructed more than 60 years earlier. “My Daddy and I would come here to unload cotton,” Betty said making reference to the original wagon scale on which I stood. The cotton is gone.

The old gin is now filled in helter-skelter chaos with rusting tools, old books, pictures and electrical appliances that held the promised of modern convenience. The whole archive caps out somewhere in the 70’s with Blue Oyster Cult and Queen vinyl 45s.

The Clarks are of another time. Bill rocked in his chair as Betty recounted their life, a good life, of acquiring the remains of estates or self-storage units. Bill’s skillful hands restored discarded furniture. Betty sold it. The cycle would then repeat. Along the way lots of junk was acquired. “I throw away all the old papers I find. But I save the bibles and give those away to good homes,” Betty intoned peering into the gin of junk. Time will be forever kind to the Clarks. There is no tension or reason to change.

Back on my bike and a few miles later I encountered inhabitants of a parallel universe. In this universe, millions of new Facebook users faithfully appear. They create 70 new pieces of content and exchange 25 billion bits of information each month. These inhabitants are unfazed by this frenzy of activity. They are contributors to this ever increase emporium of electronic data. The denizen I meet who thrived in this universe were all under 12 years of age.

My little gaggle of gals sat in the back of their Mom’s SUV parked at the end of the church property that abutted the Silver Comet. They were selling bottled water with the hopes of raising funds to buy props for their video projects. They related how they would cast wide about for ideas like brushing their teeth with mustard. Buy or assemble needed props. Use a digital camera to record their epics. Dad would then use PC software to edit and create an iVideo.

These iVideos mimic the antics of clips on the iCarly website. iCarly is an American children's television series that focuses on a girl named Carly Shay who creates her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie. (Thank you Wikipedia). iCarly iVideos include plots such as: sewing your underwear in the shower, going to an Inside-Outside Burger to hassle, annoy and blow air horns at the workforce (that was noted as “Fun!”) and asking the ultimate iQuestion “Y R boys stupid?”

Mom who emerged from the church building shared that the fun was harmless and gave the girls playful shared moments. I shared my observation that her young brood never knew a world without the Internet, digital cameras, cell phones or the pace of life that only a rocking chair can offer. I bought a bottle of water and then donated another $5 to the iVideo prop budget.

As I rode away my two encounters fused in my mind. The Clarks comfortably surrounded by yesteryear and my gang of digital film makers pushing the idea envelope. Sometimes the best thing about bike riding is stopping and listening to the stories of people…regardless of which universe they may inhabit.

Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga Rails-to-Trails

On Saturday July 3, 2010, I enjoyed a delightful end-to-end ride of the
Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga Trails. This 90+ mile ride started at Nickajack in Georgia and ended in Woodland Park, just north of Anniston, AL. Both trails were great rides, but the Silver Comet has a slight edge over Chief Ladiga in my ride book.

The Silver Comet is wider and is primarily a concrete path. Heavy use of the trail in some places made the added width a plus, but generally for long stretches I had the trail to myself.

The concrete seams were well constructed so there was very little thump-thump as I rode along. A few sections of the trail are showing stress (in the 40 – 49 mile range) with cracks and seams opening to allow vegetation growth.

In this same section, I also encountered tree and vegetation litter that required a slowing of my pace to avoid potential twig or pine cone damage to my tires. Finally, the trail in this section diverts from old railroad grade inclines and offered up some short, but sharp, climbs. The admonishment painted on the trail “Slow” should be followed. The down hills are quick with several sharp turns.

At mile 50.98, the trail took another detour from old railroad beds and actually traveled down a Cedartown city sidewalk. There was also a short stretch on Cedartown city streets. This close-in urban cycling gave rise to graffiti on Silver Comet signage and on the walls in underpass tunnels. The majority of the trail traverses woodland environs with only a few sections that parallel major road systems.

The meeting of the two trails is marked by an archway on the heavily wooded Georgia-Alabama border. Here, the asphalt-paved Chief Ladiga starts its 33-mile winding to its completion at Woodland Park. The scenery is just wonderful. The trail also remains true to old railway grading and meanders through some very nicely wooded terrain.

The forest root system, however, is attempting to reclaim the asphalt paved trail. Tree root ridges appear with random frequency and density. As I clipped along between 15 – 16 mph on high pressure tires, the root ridges became jarring natural speed bumps. One should not be discouraged from riding the trail by this comment, but be watchful of nature’s sly way of slowing us all down.

The first facility from the border for water, restrooms and food is in Piedmont (mile 13.6). The Eubanks Welcome Center is on the trail. Piedmont shops and restaurants are not far off the trail. The full trail is paved to Woodland Park, however, the final 7+ miles to Anniston is not part of the current trail system. You will need to navigate the public road system if that is your final destination.

A good resource for identifying facilities is the website http://trailexpress.com/trails. I carried a printed listing of services and their mile markers.

I also took advantage of the services provided by young entrepreneurs who set up water and snack stands along the trail. I recommend you bring some cash and a willingness to linger in idle conversation. I also found cell phone reception (T-Mobile) spotty in several of the remote areas. I suspect it would have been wiser to have riding partners to handle any unexpected emergency. The only bike shop on the combined trails is on the Silver Comet at mile 4.2.

My lovely wife retrieved me at the end of the Chief Ladiga trail. We then spent that evening at an enchantingly restored antebellum bed & breakfast called the English House in Jacksonville, AL. This B&B is a real treasure, as is its proprietor, Millie English. But hurry, Millie has the English House up for sale.