Silver Comet

This past Saturday was family day.

We hung around the house all morning, then around noon we headed over to my parents' house for an hour or two. They were still in town, but leaving for Dallas on Sunday.

Since we were on their side of town, we took a little ride on the Silver Comet.

Kathryn's got a new Townie. I wasn't too sure when we were first looking at cruisers at the shop but this one has plenty of gears, 700c rims, skinny tires, presta valve road tubes, quick release hubs, and it weighs only slightly more than my mountain bike. In other words, I can throw it around, put it on my rack and fix it in the field without carrying anything else, unlike the girls' bikes which require different tubes, different CO2 thingies and a 15mm wrench to take off the wheels. Not too bad.

We parked somewhere out in Paulding County and headed west.

It was mostly uphill on the way out.

At one point we had to take a little detour.

When my dad and I had been through there on the side-trail a few months back, bad rain had triggered a couple of landslides in that area. The side trail had been crushed and there were plastic fences along the silver comet.

They weren't working on it at the time, but they had put a lot of work in recently. They'd even put in a bench cut about halfway down where I suppose the side trail will be run.

It's funny though, the Silver Comet is a rail-trail and for the most part, doesn't exceed 1% grade, but the detour was steep.

Inconceivably steep for somebody that rides the Silver Comet often. Sophie and Kathryn had to walk but Isabel stood up and cranked it out. Nice climb Iz.

We rode all the way out to the Tara Drummond trailhead, then took a snack break.

According to a memorial there, the trailhead is dedicated to a local woman who died in a training accident while attending the police academy.

There was another family there with 3 little kids. The older boy and girl were sharing a bike and their parents were videotaping them. Meanwhile the younger daughter kept picking berries off the nearby laurel bushes and putting them in her mouth. The parents were preoccupied with the other kids so Kathryn had to mention it to them. They tried to keep an eye on her but if they turned their backs for a second, she was right back at it.

I talked to a guy who had 10 miles left of a 50 mile out-and-back. He looked like it would take everything he had to finish.

There had been a bunch of people in CBC jerseys earlier too. It seemed like every group we passed had one or two in it. I kept wanting to spin back and ask them what CBC stood for but after I thought of doing that I didn't see another one all day.

The return trip went by a lot faster.

Primarily, it was almost all slightly downhill, but also, the girls and I rode an pseudo-paceline most of the way back. The last time we were out there, we'd done it team time trial style but this time we did quick turns and we were really flying. Kathryn declined to rotate and had to yo-yo off the back all the way in.

We rode by a snake and turned around to check it out.

At first I thought it was a rat snake but I mostly see black rat snakes in Georgia so I didn't recognize it. It turns out it's a grey rat snake. I've only seen one of them before and that one was a juvenile, which is much lighter between the spots. I love snakes.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. Kathryn even had a good time. On the way out she'd been a little uncomfortable but we adjusted her bars and seat at Tara Drummond and they felt good on the way back.

My folks joined us for some dinner at The Italian Oven which is one of my favorite places to eat in all of Atlanta. I usually go for their Pasta Deluxe but this time it was the Barbecue Chicken Pizza. Oh yeah. BBQ and Pizza.

Top notch.