Atlanta Beltline

This past Sunday, my fitness finally felt like it was coming back enough to try something moderately ambitious. The moderately ambitious thing that my mind settled on was the Beltline from my house. So, a little after noon, I jumped on the mountain bike and headed off down Bankhead toward the ATL.

It's not technically correct to call it Bankhead, I guess. These days it's Hollowell, but I always think of it as Bankhead, so there you go.

COVID-19 was just really starting to get cranked up, but it didn't look like anyone was doing much to stave off the spread along Bankhead. Non-essential businesses? Open. Don't gather? Nope. 6-feet apart? Hell no. Hoes? Pfft... all dem hoes was out. It made me wonder how effective the word gets out to lower income residents. I get most of my news on the internet. What if you don't have internet, or a TV, or a radio? I guess you'd get the info from word-of-mouth, but what's the chance a small business owner that needs to keep his money coming in is going to spread the word that you shouldn't be out and about, coming into his store?

I picked up the Beltine off Lena street and spun my way around, counterclockwise.

The message on this bridge meant a lot more today than the last time I saw it.

For now, the Beltline is still open, as are the various shops along it, but there's no indoor dining. I'm not sure if patio dining is available. Maybe just take-out.

There were also lots of signs like this:

Not all were that exact sign, but basically that message.

I actually felt really good riding. I was able to crush the pedals all day - at least tempo climb everything, and sometimes hit it pretty hard.

Near where the west and south sides come together, there was new construction going on - paving a gravel section. Fences were up, big construction equipment was everywhere. It was clear that I needed to go around. I tried going around the outside, but just kept hitting dead-ends. Turns out it was trivial on the inside, but I spent a good 20 minutes going around in circles before I figured that out.

When I got north of Piedmont Park, I couldn't really remember how to get over to the north-west chunk, so I kind of winged it from there and ended up taking a route back home that I used to take when I'd regularly ride from the house to and from the 17th and Peachtree Street area. Looking at my GPS track later, it was definitely the scenic route home. There were much more direct routes, but I didn't know them, and hey, a few extra miles are generally good for you, especially if those miles aren't on Bankhead.

Oh yeah, it was raining too. It started raining somewhere near the park and didn't let up until I was a few blocks from home. Cold rain too. Like, you-better-keep-riding-hard-to-stay-warm rain. It's that time of year - low 70's one day, high 80's the next, mid 60's the next... Sure keeps me on my toes.

I dug that ride so much that I decided to get back out there the following Tuesday (it rained all day Monday). I'd seen some side trails and dirt on the Westside and there's no good reason to let that go unexplored.

Turns out most of it was short and just led over to some street for Beltline access, but two sections were good and long.

One just led behind some buildings, with threatening signage:

Also, it sucked because it had rained a ton the day before, and there was a lot of standing water. It was hard packed under the water, but still... water. Had to creep through it.

The other section was more glorious.

It was weird though, it ended in the backyard of an abandoned house - the ONLY abandoned house on the whole street, as far as I could tell. Maybe the plan, someday, is to run the actual trail through there. A side trail led down to the back of some odd, fenced-off building in the middle of a neighborhood, and to the steepest paved road I've seen in the Atlanta Metro area. Had to be at least 25% grade.

On Tuesday, I saw a LOT fewer people just hanging out on the corner. It seems like they got the message, if a day or two late. All dem hoes was still out though.

All dem.

Vinings Estates and Thompson Park

Local rides aren't usually worth journaling about, but today's was definitely an exception.

I planned on taking the Vinings Estates Trails over to the Silver Comet, spinning a lap around North Cooper Lake Park, and heading back home, but I kept getting sidetracked.

A year back, a nearby church clearcut a long stretch along Pebblebrook to expand its already sprawling cemetery, roughed out some dirt roads, and pretty much just called it a day. I figured they'd eventually pave them, but they never did. I was passing by. It was dirt. I mean, come on. Sidetracked.

Next, I remembered there was a right-of-way leading down from Pebblebrook to the east that I've never checked out before. There's woods for days to either side, but sadly no obvious trails, and it was clearly posted. The bottom end dumped me out at a point between two houses. It wasn't posted, but I'm pretty sure I rode through someone's yard, or at least, down the property line. Well, now I know. Again, sidetracked.

Along Nickajack I saw 12 people. Twelve. I've only ever run into anyone else out there twice - once a lady and her dog, and another time some runners from Whitefield. I guess anyone who's remotely outdoorsy is getting stir crazy these days. The middle of the woods would seem like a safe place to be socially distant, but not if everybody's doing it! Ha!

Gary Chapman once told me a story about how he and some friends souped up an old junk thunderbird and got it hopelessly stuck down where the right-of-way crosses Nickajack Creek, just west of Whitefield Academy, and eventually just abandoned it in place. They even took to calling the sandbar down there Thunderbird Beach. Every time I pass through, I look for it, but I haven't seen it yet.

I did notice this today though:

Sadly, it looks more like a truck than a Thunderbird, but I'll ask him next time I see him. What are the odds that there'd be a second abandoned vehicle in the location he described abandoning his?! But, there you have it. It's kind of a miracle that I managed to spot it too, through the woods, on the opposite (north) side of the creek.

I found this insulator walking out too.

There are still a dozen or so old powerlines running along the Silver Comet corridor with these on them.

Dangit. Sidetracked again.

I made it over to Thompson Park, spun a loop up through the upper lot and, since there were no kids in the playground, came back down and rode over the big rock. When I was up top though, I noticed a second playground up there. I'd never even noticed that there was a road leading off to the right, let alone that there was a playground there. But, with no leaves on the trees, I could see a car parked up there and the playground equipment clear as day. As many times as I've ridden up that hill, it had been a snake, it would have bitten me, many times over.

The last time I crossed the railroad tracks on Nickajack Road, there were people out trainspotting, and I noticed that the gravel on the uphill side looked a lot more like a road than just standard railroad gravel. It even had two depressions in it, like the tire tracks of a vehicle. I remembered that as I approached the tracks, and figured I'd check it out. Yep, hard packed gravel, definitely a service road of some kind.

And, wouldn't you know it, there was a trail leading off into the woods between it and Thompson Park. A well-marked trail, no less. There were plenty of super-old white blazes on the trees, but there were also tons of those same little white circles and pin flags that mark the trails on the north side of Nickajack. All right!

The trail was basically a big lollypop, and the stick led directly up to that upper playground I'd noticed earlier. Ha! And I give Sophie grief about her situational awareness...

One really weird feature of the trail was whatever this is:

It's kind of down near the tracks. It looks like some kind of assembly area. Church? Scouts? Klan?! Considering how long ago it appears to have been abandoned, those are all equally likely. I'll have to see if the internet knows anything about it. If not, Gary might.

There was a little trickle of a waterfall near the tracks too.

And further down, the road crossed the tracks at a legitimate, paved crossing, and there was a bit of a maintenance yard, with a shack labeled "Nickajack". I wonder how many such yards and shacks line the tracks of the world, way down where nobody ever sees them.

I found several more dead ends, ended up on that same trail again, and took it out a different way, where I noticed this warning:

Yikes! Glad I didn't run into it.

I checked the time, and really needed to book it back home if I wanted to get back in the vicinity of dinner time. So, that's what I did. No more exploring, and I never made it to North Cooper Lake. Ehh... Adventure! Right?

Jake Mountain

Two weekends ago, the weather finally calmed down enough to go out and get some work done, so Sophie and I met Debbie and friends up at Jake Mountain to try and finish up the last little bit on the new Jones Creek trails.

No luck though! The forest service was doing a controlled burn from the corner of FS83 and FS28-1, north to Jones Creek. It wasn't dead in the middle of where we were planning on working, but we would have had to drive/hike in and out all along the edge of it. Well, damn. I guess we'll just work Jake Mountain.

Debbie and Dave Garner put a fence back together that had gotten knocked down by deadfall and that people were cutting through to get to the trail.

Me, Sophie, Jason Schott, and Diane Garner just started doing ye olde standard dirt work down Jake.

It was pretty easy going, actually - mostly very light deberming - soil that had run off of the backslope, across the trail, and got caught by the leaves on the outside edge. There were a couple of low spots that needed cleaning out, but only one of any significance, and it was also very easy going. I think we worked half a mile, and we only had to chip into the surface of the trail in 3 spots. I love it!

On a semi-related note, the new Jones Creek trails have been open for like 2 months, and though I've hiked them, and ridden them on a horse, I still haven't ridden them on my bike. The forest service also got a guy to build a mess of a trail up in the Beaver Pond area, which I also haven't ridden. It rained all week after the work party. Last Sunday it rained again, and it's rained most days since. I've gotten out on the road bike here and there, when I can, even in the rain, but between that and the outbreak, I just can't seem to catch a break.