Mulberry Gap (Again)

After the previous week's P3 suffer-fest, I'd done several after-work rides, felt pretty good during all of them, and felt like testing my fitness again up in the mountains.

Back to Mulberry Gap.

As ususal, I woke up late, drove up late, and arrived late - like 2:30PM. I watched multiple cars, loaded with bikes, heading the other way, all the way up. I really should get up there at like 8AM some day. I might actually run into some old friends, or even make some new ones.

It wasn't a total loss with meeting new people though. Right at the bottom of P3, I ran into a small crew that had just come down and we talked for a minute or so. We all had places to go though, so we didn't linger too long.

Would it be a reprise of the previous week? I'd felt about the same climbing over Mulberry Gap proper, and I usually use that to gauge my fitness. Seemed like it might be so far.

And the verdict...

No!

Not a reprise of the previous week! I was able to spin up P3 handily. I cleaned every switchback, up and down. I even chuckled out loud twice as I powered, skillfully over the two with the tricky roots and rocks after them. Ha, ha! At the end of the day, I set 9 PRs!

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I mentioned, the climb up P3 was great. Not trivial, I mean it is a decent climb, but I totally had it. I could sit back and spin if I wanted, or push it if I wanted. I couldn't "feel my heart" like last time. It was how I remember climbing P3 to generally be.

Someone had cut out that downed tree too, which was quite a relief. I wasn't looking forward to scaling it again.

Like last time, I rolled over to the Cohutta Overlook and took in the splendor of the hills for a while before heading back down.

For whatever reason, I could easily make out the Bear Creek Overlook this time. The previous week, I couldn't find it at all. I can't explain why it's easy to see sometimes, and not others. It doesn't change, and the weather was about the same.

Speaking of the weather, it was, again, quite hot. It wasn't unbearable, but it's been a hot summer.

Bombing back down, I had my wits about me the whole way, which I definitely didn't have the week before. Nothing snuck up on me, and IDK, I just generally had a good time of it.

I checked the time when I got to the bottom, and I want to say that it was 4:25 or so. I had plenty of time to spin a lap of the Holly Creek Gap loop, so I hung a right, motored over to Shakerag, and started climbing.

Shakerag also felt effortless. I was able to stay on the gas the whole time, up over Painter Gap, and even up Wilderness Road. By the time I got to P2, I was like "Oh, I'm apparently here already."

Feeling like I had plenty of time to ride P2, I hung a left, spun up to the lot, and just kept it going on the grasstrack. I call it "the grasstrack", but it's really becoming proper singletrack. What was once grass became year-round weeds, and is now becoming little saplings. It's a lot like what's happened on lower Bare Hare. I've enjoyed watching it, actually. Who knows though, they may bushhog it all next year or something.

About halfway to the original singletrack section, I ran into a guy on a BP rig, stopped for something. I passed him right as he got going again, and he had a really easy time keeping up. I don't think he'd stopped because he was tired. Probably just messing with something on the bike. I stopped to pee before heading down, he passed me there, and effortlessly stayed ahead of me. I finally caught him again a few hundred yards up the road from P2.

Turned out his name was Shannon Amos, and he was putting in some TNGA training miles that day. He was going to meet a buddy at MGap and they were going to camp up at Conasauga Lake that night.

It's been months since something like that sounded like a good time to me, but at that moment, it did!

We rode back to MGap together, and hit the tail end of the flow trail on the way in. I climbed the road and he waited for his buddy.

I wished him luck, and follwed him on Strava when I got home. He gets in a lot better miles than I do these days. Man, I miss that.

Back at the Gap, I grabbed a shower, and had that same cool-water-on-the-head-warm-water-running-down-your-back action again. It's hot!

I was apparently the only one around for dinner...

and I ate my dinner directly out of the skillet it was cooked in. Pork loin, mashed potatoes, green beans, and croissants. It reminded me of Sophie exclaiming "Mmm! I love everything on my plate!" once when we were at the Highland Bakery when she was a kid. Me and Chad and Alaina BS'ed about all kinds of stuff while I ate, and it suddenly occurred to me that everyone in that room was from Louisiana. What are the odds?

Kathryn had asked her mom if she had any relatives that were Pizzolatos earlier in the week. Turned out yes. One of her first cousins married a Pizzolato and they lived in Fordoche, which is North of Livonia, but still nearby. It turned out Alaina didn't know Kathryn's mom's cousin (or at least didn't know her maiden name) but I would bet that she and Kathryn are at least 3rd cousins.

And that was about it. Great day on the bike. I don't have a good theory as to why I feel so alternately great and terrible. The best I've got is that I keep getting very low grade illnesses - either new ones that are getting spread around as people start to move around again, or maybe just re-exposure to covid. It's not enough to trigger a test, or to really even notice unless I'm exercising, but enough to kick me down when I am.

Maybe? Who knows? All I know is that I get great days every now and then, and I'm thankful when I get them.