Mulberry Gap

Back in late September, I spent pretty much the whole weekend up at Mulberry Gap, camping in the back of my car. I say "car" rather than "truck" because I recently bought a Subaru Outback...

...and it's technically a wagon (car) rather than an SUV (truck).

Actually, that's a whole story in-and-of itself... Isabel called me becuase her car was broken down on 285. I go to rescue her, and my truck breaks down as I'm rolling up to her. Kathryn, who was fortunately in the area, had to come rescue us both. We limped both of them home. Iz's car needed a new radiator fan - the rarest of the 3 fans that her year-model could come with. I had to order it from across the country, and then it burned up a few minutes after I installed it. I ordered another one, replaced it again, and the second one was fine. The alternator appeared to have gone out on my truck. I'd replaced it a year ago though, so I could warranty it, if I could only get it out of the vehicle. It's around the back of the motor, up against the firewall and suspension. It's like a 12 hour job to replace it. You have to lift the truck, then be able to lift and lower the moter to get to the various bolts. You have to take off the intake and rig up a hoist to pull it over the back of the motor too. Then the reverse to get the new one in. Just in case it was a fusible link that went bad, rather than the alternator, I checked that too. Long story short, both my test light and volt meter had gone bad since the last time I used them. The volt meter read about 2 volts high, and the test light only worked if it was pointing down. I ended up replacing the alternator wire, only to eventually discover that the wire, and links, were fine. The alternator was, in fact, bad. This took the whole weekend. My truck had 360,000 miles on it. I'd been considering buying a new, reliable vehicle for like a year at that point, and that was the last straw. The next day I bought a 2018 Outback, put a trailer hitch on it, and now that's my daily driver. I eventually fixed the Escape too, when I wasn't under time pressure.

But I digress...

I booked a car-camping spot at Mulberry Gap, packed up the Outback, and drove up there. I think I got there pretty late, like 11PM or so, and ended up rearranging almost everything after I got there, but eventually got it all situated, and had a reasonably comfortable night. Definitely excellent sleep as camping sleep goes.

The next morning, I woke up...

...ate delciious breakfast in the barn with Andrew and Kate and Jackie, and the stopped by the store and played with the Cohutta Cat for like 15 minutes. He got me pretty good a few minutes in, but then was super chill after that.

My plan was to do a Back-40-Hoti ride. Basically ride the Back 40 route, but instead of coming back via Holly Creek Gap, hang a left and take Bear, P1, and P2 back. I felt like my fitness was adequate for that, but you never really know, so we'll see.

I don't remember exactly why now, but it took me a while to get going, and I was actually feeling a little pressed for time... Like I might not make it back in time for dinner, or at least that it would be close.

So, I hauled ass out towards Crandall, along Holly Creek...

...and out onto the pavement.

I had nothing but delays along the way though. I had to stop and fiddle with my seat twice, and one of the bolts holding my top tube bag on had somehow gotten loose. Somehow the one right next to it was totally tight though. I also ran into some folks coming off of the road that leads up to Windy Gap. Two were on gravel bikes, and two on mountain bikes. That was a welcome delay though, I actually stopped to talk to them for a bit.

The jaunt on pavement over to Mill Creek Road was uneventful, and it kind-of flew by. Climbing Mill Creek Road, I passed a guy in jeans on a Walmart Bike. Mark and John and mentioned such a guy, riding all over the Cohuttas. I wondered if it was the same guy or not. It kinda had to be, I mean how many guys matching that description could there be?

The gravel road seemed super bumpy. It might have been, as it had been pretty dry for a while, but later I realized that it's definitely getting time to rebuild my fork. It's probably been time for a while, really. I'm pretty sure that was the most significant contributor to the bumpiness.

Water is always a challenge on the Back 40, especially when it's hot. It can be done on 2 bottles, but it's uncomfortable. It wasn't murderously hot that day, but it was definitely "hot". Low 90's I think. Probably cooler up at elevation, but still, reasonably warm. There's a spring most of the way up, but that day it was totally dry. If the spring is dry then the various little feeder creeks up above it tend to be dry as well. Barring all of that, there's only one other opportunity for water - the campground at Hickey Gap.

I still had one full bottle, but wanting to have two, I pulled in there and took advantage of this lovely creek...

...to replenish the one.

I spun through the various camp loops just to get GPS data for them, and noticed a little side trail dropping down from the road into the campground. I figured I'd ride up the road, and drop in on it, but when I got up there, I realized it was way steeper than it had looked from the bottom. 100% rule. I passed.

I remember having Lynyrd Skynyrd songs stuck in my head for a while after leaving the campground. I'm not sure why. I hadn't been listening to it in the car or anything. Somehow my mind decided that was the right soundtrack for that climb, I guess.

At whatever that next gap is, I hung a right and started really climbing. I'd hardly seen anyone on Mill Creek Road, but now that the climbing was getting difficult, there were dozens of jeeps coming and going in both directions. The road is narrow up there, and the gravel on the edges is pretty loose, so I had to stop over and over to let them by. Somehow I managed to get passed by the same white jeep over and over. He'd drive up a ways, stop, I'd pass him, and then he'd come up behind me again later.

I eventually reached the Mill Creek Overlook and took in the beautiful views.

As I was doing so, a dude and two chicks pulled up and I talked to them for a while. They were actually a lot of fun to talk to. They all grew up nearby, but one of the girls was currently going to KSU, and just back home for the weekend. I ended up taking a bunch of photos of them on their cameras, but somehow didn't get a photo of them on mine.

I got going before cooling down too much, which was good, because it's quite a kick up to FS68, or whatever that road is across the top. When I got there, I hung a right and spun over to Conasauga Lake.

There were some guys pulling fishing kayaks out right as I got there. They'd had a nice paddle, but no luck with the fish.

I spent about the same amount of time there staring at the water as I had at the overlook, then got moving again.

Next stop was the Grassy Mountain Fire Tower.

On the way up, I ran into a couple of groups of hikers. One of them was like: "Woohoo! Nice climbing!", seemingly amazed that I could climb the road on a bike. Up by the tower itself, there were 2 guys at the treeline, squatting down, examining something. I didn't want to get in their business, but whatever they were doing was both interesting and confusing. I first thought they might be geocaching, but after a few seconds, no, it didn't look like that.

I climbed the tower to see if the deck was open, but no, it was locked...

Still, there were some pretty nice views from the stairs.

Coming back down, I was able to get a better look at whatever it was that those guys were doing, but I still couldn't figure it out. It involved a notebook, some other book, and some tiny little table thing...

IDK. No idea.

After bombing back down to the gate, I discovered a mylar balloon.

Because of course there was a mylar balloon.

I think of there being 3 good climbs on the way to Potatopatch, but either there aren't, or I miscounted them, because after riding for a while, I was suddenly at Potatopatch. It felt bumpy coming down, so I let out some air in the upper Bear Creek lot. It helped a little, but it wasn't a game changer or anything. Bear seemed chunkier than the last time I rode it, but it was still a lot of fun. I dabbed on the first switchback, but got the 2nd and 3rd ones.

Somewhere between the Gennett Poplar...

...and P1, I ran into a couple of hikers with some really cute dogs. I specifically remember their dogs, but not them. Funny what you remember.

I felt surprisingly good climbing P1. Much better than the last time I rode Bearhoti. I want to say there was a group camping on P1 just after the creek crossing. I don't remember much else about P1. I do remember kind-of pushing it on the P2 grasstrack and I also remember slamming my back wheel hard enough on a root that I was sure I'd pinch-flatted it. But, no, it was fine, and I was amazed.

The climb over MGap proper was as painful as usual, and so was the climb up to the barn. I did make it back in time for dinner. In fact, I had time to get a shower and get changed before dinner. I apparently forgot to lock the door when showering though, and someone almost walked in on me. Fortunately I was in the actual shower at the time, not getting dressed.

Heading over to the barn for dinner, I ran into Courtney Smith. She was up there with a co-worker of hers named Ivan. He was more of a shuttle-downhill guy, but she managed to get him up there to see what climbing is really like. I was stretching my mind to remember the last time I'd run into her. We used to see each other all the time at MGap back in the early days. We'd both bring our kids up there, and they played together quite a bit. I think I last ran into her and Matt at Blankets Creek in like 2015 or so. We sat around and caught up for like half an hour before dinner was finally served. It was really good to see her, and I always love when I drive 100 miles from my house and run into people I know.

While eating delicious tacos for dinner, Jackie was like: "I heard a rumor that Dave Muse is going to do the TNGA in 2024." "Oh, yeah? Is that the rumor?" "That's the rumor." Somehow that stuck with me, and it just keeps coming back to mind. That may have been the little kick. I may need to do the TNGA in 2024.

After dinner I met this really cool couple named Kyle and Marianna, and talked to them for like 45 minutes. Neither of them were hikers or mountain bikers, they were just up there to be in the woods, and by all accounts they were having the greatest time. They eventually left to get in the hot tub, and the rest of us joked about hot tubs being "skin soup" or "friend soup".

I wanted to download a movie to watch before going to bed, and they'd recently upgraded their internet such that it wouldn't take all night to download, but I'd never set up the Amazon Prime app, they wanted to text me a code, and I didn't have 5g up there. Feeling defeated, I lamented the problem out loud, and Jackie showed me (me, the IT guy, who ought ot know) how to set up my phone to receive texts over wifi. Woo! Within 15 minutes I had downloaded The Joker, within 15 minutes of that I was curled up in my bag watching it, and within 15 minutes of that I was out cold.

I slept really well all night. Like I didn't wake up once, even to pee.

The next day I was feeling a little beat up and tired from the previous day's endurance, and I didn't really feel like doing too much. But, it just so happened that they were shutting a bunch of folks to the top of Bear, then to the top of P2, then to the top of P3, and I could join if I wanted.

It felt like cheating, but it also seemed like exactly the right kind of ride, given how I felt, so I signed up, and right after breakfast, we hit the trail.

I couldn't have been more out-of-place though. Everybody else had enduro bikes, and there were baggies, pads, and even some full-face helmets. I was on my UL hardtail bikepacking rig, in a tri-kit, of all things. I figured that these guys would all be hardcore downhill riders, and that I'd be off the back all day, but it turned out, no. They were actually just guys who mostly ride in-town trails, and don't have the legs to climb in the Cohuttas. They weren't any faster than me, even going downhill, and I ended up leading the ride.

The whole shuttle experience was a little weird. I never really got properly warmed up. Also, I had energy, so I felt like punching it on every climb, but then I'd feel more tired after each climb than I would if I wasn't shuttling. I could imagine that someone who only shuttles in the mountains might overestimate how difficult the climbs actually are.

I made all 3 switchbacks at the top of Bear that day. We also ran into a lot of hikers on the way down, and they were all very friendly.

Of course, we stopped by the Gennett Poplar again, for the obligatory photos, as one does.

...and we got picked up on Gates Chapel Road to get pulled over to P2. I thought we might get dropped off at the grasstrack, but it turned out we got dropped off at the end of the gravel road, so there was a bit more climbing than I expected, but it was still fine.

P2 felt kind-of punishing near the end. I definitely need to rebuild this fork.

Also, my lower bottle cage was slapping against the frame pretty badly. It looks like the one bolt had finally stripped out the rivnut. I'd put a ziptie on it earlier in the year, but it looked like it needed another one. While digging the other one out, I noticed that the cap had come off of my little bottle of iodine tablets, and there were tablets all over the place inside my top tube bag. I didn't have time to find them all and return them to the bottle then, but I did later, and man... They stained the heck out of the shirt that I keep in there. No way that's coming out in the wash.

At the end of P2, we got picked up again and driven to the Cohutta Overlook.

And from there, we bombed down P3. Except that there's really quite a bit of climbing in that direction, on P3. I always forget just how much, but it was really apparent that day. Me and the guy behind me had to wait like 20+ minutes for everybody else to catch up before the final descent. Even with the shuttling, that ride had been pretty epic for some of those guys.

Back at MGap, I took another glorious shower and packed up all my stuff.

There was a little ringneck snake on the driveway too.

I didn't want him to get run over, so I threw him in the grass.

I want to say that I ended up milling around and talking to everyone for like another hour or so before finally leaving. I specifically remember feeling like: "At this point I'm just procrastinating, I really need to get going" before I finally did.

It had been a very satisfying weekend. The car camping situation worked out reasonably well, but I also took some notes regarding things that could be improved. The ride was great, and I set a ton of PRs, but I really need to rebuild my fork. Just being up there, in the woods, with those folks was also great, and I really need to do that more often.

And, TNGA 2024 feels like it's just around the corner...