Brasstown Bald

On the way back from the TNGA start, I took the scenic route. Hwy 76 is a beautiful drive, and if I'm up that way, I like taking it, even if it's the long way home. It was especially nice that day, as there were lots of low hanging clouds nestled up in between the mountains. It wasn't fully overcast though, just random clouds. Some up high, some down low.

I wasn't just enjoying the drive though, I did have a plan, and that plan involved Brasstown Bald. It had been years since I was last up there, and I wanted to see if I could get some information that I failed to get last time.

So, I hung a left on 75, a right on whatever that road is that leads over to Jack's Gap, and another right up to the top of the mountain.

I've hiked up to the top 6 or 8 times already, and I was feeling lazy that day, so for the first time in 20+ years, I took the shuttle. Ultimate laziness.

There are normally gorgeous views in every direction from the top, but not that day. It was completely socked in.

Just my luck.

No matter though, I've seen the view, many times, in all conditions. I guess technically, now I've "seen the view" in these conditions too, degenerate as it was. No matter also because I wasn't specifically there to see the view. I wanted information. Information!

Specifically, there are a bunch of old photos of logging that was done in the area that I had tried to get shots of in the past, but a bunch of them turned out all blurry. I was able to get those this time.

This spot, I've actually been to:

It's at or about 34.757798, -83.796406, west of Low Gap Creek. The trestle is gone, but the abutments are still there. The train is heading south in the photo, and there's actually a switchback ahead. I wonder if the guy that took the photo had to operate the switch.

The rest of these, I'm not sure where they are, but I've wondered if I could figure some of them out.

In addition to those old photos, there was additiona information that I was interested in. Maps!

There's a small exhibition kind-of near the logging photos, featuring a slightly creepy animatronic Arthur Woody, manning a forest service desk, in some old forest service office. Arthur Woody, for context:

On the wall behind "him", there's a map of the National Forest, from 1930. Interestingly, it's a map of the Blue Ridge Ranger District of the "Cherokee National Forest" (not Chattahoochee yet), but it shows the forest as it was during a period for which I have no other map. I have USGS maps from 1914, and 1947, and a TVA map from 1936, but the TVA map shows very little detail. I saw the map last time I was up there, and got a crude photo of it, but it was largely blurry. I needed to get up into the exhibition to get a set of good photos. The last time I was there, I was very pressed for time, and though there were people working, they were busy with tourists. The last thing I wanted was to just get up there without being able to ask, get in trouble for doing it, and never be allowed to get the photos. So, I figured I'd come back eventually, be able to ask, etc. etc. As luck would have it, when Brasstown Bald is fogged in, hardly anybody wants to go up there. There was staff, they weren't too busy, I was able to get permission to take photos, and TA-DA, photos!

I started at the top left, scanned right, then back left, then back right, until I had shots of the whole map. I also tried just takinga panoramic photo of it, but it got super bent and weird. No idea why. It would seem like that would be the best way to do it. Some of the photos didn't turn out so great, but they were good enough. I should be able to stitch them together, eventually, with software.

Meanwhile though, some interesting finds follow...

Blue Ridge Lake (AKA Lake Blue Ridge) was once The Toccoa Reservoir and Tooni Mountain was Towonee Mountain:

The Cooper Creek WMA area was surpisingly unpopulated:

Trail Ridge was Train Ridge, and there was a proper road leading across the varios ridges of the Upper Chattahoochee towards Sheep Rock. Also Tom Elliot lived in the old Vandiver place, I guess:

The Forest to the east of what's now Hwy 192 was the Nantahala National Forest:

Various Upper Chattahoochee creeks have very different names:

There are 2 roads leading north from Tesnatee Gap, one became the Richard Russell Parkway, but the other, I've never explored. Also, the toll road is shown as a trail:

Pine Tar Knob is Tar Factory Knob, apparently there was a Rogers Mill on Rock Creek, and a food plot at the end of FS766 was once the Hughes Homestead:

The Blue Ridge WMA was once the Cherokee Game Refuge No. 2. Noontootla Creek was Noontootly Creek. The road led up along the creek, hung a left on the Appalachian Trail, over to Hickory Flats, and up to Hightower Gap. The whole length of the road was populated. There was a Newberry Mill at the bottom end of Noontootla. Homes along Winding Stair Gap Road... So much in this map:

Greasy Mountain area was "State Game Farm", Little Sal Mountain was Salls Mountain, and the Gold Coin trail existed back then, running along Little Sal Ridge. There were homes all along Mauldin Creek, and all through the area north of Ward Gap in that general highlands area up there:

Lance Creek was called South Fork (of Jones Creek), the Etowah below Hightower Gap was also just called Montgomery Creek:

The Hickory Flats Cemetery was called New Bethlehem Cemetery:

...and tons of other stuff.

So cool to a map nerd.

I didn't just obsessively gather information though, I also walked around the observation deck.

The eeirie observation deck, that is.

I noticed a rabbit hopping all around too.

What's up, doc?

It was summer, at the time, and generally warm out, but the temps up at elevation, in the clouds, were quite nice. Chilly even:

There's a benchmark up there, that I knew was there, but couldn't find. I eventually asked one of the staff, and it turns out it was behind a locked panel/door thing on the stairs leading up to the fire tower.

I guess either that panel/door thing was open the first time I saw it, or maybe didn't exist back then. Who knows?

I did the rest of the touristy stuff up there, watched the little movie, talked to people, etc. and eventually took the shuttle back down. It was kind of a memorably trip actually. I'd never been up there just by myself before, and never paid as much attention to the exhibits before.

As I was walking to the lot, several road cyclists entered the lot as well. They'd just climbed the road up from Jack's Gap, something that I've actually never done. These were older guys, too. Older than me, so it gave me hope that some day I'd be able to do it. Not that day though.

I passed Trahlyta's Grave on the way home. The whole gap is a big traffic circle now; way better than the old stop signs.

I ate at Rooster's outside of Dahlonega. This time I remembered that they put pickles on eveything without telling you, and specifically asked for no pickle. Still got a pickle though.

They had this kind-of funny sign behind the counter too:

Huh huh.

The Cincinati Womens Open was on TV too, and apparently some company called Hologic had advertising everywhere during the match. All I could think reading it was "Ho Logic" though, and that also made me chuckle.

Goodness. I think I was getting tired and delirious. When I got home, I crashed on the couch, got up for dinner, then crashed again until the next morning. Yeah, I was definitiely tired.

TNGA 2022 (Spectating)

TNGA 2022 began this past August 20th. Too much injury and illness all year for me to have any hope of riding, but I figured I'd at least head out to the start and see everybody off.

As usual, I got up at like 4AM to get going. Unusual though, was that I was doing it alone. Every year that I've gone to the start, aside from the years that I actually rode, I had at least one kid in tow. Not this year though. Both of the kids are off living their own lives these days. From driving all over the mountains scouting the route, to camping and running the event, to seeing folks off at the start, in my mind at least, they're a big part of the identity of the event. I noticed their absence this year, more than I expected to.

Mais, a vida continua...

...and it wasn't like I didn't have a good time.

I arrived in Clayton just as everybody was loading up to leave the Days Inn.

Awesome! I'd have even more time to hang out with folks.

I ran into everybody that I expected to from the Mulberry Gap crew, as well as Mike Rasch, who, somehow, I hadn't noticed was signed up. Everybody was really relaxed, just getting their stuff together. I've mentioned it before, but it's worth mentioning again... Any event that Mulberry Gap is involved in has that kind of vibe. They're so well organized that it doesn't even feel like there's anything exceptional going on - just a bunch of friends getting together for a ride. It just so happens that getting this particular ride togeher involves multiple vans loaded with dozens of riders, pulling trailers loaded with dozens of bikes, transporting everyone 100 miles to stay overnight, then get up and leave at 6 in the morning... But all that feels as casual as throwing your bike on your truck and heading up to the mountains yourself. Here and there, you might see someone associated with the event running off to do something, but you'd have to look to notice that. In general, the vibe for a participant is always super relaxed. I love it.

Right about dawn, they got going towards the border, and I followed along.

On the way in, I saw a guy on a mountain bike, also headed toward the border. He looked familiar, but I didn't immediately recognize him. It struck me as odd that he was chosing to ride to the border, rather than shuttle. Got to get those warm-up miles in, I guess.

At the border, everybody was getting ready, and it was starting to take on much more of a race vibe.

Rasch was looking strong, and cool in that kit he's always wearing.

After chatting a bit with the folks on the far side of the river...

("the river")

...I ran back over to the other side, where I ran into Jeff Williams and we talked for quite a bit.

Right as I was about to head back over to the start, I ran into Wild Bill Riddle!

I had no idea he was signed up, and I hadn't seen him since like 2011. Man it was good to see him! We talked for a bit, but he had to get going, so not for too long. He looked super strong, fit, and ready. It was his first attempt, and as it would turn out, he would go on to finish. Yeah, Bill!

Pretty soon, everybody gathered on the bridge.

That's Tom Kessling at the front, talking to Rasch. I didn't immediately notice him, and I kicked myself for it later. We rode together for quite a while in 2019, and he's a really great guy. When I finally did realize who he was, it was like 5 seconds to the start and all we had time for was "Dave!" "Tom!" He would also go on to finish.

Like 30 seconds before the start, Chad Hunderford rolled up, spun around, and lined up next to the guys at the very front of the pack. HE was the guy I'd seen riding in earlier. Nobody knew he was riding this year, and you could hear a collective groan from everybody, realizing that most of them were about to lose a place. It turned out though, that he was just trolling everybody. He wasn't signed up. He was "just" out doing a 100 mile loop and figured he'd work it out so that he could ride with the group up through Warwoman. I didn't hear him do it, but he apparently explained or at least indicated this just before or after the start, but not before making everyone panic first.

Well played, sir.

There were a few last minute photos...

...and they were off!

I got a video of the start, but somehow failed to upload it to youtube, and then deleted it from my phone, thinking that I had.

Genius.

There were some folks at the start that I expected to see, and had seen all morning. Darryl and Graham often volunteer, and they were volunteering again.

Unexpectedly, Brad McLeod had driven up from Tallahassee to hang out! I last saw him for like 5 minutes during the Tally Tango. He and some friends of his had joined the lead group just after the start, and rode about half of the route. I happened to be right there as they joined.

The biggest surprise, though was Norma and Johnny! I hadn't seen either of them for a few years, and not seen Johnny the past few times I'd seen Norma.

We had so much to catch up on, and it was so great to see them.

Monty was there too, of course, and also great to run into.

He might now have the record for most finishes. Maybe. Hightower might still have him beat. I should look that up.

Kate invited me to eat breakfast with them at Chick-fil-A in Clayton, so when the festivities were over, I followed them back.

Jeff and Brad:

Andrew, Kate, Chad, and Darryl:

I realized that I have many photos of Kate and Andrew individually, mostly while they were doing some random thing, but none of the two of them together. So, together:

As we all got in our cars to go, Graham noticed that Kate's truck had a "Walton Subaru" label on it. I forget what state Walton Subaru is in, somewhere in the midwest. Kate happened to buy that car from that dealer because of some deal on the internet. I don't remember the whole story, but I remember they almost didn't, then it worked out, and it was kind of a pain to go get it because it was so far out of state, but it was still worth it, so they did... I think somebody at Walton Subaru somehow knew about Mulberry Gap already too, even though nobody specifically knew anyone from the dealer. Something like that. I wish I remembered the details. At any rate, Graham somehow knew the Walton family that owned the dealership. He'd grown up with them. The dealer label was familiar to him, and he just happened to notice it on Kate's car. Such a small world. Amazingly small.

I think I had work of some kind to do later that day, so rather than hang out all weekend and stalk people on Trackleaders, I headed home. I did take the scenic route, and stop by Brasstown Bald on the way back, but that is another story.

Chattahoochee Hills

Goodness, it's going to take a while to get through this backlog...

Apparently I haven't written about anything since August, and it's now October. Plenty of Adventure during that time, but plenty of work too.

Lets get started...

On August 9th, I did a random after-work Dirty Sheets ride, only to discover some stuff I'd somehow never seen before.

It occurred to me to look around Rico Park a bit...

...and back by Judy's Home Plate...

...I found a trail looping through the woods. There was no indication of what kind of traffic was allowed, and since "if it doesn't say don't, I might", I gave it a spin. And, after doing so, the very short length, and presence of landscape pavers over much of the trail gave me the distinct impression that it was intended to be hiked, rather than ridden.

I probably won't be adding it to my standard Dirty Sheets loop going forward, but it was neat to check out.

Even neater though, was what I noticed across the street as I exited that end of the park: the Old Rico Cemetery.

I'd ridden and driven past it over and over, for years and years, but somehow never noticed.

Most of the graves were pretty old.

So many were just stones though, with no markings on them at all.

There were various more elaborate tombs as well, all well worn by the intervening years.

Very, very interesting!