Cohutta Cat Bikepacking Adventure - Day 2

Old Dial Road at sunrise

Despite me setting the alarm for 5:30 am, Lisa had to wake me up.  So that tells ya just how hard Day 1 was.  Since we would be finishing up our day back at the motel, we packed light.  I opted to roll with just 2 bottles as there would be plenty of places to get water.

We got rolling at 6:30 am, with ALL of our clothes on (and chemical warmers for me), including puffies.  Starting temperature was 31 degrees.  We rode an hour in the darkness, winding our way around Lake Blue Ridge via gravel and the Green Mountain Trail. We then intersected with Long Branch Trail, which dumped us out on Aska Road.  The route had us going on side roads, one of which had a 25% grade, to keep us off Aska as much as possible.  

As we approached our turn on to Shallowford Bridge Road, I did some quick math and realized that I did not have enough calories for the 80 mile loop (no resupply other than a bar at Camp Merrill) we were about to start. So we stopped at the Iron Bridge Cafe. Lisa hit the jackpot with home made banana bread and a cookie the size of a personal pan pizza.  I, on the other hand, was relegated to the candy aisle, where I grabbed some rice krispie bars and M&M's.  Sometimes being celiac sucks!

NFR35

   

After the smooth gravel of Old Dial Road came NFR35, with 6 miles of the burliest gravel I have ever seen.  Loose and the size of a small fist, most of my wattage was lost into the ground as opposed to going forward.  I probably could have walked it as fast as I was pedaling.  I forced myself to smile and think happy thoughts during this hour of torture.  Lisa was far better at making forward progress and so had time to do all the things:  bathroom breaks, shed layers, and have a picnic.  Fortunately once we crossed Morganton Hwy, the next 6 miles of gravel on West Skeenah Road were quite enjoyable.

West Skeenah Road

We stopped at Skeenah Campground on Hwy 60 and refilled our bottles at the spigot.  I asked the campground host first, out of respect.  A nice older gentleman who was curious about our adventure.  He told us that next time we didn't have to ask.  We told him about the grand depart on November 9 and he invited all to refill water here.

Tooni Gap Road was a pleasantly fast gravel road taking us to the Benton McKaye Trail and the Toccoa swinging bridge. We walked our bikes on the Benton McKaye, as we are supposed to do.  It wasn't really rideable anyways.  The bridge was a bit tricky as my bars were wider than it, but wheelied my bike across.

The next big climb was on Rock Creek Road up to Hightower Gap.  And here is where the wheels fell off the bus.  Lisa was still motoring strong, but my engine blew a head gasket.  I had eaten plenty of calories, but my body was saying, "F*ck you, we are sending those Snickers and Rice Krispy bars straight to your waistline."  

Lisa crushing the Hightower Gap climb

  

I thought that if I could just get to Cooper Gap, I could recover on the 4 mile descent.  Unfortunately, it was so blown out that I had to stay out of the saddle in order to negotiate the rugged descent.  With minimal recovery, we hit the Jake Mountain Trails.  8 miles of mostly smooth and flowy single track got me back in the right mindset and I rather enjoyed the route through here. It felt like it was mostly downhill.

We stopped at the church just before the Nimblewill Gap climb. We both refilled our bottles with water from their spigot. The Nimblewill Gap climb was new to me ... and it tried to crush my soul. It was also about this time that all the jetson food I had been ingesting was beginning to wreak a little havoc on my gut, in the form of gas.  Have you ever tried to fart while in the saddle?  So when I would stand up and squeeze my abs to toot, my inner thighs to cramp!  This went on the entire 8 mile climb.

Nimblewill Gap Road

Finally at the top and I could enjoy the Old Bucktown Road descent.  I was thinking this was going to be paved, but ... nope!  Another burly bumpy not so fun downhill.  No recovery for the legs, as I had to stand up the entire 4 miles.  Can't a girl catch a break?

The break finally came with a few miles of relatively flat to slightly downhill pavement to Big Creek Road. Big Creek had a beastly 3 mile, 500 foot climb right out of the gate, but at least the pavement was buttery smooth.  It was followed by a pleasant 7 mile descent along said creek. We stopped at the top to put our puffy jackets and lights on.

Popping out onto Aska Road, we hoped that the Toccoa River Restaurant was still open, as it was approaching 8:30 pm.  We were so happy to see cars in the parking lot.  As we walked in, Lisa was lit up like a Christmas tree with her 2 blinkie lights going full force. We did get some weird looks from other patrons. I was so happy for real food; I got the veggie plate and a Coke. The Coke went down fast and smooth, but unfortunately it chilled my core and I got goosebumps despite still wearing my puffy throughout the entire meal. Lisa got crab dip and chips a sweet potato.  

While waiting for our food, we were both having the same thoughts:  skipping the Stanley Gap loop and heading back to the motel.  We both did not want to HAB Stanley in the dark and arrive back at the motel past midnight, knowing we had another early start with 72 miles to finish. No regrets at all with our executive decision.  For me, I felt that I had been holding Lisa back all day; she probably would have had time to do the loop if she was solo.  She just has been so much stronger than me on this adventure.

The remaining 15 miles was pretty straight forward, retracing the path we had taken out of Blue Ridge.  We arrived back at our motel at 10:15pm.  We hit the bed at 11:30 pm.  I was totally shelled. Mine was a pretty fitful sleep, as I was achy all over.  I prayed for a lot of overnight regeneration, as although tomorrow was less mileage, it was still going to be brutally hard.

Distance:  107 miles

Elevation gain: 12,580 feet

Ride time: 13:47

Elapsed time: 15:45