Memorial Day Campout

We just returned from a fine weekend campout in North Georgia. The weather cooperated with us for the most part, only raining at night and being cool and cloudy during the days. We ended up staying in the same site as last year since it was quiet and private. We set up camp on Friday morning and then headed out for a ride through Cooper Creek WMA, up Wolfpen Gap and then back down the Duncan Ridge Trail.

Our basecamp. The Ez-up Tent was a great addition to our camping arsenal...especially when it sprinkled.



We thought we had the perfect spot, but were invaded late Friday night by a threesome who couldn't find anywhere to camp and wanted to camp down the hill from us. It was a good distance away, so not a huge deal, other than the fact that we'd have to smell their smokey fire and the creek down the hill was our bathing area...

On Saturday, we did the Noontootla Loop with some extra riding back to the campground. I brought the camera with on all our rides, but of course didn't want to stop to take pictures... I think I was already driving Chris crazy enough with my incessant bathroom breaks.

Happy Bikes...



After the ride and some lunch, we went for a short hike on the Cooper Creek Trail, which was quite a wake up call for me. I haven't been hiking or walking much (even though it is highly recommended for pregnant peeps) because it seemed rather useless to me, especially when I could easily do a 3-4 hour MTB ride instead. Well, it turns out walking really helps a lot and puts you in a completely different position than riding, so it strengthens different muscles and ligaments - especially the ones that hold up your belly. Suffice it to say, those muscles and ligaments were beat by the end of our short hike, so I guess I need to add walking to my regimen.

Sunday morning we slept in and then went for a hike on the Yellow Branch and Mill Creek Trails. This hike went a bit better and was a little longer than our hike the day before.







Later that afternoon we did a short ride around the Cooper Creek WMA. Chris said he'd be tired and I'd drop him, but he lied, and ended up making me chase after him. When we got back, we had dinner and some toasted marshmallows until the rain started. It rained pretty hard during the night, so we ended up packing up the next morning to head home. The sun actually came out up there, so we could have gotten in another ride, but I was pretty beat, and figured it would be nice to get home early and dry out all the gear.

We followed up with a nice lunch at the Japanese Steakhouse, where I of course ordered my usual double order of fried rice with my meal and ate way too much of it. Now I'm full and happy!

About to head out into the woods...

Tomorrow we leave for a 4 day camping trip up in North Georgia that will hopefully be full of fresh air, long rides, and relaxation. Since I won't be riding for 8 hours a day this time around, I don't know what I will do with myself!

I picked out some good routes to ride that hopefully Chris will approve of. After yesterday's "test-ride" of a trail I was planning to take him on, I had to reconsider due to the unruly late-spring vegetation and the mandatory river ford with optional beaver pond swim near the bottom. Seems the lakes and creeks are way up down here, but they sure haven't warmed up much yet.

Hopefully we'll stop and take some pictures so I have something exciting to post when we return!

Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!

I went for a quick spin at Blankets today..of course against my better judgement as I hate dealing with the masses that seem to flock there after work. So, I'm just riding along on the Van Micheal trail, minding my own business and enjoying the sunny day, birds chirping, etc. I close in on another rider pretty quickly just doing my own thing, and have to ask to pass about 4 times because he's got his tunes on so loud. Eventually he moves over and I go around.

So I commence just doing my thing and what do I hear??? Tires skidding and brakes squeaking behind me. Argh... This dude felt the need to nearly double his speed so he could just be a menace behind me, disrupting my solitude with his inability to corner without grabbing his squealing brakes and skidding like a rally car driver. Normally in a situation like this, I would go into race mode, red-lining it on the climbs and picking it up on the descents until said moron either A)runs off trail and crashes, B)hits tree and crashes, or C)goes into tachycardia on the side of the trail. However, since I'm TRYING to take it easy and act SOMEWHAT RESPONSIBLY in my pregnant state, I resisted the urge to completely run this dude into the ground. Let me tell you, it was hard to resist...

So guys, let me give you some advice. When you speed up so drastically just because someone (typically someone with boobies and a ponytail) passes you, it is completely obvious what you are doing and you just look like a big douche. It makes you an even bigger douche if said passer is 5 1/2 months pregnant and on a singlespeed. Did it ever occur that we don't want you back there? It doesn't matter if you just need motivation or you just want to check out our asses...its annoying and we laugh about you when we get in groups with other women. The same applies to the "freds" on the Silver Comet or Alpharetta Greenway who feel the need to jump on my wheel and race when I'm trying to do a Level 1 recovery ride. Get a clue and get off my wheel - you're not wanted there!

Moist Weekend

Wow, we must have had a pretty busy weekend because it is already Monday and I don't know where the time has gone! I ended up having to skip out on hanging out at the Atomic AR to help finish up a proposal at work, so Saturday morning just consisted of a road ride with Chris. We only got rained on for the first hour so it wasn't too bad - but considering it didn't rain the rest of the day we were slightly grumpy about starting early.

Sunday started way too early as we had to head to Red Top Mtn State Park at 6 am to set up for our Orienteering Meet. I used our Chariot kid-carrier to haul around all the e-punch stands, controls and jugs of water and got some strange looks from those who passed by, but it was effective and better than carrying everything by hand. I can already tell that dragging that trailer around North Georgia on my singlespeed is going to either kill me or make me seriously strong!

The rain didn't pick up until about 1 pm, so our turnout was good. At that point I was wet and pretty cold all afternoon, so I felt the need to indulge in some not-so-healty food on the way to our birthing class later that evening. MMmmm...fried mushrooms and fries from Zaxbys followed by Dairy Queen. Probably not the most nutritious dinner choice, but I just wanted some calories! I promise to eat some spinach and broccoli for the mini-me today!

Nothing to see here...

Nope, no exciting rides or news to report. I went for a run on Tuesday that left me with some nagging pain in my sacrum, and yesterday I just headed up to White for a solo road ride.

I'm debating going up to Amicalola State Park on Friday night to hang out with some friends who are doing the Atomic Adventure Race. I'm kind of waiting to see what the weather does, as my whole reasoning behind going up there is to get a couple good rides in. We're pretty busy at work until Tuesday next week, so not sure I'll be able to sneak away.

Sunday is our orienteering meet at Red Top Mtn State Park, so I'm hoping it doesn't storm all day so we get a good turnout.

Pine Log

Get your motor runnin'


Head out on the highway


Lookin' for adventure


And whatever comes our way


Yeah darlin' go make it happen,
take the world in a love embrace


Fire all of your guns at once and...
explode into space!


I like smoke and lightening
Heavy metal thunder


Racin' with the wind..
and the feelin' that I'm under


Yeah darlin' go make it happen,
take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once and...
explode into space

Like a true nature's child


We were born, born to be wild


We could climb so high,
I never wanna die


Pics from our ride of the "new trail" at Pine Log. I set them to music, in my head of course, because I was singing "Born to be Wild" LOUDLY while descending a steep ATV trail on our way back down. It helps me focus...Of course my mojo was interrupted by a big tree laying across the trail, but by now I've probably gotten you singing too!

The new trail was great - all rideable on the way up and not even as tough as I thought and pretty swoopy and fast on the way back down - just watch out for the tight-tree squeeze at the bottom! (aka "the trail filter")

Country Roads Take Me Home

After 3 days of dismal, dreary weather and feeling like a sloth, I finally got outside yesterday and put in some road miles. I left work early to drop my boss of at the MARTA and she suggested that I just go straight home. Yes, ma'am..that is a fine idea! It was warm and sunny, and knowing I'd be working probably all evening from home, I took advantage of an afternoon ride up at White. How pleasant it was to just cruise along at my own pace and enjoy the scenery.

I enjoyed it so much that I went back up there this morning before the rain showers came through. In 2.5 hours of riding, I was passed by 3 cars. How wonderful is that?? Its nice to know that some places haven't completely gone to hell in the last ten years. It does seem that many affluent people are moving up there and building beautiful homes on expansive farm land - which I would love to do if Chris didn't have to commute to work every day...it would be quite a haul for him. I think that we could probably actually still afford to build our dream home up there, but the commute would definitely be a killer. So, in the meantime, we're stuck in our nice, yet too-close-to-my-crazy-neighbors-for-my-taste subdivision.

Tomorrow we're heading to Pine Log to test out the new trail - hopefully we'll sneak it in before the "isolated thunderstorms" hit.

Weekend

Whew! Had a pretty good weekend. We managed to sneak in a road ride on Saturday morning before it rained, so that was good, then we went and did a few hours of trail work, where we only had to deal with about 10 minutes of torrential downpour. I was again thoroughly worn out afterwards, as Chris likes to do "endurance trailwork"....once he gets going with the saw, its like trying to get a kid to come in after playing outside all day. Men and their power tools....

Sunday was just a lazy day with a short ride at Blankets thrown in. I attempted to get some work done, but my brain cells are quickly being consumed by the fetal growth process it seems.

It should be pretty quiet at work this week, so thank goodness for that! We have an orienteering meet that we are hosting at Red Top Mtn coming up in two weeks and the following week we are off for a four day camping/riding/hiking trip in North Georgia.