The ride from hell, or at least purgatory. One of my goals for 2009 was to ride all of the Silver Comet trail. I had been breaking it up in 15 mile sections (this gave me 30 miles per trip). Last month when I was off from work I was going to finish it up the last two trips, but it rained most of the second week and I only got one trip in. So I had the last 15 miles to complete my goal. This past Sunday I completed it, and it sucked.
I like the silver Comet trail; it is a fast flat trail, or so I thought. Did anyone know it had hills (seriously, anyone). I'm not talking about the 3% grade I've been use to, it started out with a 200 foot climb in about a 1/8 of a mile. That is steep, Kennesaw Mountain steep. The rest of the ride was rollers (rolling hills). All in all, about 2000 feet of elevation gain.
Normally there is an upside to climbs (no pun intended), downhills. On downhills you can catch your breath, and build up enough momentum to carry you part way up the next hill. Not today. The trail was trashed. Water washed over the trail like little streams (you don't want to get wet in 30 degree weather, cold and wet is not a good combination), and debris from recent rains left the trail littered with branches, sticks, pine cones, and other crap ( you don't want to fly through debris because that is a real easy way to meet the pavement). So it was slow going in the beginning.
The next section was through Cedertown. This part of the trail is joined together piecemeal by the local streets. This means a lot of stop and go through town. This wouldn't be to bad if it was a nice town like Rockmart, but it's not. It is a run down town that the graffiti on the side of someones house announced "Ceadertown is the new gangland" (great, just were I wanted to ride a $4000 dollar bike through).
After Cedertown it opened up to a relatively flat and debris free area. But, it was windy, and I got blown all over the place (not as much fun as it sounds). SIDE NOTE: I hope there is a special place in hell for weathermen. The weathermen said the clouds would burn off by noon, they didn't. They said the temperature would climb to the mid 40s, it didn't. They said the wind would subside, it didn't. What other job can you be wrong all the time, and not be fired. Still slow going.
After the relatively flat and debris free area I entered the tree lined uber debris area. For a couple of miles the debris was so thick you couldn't see the trail. The trail had sections with the debris 2 inch thick. It felt like I was mountain biking or doing cyclecross. What made it feel even more like this is that it had it's own log crossing (if you could call it that). The log, that extended into the muddy forest both ways, was up to my arm pits. If I wasn't only a couple of miles away from completing my goal, I would have turned around. Instead I climbed over the log with my bike. If you don't cycle, you probably don't know about cycling shoes. Cycling shoes have slick plastic soles that a cleat (the part that attaches to the pedal) is screwed into. Climbing over a log in these shoes is probably like climbing over the log in high heels shoes that have had the heal broken off. SIDE NOTE: If you are a dude and you don't cycle, but you knowingly said "Uh huh" to the last statement, you need to turn off the Oprah and turn on some sports center.
Debris and Log
Two miles after the log I was in Alabama. I had made it, and now I had to go through the the whole trail of suck in reverse order (Yah!). It took me 2:30 to do 30 miles. That is slow. I usually do the Smyrna to Hiram trip (it is 30 miles) in 1:45 to 2 hours (depending on how hard I want to push).
Chief Ladiga
Alabama/Georgia State Line
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