Tanasi-4/10/2010 (28 mile loop, 38 miles later . . . story of Becky’s life)

I was off work by 4:30 and home by 5 so I packed the camper, car and bikes and we were on the road by 6. Quick stop for some grub and we were at the Thunder Rock campground by 8:15. We had our choice of campsites so we went with one next to the river but had a spacer site between us and other campers. We set up quickly and met one of our neighbors, Parker, from Nashville. He knew some of our friends from Nashville which was cool, the mountain biking world is small. We enjoyed some beers and called it a night early. I love camping in the camper. I get more sleep than I ever do at home. No cell phone reception was a plus, too.

We slept good and only had to turn the heat on once or twice. I awoke to Becky making coffee and I enjoyed it in bed, then I had some oatmeal, in bed. We took the dogs for a morning walk and to check out the campground. It was nice and all the sites seemed to be great spots. The sites were either on the river or against the mountain side. We sipped coffee as we walked the dogs up FS 45. I didn’t tell Becky we would be climbing this later. I spoke with Parker and he had planned on hitting the Cohutta Death March loop. 74 miles of fire roads, we promised to call the rangers if he was not in by 7pm.

We suited up, stowed the dogs and took off for our morning ride. The air was warming and the sky was a clear blue. We climbed bear paw over to riverview. We stopped a couple time to adjust bikes a bit. We are trying to get things zeroed for the upcoming Cohutta race. We did all the singletrack in the race direction and I attempted to get Becky acclimated to her surroundings and the trail. We zipped down thunderrock express and back to the campsite with roughly 20 miles done. We let the dogs out and enjoyed some chicken wraps.

The afternoon route had us hitting the roughly 28 miles of fireroad on the Big Frog loop. There is a lot of climbing on the route, but I figured we could handle. I neglected to add the 3 mile climb up 45 to get to route. The short version of the afternoon, it hurt me bad. Becky survived and muscled all the climbs. I suffered through some of the climbs and walked some. At one point, Becky said “this is tough” I didn’t tell her the hard part was yet to come. On the climb out I considered hitching a ride in a truck, but my pride wouldn’t let me. I improved as the ride ended. My 28 miles ended up being 37.

Parker rolled in as I was returning from the shower and as we were talking about our ride Mike Palmeri and his wife pull up in their camper and sprinter. They set up camp and we enjoyed a beer by the fire with them. Mike is one of the nicest guys around and we planned on riding with his crew in the morning. The evening ended with us by the fire enjoying some cold beer.

Sunday morning came and it played out much like the morning before. Coffee and oatmeal in bed, walk the dogs, suit up. We jumped in with Mike’s gang and headed up 64 to brush creek. Becky and I felt good once on the bikes and climbed up 64 with minimal problem. We then were led by Becky on a hammerfest of brush creek. Finally, someone spoke and asked why we were going so fast. The pace and mood calmed. It was a typical Big Dawg group ride, no one left behind, plenty of pics, everyone has a great time. We finished on old copper road and we split from the group and headed back to camp to pack up and head home. The weekend left us with 73 miles and 9 hours of saddle time, not bad.

My 2 week old back injury has left me with little power in my legs, I will probably be relinquished to gears for the Cohutta 100. The pain is mostly gone, but I managed to crack a rib falling in the garage last week. It hurt more than anything Sunday morning, but is manageable. Next weekend we head to Nashville and a little Crude XC.