Georgia Kuntry Rando

My mate Aaron convinced me to do one more big ride before I move back to Australia. It's funny how we naturally prioritise things in life that push more important ones to the bottom of the pile; my family and I only have a couple of weeks to go before the big move, and riding my bike has slowly dropped down that priorities list. It's moments like these that I will remember - there's always time for your health and fitness!

So true!

I managed to find a weekend that didn't impact family affairs and started planning. The last trip Aaron did most of the prep, so I thought it was only fair that I picked up the reins this time. To make things easier for my family we selected a road tour that would leave from my house on Friday morning, and keep it to a distance that would have us back by a reasonable time on Sunday.

The basic plan was Warner Robins GA to Dublin (via Hawkinsville) on Friday, Dublin to Milledgeville on Saturday, and finally Warner Robins (via Macon) on Sunday.

Planned vs actual was pretty close

Friday - Warner Robins to Dublin

Our wives decided to see us out for the first 10 or so miles which was really cool. Having young children and busy jobs means that we rarely get out together, so this was quite a treat to have all four of us out on the road.

Lunch at AB's BBQ in Hawkinsville was our first stop for some good ol' hearty southern fare. Chicken salad sambo's (sandwiches in Aussie speak) was the lightest meal on the menu; I was tempted to go for the plate full o' ribs lunch special, but then wisely remembered the 50 miles remaining for the day...

Chicken sambo at ABs

On our way out of town we rode past this tiny little local store called Harris Kuntry Meats & Grocery. I stupidly forgot to take a photo of the front of the shop, so the only one I have is courtesy of Google Street View. From then on we had an official name (with some quirky southern spelling) for our bicycle tour!

Picture from Google Street View - Kuntry!

Whilst Google did a fine job of compensating for my lack of photography it let us down when we decided to head off the beaten path. According to Google maps, the unsealed road had us saving a few miles to pop back onto the highway, but unfortunately the road all of a sudden became private property. We managed to find a little trail between some plantations and got ourselves back on to the highway, but not before getting a few vine thorns in the hands. It was good to finally get off the bitumen for a while despite the unplanned detour.

The Detour

Checking Google Maps

In my previous post I mentioned the cotton fields and how much they change the scenery during Fall; we were once again provided with some spectacular two wheel views around Hawkinsville. They are almost ready for harvest, so we're enjoying it while they last.

"Does it get any better?"

After a hefty 86 miles and almost 6 hours riding time we finally rolled into Dublin with smiles on our faces; this is the furthest we have traveled in one day during a bike tour. We finished the day with great pizza at Deano's Italian Grille and a couple of fine ales to wash it all down.

Saturday - Dublin to Milledgeville

After a huge Hampton breakfast we packed our bikes and headed  into town for a coffee. We found this cool little cafe called My Coffee Shop on Academy Ave; they make a great cappuccino and are worth the visit if you're ever in Dublin.

Pre-ride 'cino

As we were sipping our hot drinks we had a look for a lunch stop on Google maps. The only place we could find that resembled any significant amount of civilisation was a little place called Irwinton, so we decided to detour from our planned direct route and take a look. This is when we also stumbled across a cycling hostel in Irwinton called the Blue Goose, so now we really had an excuse to visit this town!

The legs were a little sore from yesterday and the morning started off quite cold, but it didn't take long for us to get into a rhythm.

Enjoying the two wheel views

Irwinton was a huge surprise for us; awesome southern food (again) and a cycling hostel. The owner of Blue Goose hostel hosts quite a number of events throughout the year for both cyclists and the community. The local cycling group even has a 30 mile cycle route called the 'Honey Boo Boo Loop'. This had Aaron and I intrigued, and led us to make another detour to take a look at the famous child beauty pageant contestant's house in McIntyre. The house was nothing out of the ordinary, but the detour to get to McIntyre was awesome - winding roads with steady climbs and lots of fast descents!

Two turkeys...

Lunch at Irwinton

The Blue Goose

Blue Goose Hostel charm

Lots of bicycle paraphernalia

Honey Boo Boo's house...

The remaining 25 miles to Milledgeville was uneventful, and we were both pretty chuffed to see 65 miles on the total readout for the day. Milledgeville was another great small town stop, providing us with an awesome feed at Buffington's, and some nice brews at Blackbird Coffee.

Sunday - Milledgeville to Warner Robins 

Day 3 started off very cold. I had both of my Road Holland wool jerseys on which kept my chest warm, but this didn't stop my feet and hands going numb. Aaron only two layers on too, so we kept the stops fairly regular for the first hour to thaw out.

Aaron scarfing it up to battle the elements

Our route had us venture onto some more gravel roads, and the views were spectacular. We hit another private road, and this time it had a sign with words that went along the lines of "we'll shoot first and ask questions later" - needless to say we turned around rather quickly!

Doesn't get much better than this

After about 40 miles, we pulled into Macon and conducted a mini tour of Mercer University before stopping at Jittery Joes for a great coffee.

I'm not sure what was in the coffee but we gathered up enough energy to clock an average of 20 miles per hour for the last 17 miles of our trip. This was a huge feat for Aaron who was on a 26" mountain bike with panniers and slick tyres! 

Done & Dusted

This was a fantastic end to my cycling experience in the USA, and from here on I will always remember to keep a Kuntry Rando on the top of my list. 

Autumn Cycling in Georgia

Middle Georgia may not have the unforgiving terrain that other places in the USA has, nor does it have much of the the lush, fiery gold and reds of the fall. But Middle Georgia has some amazing Autumn views of it's own, and there's no better way to see them than by bicycle.

Who needs sealed roads when you've got fat tyres!

Low morning sun through the pecan trees

Roads Less Traveled

Where I live there are many farms surrounding our small city, and some of their access roads are a sand/clay mix which makes for an interesting ride on a road bike; This compelled me to purchase a Surly Straggler last year and fit some nice 38mm Compass Barlow Pass tyres to keep things fast and supple. Now I get to enjoy a lot more road surfaces and rarely miss out on those two wheel views.

The Straggler

Stragglin' on roads less traveled

Just Right!

The Autumn mornings get a bit chilly, but my Road Holland long sleeve wool jerseys keep me comfortable as I wait for the air to warm up. It's one of those tough times of the year to get the clothing perfect, but I find that wool has a broader temperature range you can be comfortable in without removing or adding layers. Being comfortable on my bike is extremely important to me because I want all of my attention going to safety, and of course the views. As far as views go in middle Georgia you really can't beat Autumn; the sun sits lower over the fields and the weather is generally more stable bringing blue skies, which is an awesome sight. It really is the best time of the year to be out on a bike!

Pee-Can or P'Kahn?

The south have two different pronunciations for pecans - "pee-can" and "p'kahn". I heard a farmer on the radio not long ago say (with a little tongue-in-cheek) that the nut is only pronounced "p'kahn" if they go over $10 a pound...

No Ride is the Same

The cotton has been changing rapidly over the past couple of weeks, and this makes my regular cycle route different each time. The cotton locks are finally out after about three months of summer heat, which means there is only about a month or so of this extraordinary sight of white and brown before it all gets harvested.

Cotton field at the end of summer

Time to put on the long sleeves when you see the locks

Locks of cotton ready for harvest in November

Ever-changing scenery

Worth the Bike (Hike)

I’ve never blogged, and I’m new to bikepacking, so keeping with all things new this is my first bikepacking post about how my mate and I discovered that ‘cycle trails’ don’t necessarily mean ‘bicycle trails’ in the North Georgia mountains...

A quick pose in front of Mulberry Gap's outhouse outback dunny (outhouse)

Aaron's Kit

 

 Aaron and I had started planning this trip a few weeks prior to the date. We bought the rack-less bags, got some schmicko single wall tents, and kitted ourselves with lightweight stoves and dehydrated food; you could say that we had all the gear with no idea! Aaron spent quite a few nights after work studying the route and coming up with contingency plans if we had to cut the trip short. We planned to park the truck at Mulberry Gap Mountain Bike Getaway (20 minutes from Ellijay, GA) on Friday, and leave by 2pm to get to Conasauga Lake. Day two would bring us back to Mulberry Gap via some sweet singletrack on Mountaintown trail, Bear Creek, and Pinhoti 1&2 trails.

Leaving Mulberry Gap

Day 1 (i.e Hike-a-bike)

The basic plan was to get to Lake Conasauga by sundown. In the planning stage we chose a ‘cycle trail’ to get up to the Cohutta Mountain Range... What we didn’t realise until we got up there was that this ‘cycle trail’ was in fact a trail for motorised cycles like ATVs and motorbikes. Needless to say we found ourselves a little out of our depth when it came to heaving 55lb bicycles up an average 7% grade rock pile with human power alone!

Altitude graph for the planned route

Still early days...

The smile is about to disappear...

Things just got real!

After 3 hours of slogging up hills, and more hills, we finally made it to Conasauga Lake Campground. It was about 6pm by the time we rolled in, and we had just enough hours of light to have a quick dip in the fresh lake, and cook up a nice meal before crashing from exhaustion. 

Tucking into a hearty feast

Reflection time

Day 2 (Rewards)

We woke up just before sunlight and were grateful for the cool, light breeze overnight which kept the mozzies away, and dried all of our riding gear from the day before. We took our time eating breakfast in the morning because it was such a nice campground. Oatmeal and coffee was on the menu, and of course, a little Vegemite to get the muscles dialled, then it was time to get our stiff bodies moving again. 

A few spots of rain; is this a sign of what's to come?

A steady 8 miles or so of forest service road was on our first agenda, but we had some good views along the way.

Soaking up the view

Mountaintown Overlook

The View

We reached the top of our forest road climb and we both just started grinning ear to ear when we saw what was ahead of us; this is the reward for climbing all of yesterday and most of the morning. Mountaintown trail was just begging to be ridden, and we were more than happy to oblige!

A quick stop to snack and tighten all of our bags, then it was time to see what it was like to throw a 55lb bike down a hill!

Mountaintown Creek Trail Hoot

 

The descent was 2 miles of smooth rolling singletrack. It took a couple of minutes to get used to the weight of the bikes, but surprisingly, they handled pretty well apart from having to stop every now and then to re-tighten the seat bag and handlebar harness; I don’t think it was really the straps loosening off too much, but more our poor packing methods had created space with all the bumps. I had oodles of traction on the fatty, and I could have afforded to let out a couple more psi out of the tyres to soften the ride. Aaron’s dual suspension bike was solid in the descents, though his seat bag was touching the back tyre at the bottom of jumps; nothing a little extra psi in the shock wouldn’t fix.

The remainder of the trail tapered off and followed the creekline in the valley. Beautiful waterfalls and river crossings had us meander fairly slowly, but we weren’t in a rush as it was a stunning view.

Wet shoes

A gamble not worth taking on a bike

By the time we reached the bottom of Mountaintown Creek Trail it was time for lunch. It was about this time of our trip that I realised how important it is to eat small amounts all the time! Aaron had been snacking all morning and felt great, but I didn’t feel hungry so just kept the fluids up. Needless to say I ate the weight of a small child at lunch, and then suffered for quite a few miles afterwards.

Flour tortillas filled with tuna and mayo, then another with our new super food invented by Aaron – the PBHV - peanut butter, honey, and you guessed it (or maybe not), Vegemite... Yes there’s a fair bit going on in your mouth, but don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it!

PBHV

We now found ourselves in familiar territory – Bear Creek and Pinhoti Trails. What we weren’t familiar with was riding these trails in the pouring rain. We later found out that Mulberry Gap (a few miles away) was completely dry and missed all the rain; I guess the Gods wanted to put us to the test for the finishing lap, and my word they did! We were riding singletrack that had turned into rivers, and we were completely soaked to the core. I’m glad I wore my Road Holland long sleeve jersey, not just for the vine thorn protection but for the cold that set in with the rain; their cycling apparel is made of high quality materials, and fits really well.

Single track river!

We were getting pretty cold standing around in the rain, so we decided to get moving. The shower was only overhead for about 20 minutes so we luckily had nice weather for the final run on Pinhoti 2 back home.

Aaron and I rode into Mulberry Gap with a sense of achievement. Although it was only an overnight bikepacking trip, we experienced many firsts and learned a lot of things through trial and error. We probably bit off a little more than we could chew by planning an ATV cycle trail as part of our route, but where would all the fun be if things went as planned?

Glamping

Still soaked, but happy to be back at the dunny!