05/24-25/25 – Peach Bike Packing 200 Attempt 1

This weekend I attempted a route that I put together back in December. I had come up with several routes around Clanton, Autaugaville, Isabella, and Oakmulgee so I made a ring around the perimeter of all of them. It makes a great 200-mile loop with lots of barns, horses, goats, remote areas and some pretty views.

I’ve done two bike packing trips before now, both were The Tally Tango, which I did on mountain bike for sand on the route. This was my first time on the gravel bike, and while I expected to be a little faster than the mtb on sand, I still planned on an ultra-realistic 10mph pace. The gravel bike was a faster 12mph average, it was the storms that knocked me off schedule.

Pedaling a 50-pound, packed bike was interesting on gravel. While on the flats and descents, I kept a constant light pedal in whatever gear gave me inertia and took little effort. Climbing hills was the only time that I spent mashing the pedals. I never had to get off and walk any of the steeper pitches but chose to at one point just to walk slower in the shade as it had gotten up to around 90 degrees at that point.

I rolled out at 7am under a beautiful sky light with clouds. There was very little traffic rolling early through Clanton, and even less on the dirt roads. I saw a few rabbits scattering around on the road ahead of me, and I stopped and took a pic with some goats that have gotten friendly with me. I filled up a bottle at mile 20 at the DG, and then stopped and fed Sampson an orange at mile 26.

Hardwick had called the night before to see what I was riding today, and didn’t seem interested in my plan. He did do a ride out there though and ran into me at mile 45 on Autauga County 64 if I recall correctly. It was nice bumping into a buddy on the ride. At mile 65 I stopped at 82 Market and Deli in Prattville, filled bottles and picked up 3 peanut butter oatmeal pies for lunch, dinner and breakfast.

Knowing that storms were possible, I had been watching the weather and was expecting some big storms to roll through between 8-10pm. At mile 75 rolling through Autaugaville, I started hearing the lightning and then saw dark clouds to the Northwest. I checked the radar and there were two yellow patches with red in the middle getting ready to roll over. I found an old, abandoned house with a porch on a farm and took a 30-minute break as the storm rolled over. The owner rolled by on a side by side and told me I was welcome to go in the house if it got bad enough.  

This threw me off my schedule of trying to get to Plantersville before the evening storm set in, so I started checking the weather more often, but it was clear with nice wet packed dirt roads for hours. At mile 98 I stopped at Evergreen Church and filled up bottles and ate some fig newtons.

It started getting dark around mile 110 and I got my first taste of gravel night riding, which I was really enjoying. Descending in the dark on a heavy bike gets exciting real fast. And again, I heard the faint rumble of thunder. I was happy to be past the halfway point and was hoping to find a spot in the forest 30 miles down the road before considering camping for the night, but it started raining once I hit Autauga County 16.

I had marked a water spot off route at Bethel Church about a mile of course and darted for it as the rain picked up. The church has a tin roof patio in the back with a long concrete table in the center. I didn’t have any signal to check the radar, so I decided to camp out for the night, and realized I had made a good decision as it poured for about 4 hours.

My clothes were all soaked, and the wind blowing through the rain put a chill on me. I had picked up an expensive, warm light weight sleeping back liner and wrapped up in it for the night. It kept me warm really well, but I was never dry. I slept on top of the concrete table, as the puddles around the patio were growing onto the patio floor. It was nice being right under that tin roof with the rain hammering it.

I rolled at 5am in the morning and realized how much it had rained, and that I was headed to Pinetucky and Maplesville where the mud is not as friendly as Clanton. My body was talking to me, this guy slept on cold hard ground and a camelbak was my pillow too. I’m a coffee guy, but none of that this time around, yet that third peanut butter oatmeal pie did make a good breakfast.

I had gotten about 125 miles of the route when I decided I would have to try to tackle this again when the late stuff won’t get pounded with rain. I jumped out on County Rd 16 at Plantersville and took about a 30-mile paved but very low traffic way back to the car. Some of it was pretty chipseal country rollers. I helped a large box turtle make it out of my lane before the car behind me would have run it over. The heat picked up and I was zapped as I got back to the car. I just kept my focus on a shower and my bed.

I really enjoyed my adventure and hope to have some other folks take me up on it next time.

Here’s my pics from the trip: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/prn00uw02on7ztdfbmz4m/AE40avi5vtL5UwZcR81Vf0o?rlkey=zmv2a095ticxvow7jday1mhjo&dl=0