Watching the weather forecasts before the ride was a good reminder that you can never trust the weather. It looked different every time I checked and always predicted rain until I checked the morning of. This led to a beautiful drive into Bankhead, passing through fog on the interstate on the way in.

This route is a reverse of Bridge Over Troublesome Creek, adding a stop at Pine Torch Church at the end. The reverse direction allows for a few shorter mileage options but makes the store stop at mile 16 somewhat useless for the longer routes.

We had a good group of ten start together after discussing plans. Sid was a local who showed up and this was his first gravel ride on a bike he just picked up from Jory at Southern Carnage. Rob and Sid planned for the 30-mile route while the rest of us were shooting for the 71 and/or considering the 46 as a backup.

I explained at the beginning that the 46 splits from the 71 at Owen’s Chapel Baptist at mile 23, where it then must climb the worst hill out there. The 71-mile route keeps heading West along the plateau until it gets near the next stop at Beulah Church at mile 35, then climbs the same ridge but is less harsh to get there.

I told the group that if we could make it from the 35-mile stop to the end of the ride, we wouldn’t have to stop back at Owen’s Chapel which would mean riding down the worst hill and then back up, just to refill bottles. While this made sense when planning the route on paper, it’s far more likely that someone would survive longer being short of water than adding that climb if they didn’t have to.

By the time we all made it past the cutoff and agreed that we all had enough water to skip the stop at Owen’s Chapel, it was starting to turn into a sauna out there. While it hadn’t rained during the ride it was still humid. The first half of the ride had a lot of areas open to the sun, but once we got back up along the ridge and in the forest the shade felt incredible. Every now and then you could find a refreshing breeze.

It was a long hard day in the sun for someone that had to rehab a new herniated disc in the past week and a half. The back was fine but not having ridden more than 20 miles in the past 10 days didn’t help. This is a tough route, but it is so beautiful out there. It was great being able to spend time enjoying it with regulars, long lost friends and new folks.

Here’s a couple of pictures: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/h3o3w43azy74eije7cdy5/AGi02iiW0Dyqg2JvoyYVwKA?rlkey=7xywqpqjyjc0g14xjpb9lons7&dl=0