Kicking off a winter adventure with an epic

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I left Birmingham, Alabama yesterday at 6:30AM and a little over 32 hours later we arrived at the Telemark ski resort in Cable, WI. To get here from Alabama involved an epic 123 mile bike ride and over 1000 miles of driving. Kristine started about 6 hours behind me in the car and caught up to me just south of Faulkville, AL north of Cullman. I started out doing a normal climbing route through Rocky Ridge, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, and Birmingham before merging in Gate City with the route that I had tried out last week on my way up to Smoke Rise.

This time I wanted to try out more climbs on the same ridge as Smoke Rise and Skyball so I diverted my route near Kimberly to head up through Trafford towards AL-160 and all the climbs that start on 160 and climb up the ridge. I had intended to do 4 different climbs and 4 different descents off the ridge, but on the way over on ??? rd which turned into ??? rd I was chased by numerous dogs. I decided since I was also running a bit behind to skip one of the climbs and only ended up doing Graves Gap, Co Rd 45, and Skyball.

I’ll let the pictures (and captions) tell the rest of the story. Clicking on a picture will take you to flickr where you can flip through all the pictures.

Abandoned road near Airport HighlandsSunrise over dolly ridgeSteepMountain goatsRed mountain ridge and trussville mountainsHomewood, Red Mountain, and the Vulcan
Samford UniversityDowntown Birmingham, St Vincents Hospital and Sloss FurnaceLooking towards the airport and along the Red Mountain ridgeGate City / East Lake hillSteep narrow road up Gate City hillSouthern museum of flight
Historic blackbird bomberProp plane and torpedoesCrane helicopterAirplane landing at the airportAirport rd, Red MountainIndian Valley Rollers
Large rockMore rollersTrain tracks near TraffordGrafitti on the bridge over the tracksRoad leading to wooden bridgeWooden bridge

Trip to Wisconsin 2012, a set on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

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