While Kristine finished up her work yesterday at Fort McClellan, I biked home to Birmingham from our hotel in Oxford by way of Mount Cheaha. I climbed Cheaha three different ways — including a new Cat 2 climb starting at the low point on the Adam’s Gap side and climbing all the way to the lookout tower inside the state park. This brings Alabama’s Cat 2 climb total to 8 — including the two new climbs I discovered in my ride on Saturday. The eight climbs are labeled on the map below.
I am sure there are more out there to be found … I know that climbing Moorman Mountain from the west would also be a Cat 2 (I climbed it from Bain’s Gap on the east) — so if there is anybody adventurous out there who wants to get to it before me – have at it!
I left Oxford shortly after 7AM in a fog, very light rain mist all the way through Friendship Rd, up to AL-281 and the first ascent of Cheaha from AL-49. Everything went smoothly until my first descent from the lookout tower. I had been climbing for 7 miles in heavy fog – and since it is all uphill, I hadn’t touched my brakes AT ALL and forgotten about how much water would have accumulated on the rims. As I headed into the first switchback and applied the brakes, absolutely nothing happened except for an instant realization that there was no hope of making the turn so I simply straightened up and looked for an escape route that didn’t involve running into a cabin or cliff. Fortunately, the brakes dried off fast enough that even before I left the road, they had started to grab and I only ended up a few feet off the road next to a cabin.
This first bit of excitement on the ride led to the next bit of excitement less than a mile later. I continued down out of the park and turned right onto AL-281 to descend down the Adam’s Gap side of the mountain. I had only made it half a mile or so and had just reached max speed when I heard the sudden “psssssssss” of a tire puncture. I didn’t panic, but I knew I would be in big trouble if the air leaked out before I could slow down. The roads were wet so I couldn’t exactly slam on the brakes either. I just pressed as hard as I felt comfortable pressing on the brakes and slowed down to a stop. Fortunately, the puncture wasn’t a complete blow-out so I still had air left in the tire to keep the tire from rolling off. At this point, I’m only 29 miles or so with well over 100 miles left to ride so I took my time and made darn sure that whatever had caused the puncture wasn’t still in the tire. In fact, I think I spent more time running my finger around the tire and digging out a couple tiny pieces of glass than I actually spent changing and reinflating the tube. It was well worth the effort, though, as I was able to use my pump and CO2 cartridge to fill the tire up to maybe 80 psi and complete the rest of the ride with no more flats. It might have just been coincidence, but I’m thinking that I may have picked up the glass when I went off the road in the switchback previously.
After changing the tire, I finished the rest of the descent and after reaching 45 mph with no thumping or any other signs of a bad tire change, I felt pretty confident that all was good. I attacked the Adam’s Gap climb hard so I could get the KOM on it … my legs were definitely feeling the 400 miles that were already in them for the week up to that point — including the hard climbing ride from Saturday, but I was able to get the KOM. Adam’s Gap ends at the transition to a gravel “scenic road” that if you followed long enough would take you all the way over to Bull Gap and Brent’s new skyway epic course. Turning around, I snapped a few pics and then headed back up Cheaha also pushing it hard to try to get the KOM on this side. By this time, the fog had lifted significantly so that only the very top of the climb was still foggy/wet. At the top, I turned around and headed back down the Adam’s Gap side, but this time I turned at the road to Camp Mac and headed down to Lake Chinnabee to do the climb one last time stopping to take pictures of the mountain from Cheaha Lake (over 1000 ft below the summit).

View of Mt Cheaha and the Cheaha restaurant -- the true summit is at the tall radio tower in the background towards the middle left of the picture
At the top this time, all was sunny and beautiful so I snapped this panorama of the view from the Cheaha restaurant (which is about 250 ft below the true summit)
From there all the way back home was an awesome ride, which I could spend hours describing — but instead I’m going to just let the pictures tell the rest of the adventure.
- My approximate path in the first switchback on the descent from the Cheaha lookout tower.
- Annotated view looking southwest from the Cheaha restaurant
- View of Mt Cheaha and the Cheaha restaurant — the true summit is at the tall radio tower in the background
- Rougher part of AL-281 – the scenic highway that heads over the Cheaha ridge
- Lots of fog even on some of the lower sections of AL-281 like this one.
- Even more fog on the one-way state park road that climbs to the summit tower
- The summit tower – I haven’t climbed up the tower in a few years, but it used to have windows that were so old and dirty that it wasn’t worth the hassle. Has anyone been up there recently?
- The top of the Adam’s Gap climb at the point where the road turns to gravel
- Descending back down from Adam’s Gap looking north towards Oxford/Anniston
- Looking down to the start of the Cheaha climb from the 281 low point. Mt Cheaha is still partially obscured by clouds
- Much clearer now on the one way road to the summit, but the summit itself was still foggy
- The Lake Chinnabee area was closed for winter (i.e., camping, hiking, etc…) so it had a lot of road debris on it
- A hiking trail visible on the other side of the lake
- Fun switchbacks on the steep climb out of the Lake Chinnabee canyon
- Road debris on the Lake Chinnabee road
- View looking along the Cheaha ridge line towards Bull Gap
- View looking west towards Birmingham with the Sleeping Giants ridge visible in the middle
- Camp Mac – the old turnaround point for the Cheaha Challenge
- Back down into the wide broad Talladega valley
- Panoramic view from the Talladega view (annotated)
- Looking back toward the Cheaha ridge line. Mt Cheaha is just to the right of the silo
- The turnoff in the middle of town to head to the Nascar track
- I opted for this route instead of one with slightly more climbing through Shocco Springs – partly so I could ride through the Talladega College campus and partly because I knew the route and wouldn’t have to rely on my GPS to find my way through
- Cool houses that are now part of the college
- Federal Correctional Institution just outside Talladega
- The best pic I could get heading towards one of the sleeping giants (Renfroe Mountain) – there is a gravel access road to the top, but I wasn’t going to try it after already having one flat
- A much better pic after passing between the Sleeping Giants – this is looking back towards Renfroe Mountain
- A few miles after taking the previous picture, I made it to Lake Logan Martin where the terrain suddenly got hilly again
- Tornado damage on the edge of Lake Logan Martin
- Looking along the dam road towards the dam that created Lake Logan Martin
- Looking north in the general direction of the lake
- The road going across the Lake Logan Martin dam
- I stopped at our normal BBL rest stop in Sterrett to get one last bit of food to make it home – hot chicken wing pizza was perfect!
- Co Rd 45 heading towards the Vandiver climb
- The sign everyone looks forward to on the Vandiver climb — meaning that you are almost to the top
- Eagle’s Nest lookout near the switchback on the Vandiver climb
- View from the eagle’s nest lookout looking towards the Co Rd 43 valley
- Another panoramic view of the Co Rd 43 valley — but angled farther down to highlight the valley instead of the ridge line
- The switchback on the Vandiver climb – if I have to sprint against someone, then I like to start my sprint before the switchback
- This on Co Rd 41 looking towards the Double Oak Way ridge
- Looking down at the steep part of the Greystone Crest road above Hugh Daniel
- Almost home … the view looking back from where I came from with four different ridge lines visible (photo taken from a fifth ridge line)
- View from the hill my house is on – two ridge lines visible
Would you mind sharing the specific locations of these Cat 2’s near Cheaha? I’d like to give them a try sometime.
Sure, there are four different approaches to climbing Cheaha on the road. Two from each side of the mountain. From the northeast side, you can climb all the way from Co Rd 24 to the top or you can go down to the bottom of AL-49 and turn around and climb it, intersecting the main climb from the east on AL-281. From the west, you can climb it from the low spot on AL-281 heading towards Adams Gap, or you can climb it from Cheaha Lake or even farther down the mountain starting at the Chinnabee lake. Here are four segments on Strava –
Climbs from the east:
Cheaha from Hwy 49 – https://www.strava.com/segments/833754
Cheaha from Friendship Ln (Co Rd 24) – https://www.strava.com/segments/637474
Climbs from the west:
Cheaha from 281 low pt on Adams Gap side – https://www.strava.com/segments/973303
Lake Chinnabee to Cheaha high pt – https://www.strava.com/segments/637477