My bike at the Cahaba Beach road bridge. You have to hoist your bike over the barricade and carefully ride the planks to make it over to Cahaba Beach road. Watch out for the holes straight through to the river!A post about climbing the ridges in Birmingham wouldn’t be complete without my favorite ridges southeast of town – especially the two high ridges on Double Oak Mountain. I rode out there today armed with my camera and ended up taking more than 50 photos. I picked out the best ones and created a topocreator map to highlight the ridges southeast of Birmingham.
Two screenshots merged to form a complete ride profile (10 mile, 250ft scale). The numbered ridges and creeks are labeled on the topocreator map below.
Topocreator map of the ridges southeast of Birmingham out to Double Oak (click to enlarge) or download the hi-res version (6.5MB)
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- This view from the high point on Dolly Ridge road inspired me to call this ride the “ridge to ridge” ride because you can see the ridges stacked on top of each other – each one higher than the one before!
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- Looking back towards the Vesclub part of Shades Mountain over a particularly hilly stretch of road.
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- Heading towards Cahaba Beach Rd – so rural there is no need to clear the road of a tree if it only falls halfway across!
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- My bike at the Cahaba Beach road bridge.
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- Rope swings over Little Cahaba River
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- Nice Rouge Roubaix style climb on Cahaba Beach road
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- A fairly small red tailed hawk flew across the road in front of me and perched in a low branch next to the road as I started my climb up Double Oak Way
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- Looking up at the first steeper section of the Double Oak Way climb
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- Looking up ahead at the Double Oak way gate – the steepest part of the climb is just past the gate when the road turns directly into the gradient of the hill
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- Double Oak way at the start of the 25% section – you know it’s steep when the road is grooved for traction
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- Once you summit the first steep section, you have several miles of rolling and false flat climbing on a “hit or miss” road that requires somewhat careful navigation
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- At the top of what I call the lower Double Oak Mtn ridge line … my Garmin was reading about 30-40 feet too low.
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- The view looking down the Double Oak Way roller coaster that separates the lower ridge line from the upper ridge line – 50mph descent both directions!
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- The rocky, narrow lower double oak mtn ridge line
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- Looking back down Double Oak Way towards Oak Mountain
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- Annotated view at the precipice of the Double Oak way descent
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- Another view shortly after the 25% drop-off looking towards Leeds. I took this picture because AL-25 crosses the farthest ridgeline at a spot just behind the trees on the right – and there is a spot where you can look backwards from AL-25 at the spot where this picture is taken from.
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- The Double Oak way ridge line from near the Shoal Creek saddle on Co Rd 41
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- Greystone Crest – a picture never does the true slope justice!
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- Looking back down Greystone Crest towards Oak Mountain and seeing this ridge line wrap around towards Highland Lakes
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- View from the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line looking northwest towards Birmingham
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- View from the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line looking southeast towards Double Oak Mountain
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- Another view from the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line looking southeast towards Double Oak Mountain from a different part of the ridge line – this time the Doppler Radio tower on top of the high ridge of Double Oak is just barely visible above the Greystone Crest ridgeline
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- US 280 at about 5:30PM – looking towards Birmingham from the low spot where 280 crosses the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line.
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- Tornado damage off of Caldwell Mill Rd from the April 2011 tornadoes
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- More tornado damage off of Caldwell Mill Rd from the April 2011 tornadoes
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- Tornado damage on the “tornado loop” from the April 2011 tornadoes
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- This set of switchbacks on the tornado loop reminds me of Italy
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- The ridge lines visible from my neighborhood
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- Home sweet home
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- Two screenshots merged together to form a complete ride profile (10 mile, 250ft scale)
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- Complete ride profile at 15 mile, 500 ft scale
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- Double Oak Way ridges ride stats part 1
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- Double Oak Way ridges ride stats part 2
Cycling Adventures with Brian Toone 
Hey Brian I see you have been up Kings Crest before, how does that compare to Double Oak Way? Is DOW a private road or can I get my bike up it anyway?
Double Oak Way is public until the gate about halfway up the first steep part, at that point its status becomes a bit more questionable. Is the road itself included in the “no trespassing” signs or are you trespassing only if you step off of the road? The entire ridge line is owned by EBSCO, which uses the property for hunting, so I don’t think there is a problem biking on the road during other parts of the year outside hunting season. Watch out for service vehicles that regularly visit the towers at the top. As far as a comparison to Kings Crest, the steep section of Double Oak is steeper than Kings Crest. The entire Double Oak way climb to the radio towers, though, is much more rolling with several downhills.
I’ll have to check that out. You should check out High Crest Dr on the other side of Hwy 11 from Kings Crest. It is a nice climb that is also a private Rd, but you can go through the gate without a problem.