Quick ride report … I was working from home this morning when I got a call from Rocky Ridge that Analise was sick with a fever. Kristine was down in Helena on a long run with Kim so I drove over and picked Analise up. We snuggled on the couch and watched Hugo while we were waiting for Kristine to get home from running and a short day at work. A late start meant that I would be finishing in the dark, but I put my lights on and headed out the door. I found a new climb in the Wimberly neighborhood on the way over to the Cahaba Cycles in Trussville to drop off brake pads for Alan’s dad.
After a quick stop there, I stumbled upon the Trussville mountain bike trails in the baseball, soccer complex off of Cherokee Rd. From there, I was able to make my way back over to Hwy 11 via a hilly neighborhood. A short jaunt on 11 took me over to the Camp Coleman road which is near the headwaters of the Cahaba River … found a new climb up from the river past the camp to the high point of a neighborhood off to the left. After turning around, I headed over towards Goodner Mountain and found a way up that turns it into a Cat 3 climb (starting from Advent Circle) … also, I came back down a different way which would also be a cat 3 climb if done in reverse. I went for the KOM and got it – very nice tailwind up the climb, extremely windy at the top.
Perhaps the highlight of the ride though was exploring the Carrington Pkwy area, asking the security guard nicely to be allowed to cut through to Blackjack Rd and riding through the last unpaved section of road to connect to Blackjack. It started out as hard packed dirt but then turned into a river of mud with several channels to cross. I was fortunate not to have to unclip b/c if I did then my speedplay cleats would have instantly been clogged with mud. The last hour or so was in the dark, but that is great this time of year with all the Christmas lights. Pics and videos below …
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