Birmingham ridges

After three weeks of traveling out west and enjoying some really amazing riding and sightseeing with the family, I have been enjoying a week of riding back in Birmingham. Today’s ride typifies the type of ridge riding that you can do here in Birmingham. I started out this ride with a loop on the side of Little Valley Mountain followed by a route crossing all the major ridge lines to Birmingham. Then I turned around and took a different route home recrossing the same ridge lines at different points. After a quick stop at home, I did a loop through Bluff Park bouncing back and forth between the two ridge lines on top of Shades Mountain. That last bit through Bluff Park is shown with ridge and creek crossings highlighted in the first elevation profile and map below:

Numbered crossings of the two ridge lines across the top of Shades Mountain. Click to enlarge

My neighborhood – on the remnants of Altadena Ridge
Little Shades Creek – feeds into the Cahaba River
Little Valley Mountain – Panorama Dr home of S Cove, Renfroe, VHHS
Little Shades Creek again – after the S Cove Dr descent
Little Valley Mountain again – this time descending off the other side of the mountain via Gay Way
Patton Creek headwaters – near Vestavia Pizitz Middle School
Vestavia Lake overlook – high point on the lower Shades Mountain ridge
Vestavia Falls bridge – tucked down below a cliff, cool and shady
Hwy 31 at Shades Crest – right before the descent past Brookwood hospital. Crosses the upper Shades Mountain ridge
Shades Creek – high bridge (Hwy 31) over the creek and Lakeshore trail
Red Mountain on Woodcrest – http://goo.gl/maps/xHwf – super steep descent to Five Points South
Five Points South – still nearly hundred feet above downtown (Village Creek, etc…)
Red Mountain Crest Rd with all the mansions across the top of the ridge – http://goo.gl/maps/MTu2
Shades Creek – after descending down through Mountain Brook (Crestline Village)
Shades Mountain eastern ridge – the part of Shades Mountain east of US-280
Shades Creek at the 280 flyunder – http://goo.gl/maps/hjbV – flying down westbound 280, cross under on Shades Creek Pkwy, back up the ramp/climb eastbound 280
Shades Mountain high point crown – this includes the real high point at Vestavia Dr plus lower summits at Smyer Circle and Chester St
Little Shades Creek – awesome descent down Vesclub – crossing the creek at an upper branch
Dolly Ridge at Skyland roller coaster
Little Shades Creek – down at the actual creek
Dolly Ridge at Rosemary
Altadena Ridge back in my neighborhood