Category: Adventure
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Climbing, climbing, and more climbing
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Toone (@kartoone76) It has been a busy week of riding and racing with the Cheaha Climbing camp on Thursday, the Southern Cross race on Saturday morning, and then following that up in the afternoon with a “5 Gap” ride up to the highest point in…
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Shelby County mountains
The ridges get larger and higher the farther east you go in Alabama — ultimately reaching 2407′ on top of Mount Cheaha, the highest point in Alabama. This elevation trend is true locally in Birmingham as the ridges stack on top of each other getting larger the farther east you go until you hit the…
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topocreator.com sand mountain
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Toone (@kartoone76) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Toone (@kartoone76) If you follow my instagram account, then you know that I’ve posted the picture of “The End of the Appalachians” sign several times. This sign is located in Tannehill State Park.…
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Northwest Alabama and a tri-state commute home via the highest point in Mississippi
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Toone (@kartoone76) “Ok, google. Where is the highest point in Mississippi?” I asked my phone as I pedaled into a nasty headwind on the Natchez Trace Parkway. I knew the answer was somewhere in Northeast Mississippi, but I wasn’t sure how close it was to…
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Ridge to Ridge to Ridge
Ridge to ridge to ridge ride plus elevation profile – elevation data annotated, no satellite imagery. Click to enlarge. Depending on your browser, you may have to click a second time on the image to zoom in and see the detail. My favorite geological feature in Birmingham is the long ridge lines that run northeast/southwest…
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Mountains and valleys in the Alabama snow
Snow showers visible from the top of Blount Mountain near the community of Straight Mountain, Alabama. For those that have done the Tour de Blue, this is the overlook that is used as a rest stop just past Walker Gap. During my Sleeping Giants adventure last week, I rode in shorts and a short sleeve…
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The Sleeping Giants
USGS topo map – the Sleeping Giants Annotated view of the Sleeping Giants from the Vandiver overlook at the edge of a rainstorm. Click to enlarge. It was January 2006, and Samford was having an orientation retreat up on Mount Cheaha for faculty that had started in 2005 and 2006. I had been scouring USGS…
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The path forward
This is a long post; here is the TL;DR So you may or may not know that I suspended my Facebook account, deleted my Twitter account, and also deleted my Strava account this week. This blog is intended to address some of the reasons why. I also deleted my Instagram account, but when I saw…
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Fluffy Steve Memorial Ride
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Toone (@kartoone76) Two years ago, there was an email about a bunny that needed a home. I replied that if they didn’t find a home by the end of the week, we would gladly take it. Well, on Friday of that week, there was a…
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2015 a year to remember
topocreator.com map showing 30,000 miles of riding in 2015. 23 states and 203 counties covered in 2015. Click to enlarge. Every January I look forward to writing this blog post with a summary of all the statistics, data, and maps from the previous year’s racing. This year’s summary took a bit longer because I wanted…