Photos by: Quellet CyclingMe and my cohorts in cycling are 3 weeks away from our season's first big ride and for me it is a doozy. Starting last summer my friends have been trying to talk me into this ride so I started preparing mentally and physically for the challenge. Last season was my first season to really start the more challenging climbs like north Georgia's 3 gap, which included Wolfpen. I was also introduced to Fort Mountain and Burnt Mountain on 3 occasions. In September 2007 I crashed while descending the east side of Burnt Mountain at nearly 40 mph, which resulted in a fair of amount of physical injury including a separated shoulder that is still in therapy, but the injury also kept me from training in the challenging climbing rides. The 2008 season is well underway and we have encountered my arch nemesis, Burnt Mountain a few weeks ago and will hopefully return tomorrow morning for a 71 mile training ride. We also did an 80 mile epic ride last weekend from Jasper, Georgia out toward Dalton and climbed 9 miles on the east side of Fort Mountain and back to Jasper (Fort Mountain summit pictured above).
For weeks now I have been hearing about Burkhalter Gap, which will be the goal to overcome for the 3 State 3 Mountain ride. I have heard all the stories as if it were some great legend, but the fact is this climb is for real and from all accounts may be my toughest climb yet with a road grade of 20%+.
