Jasper to Fort Mountain

Motionbased Ride Data

Today Gary and I did a repeat ride from about a month ago (first blog post in April) from Jasper, Georgia out toward Dalton to climb Ft. Mountain, loop back through Ellijay and then return to Jasper. Today’s group consisted of Gary Quellet (official group photographer), Mike Quick, Jack Shippee and me. Our start time was planned for 7:30 to help finish the ride a little earlier compared to most of our long rides lately, but we did not realize when we started that the ride would be so cool this late in the season. The sun was out in Jasper, but as soon as we approached Talking Rock we entered into a very heavy fog and the air became much cooler and moist. At the time I was riding at the back of the pack because I had a fluorescent yellow jacket to help the cars see us a little better, my hands and legs felt like it was January instead. I felt as if someone had strapped ice packs on my knees and I know by the discussion that all the other guys were a bit cold as well. There is a long descent going toward Carter’s Lake that allowed our speeds to hold toward the high 20’s and we quickly and successfully passed the area that plagued Gary on the last ride with 3 flats.

We turned onto a great stretch of road leading us toward Ft. Mountain with soft rolling terrain and now the sun is starting to warm us up enough for me to pack my jacket into my back pocket for the day and we continued to pace line in the 20’s between mile 20 and 34. Approximately mile 35 we stopped at a convenient store at the base of Ft. Mountain to refuel and relieve. Now this is what we came for. The 9 mile climb to the top of Ft. Mountain. I heard Gary say, “I wonder if I am ready for this.” Of course he was because I know he has the attitude of determination. I am yet to see Gary not confront the challenge of the day. Jack and Mike put a little faster pace and quickly go out of our sight. Gary and I are both using the ipod shuffles and it was time to go into the personal zone and block out everything else and even the pace of others. About midway up a lone cyclist passes me and with the music on I didn’t realize that it was Rod doing hill repeats on Ft. Mountain. I am glad to do it once and look forward to the descent and the return home. Rod was there to climb it 3 times. On the descent I felt like a little more confidence has return, but maybe it’s just stupidity returning. However, I was the last one down by a large margin because I had a large gap to cover to catch up with the guys. For a few miles they were not in sight, but I kept my pace and eventually found them soft-pedaling for my sake.

The stretch of road from Ft. Mountain to Ellijay is actually tougher for me than climbing Ft. Mountain. It is rolling terrain, but with more substantial ups and downs. I had a tough time going through this area while Jack and Mike seemed to pull away from Gary and I again.

After making our way through Ellijay's streets and our last brief store stop we were on our way back to Jasper. Though it felt as if we were pushing against the wind it was nowhere as bad as the last time. We took our turns in the front pulling the group and the speeds were again sustaining in the low 20’s. I had the last turn in front and put a good pace and picked up a little toward the end just to test the legs. They felt good for having 70 miles on them with a descent climb. Now we just had to make one more 3 mile climb and we would be in Jasper. Jack gave me a heads up that he was going to pick up the pace and he was successful and was quickly out of our sight. Mike was ahead with Gary and I were content to hold to our individual paces. Once I hit the summit of this mild climb I was again tempted to see what my legs could do on a mild descent. I was able to hold between 26 and 32 on this remaining stretch before entering Jasper, but could not bridge the gap to Mike. This was another great day with a very good small group for an enjoyable 80-mile ride and an awesome climb across Ft. Mountain. The ride for me today was a slight improvement from the April ride. I can accept “slight” improvement.


Jesse Gary Jack Mike, Jesse, Gary