Local Landmarks Ride

Last week I was checking Strava and saw a Local Landmarks challenge.  It turned out to be a running challenge.  Running is barbaric, but this inspired me to create a bicycle ride to visit some of my own local landmarks.  It was a fun way to do a long ride during these coronavirus days of solo riding.

I started planning my route, thinking of interesting places in Jasper County I could visit by bicycle.  I also went to the Monticello-Jasper County website, which has a pdf of our local tourism brochure.  The brochure lists some historical markers and landmarks; I added a few from here to my Local Landmarks Ride.

Right after I started planning my Local Landmarks Ride, I got an invitation to join the Virtual Brevet Series 2020, created by George Swain of Hudson Valley Randonneurs.  Hudson Valley Randonneurs isn't an official RUSA chapter, and George isn't an RBA, but I really appreciate George's ingenuity in coming up with a way for us randonneurs to keep riding in a fun, structured manner.

The rules are simple and common-sense, such as maintain all federal, state, and local social distancing requirements; ride alone or in very, very small groups; don't ride if you don't feel well; etc.  The regular brevet time limits apply: 50K (3:20), 100K (6:40), 200K (13:30).

And of course there are awards!  I don't ride just for the awards, but they keep me motivated.  Here they are:
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• V-50 Award Complete eight (8) rides of at least 50K between March 28 and May 31.
  
• V-100 Award Complete six (6) rides of at least 100K between March 28 and May 31.

• V-200 Award Complete four (4) rides of at least 200K between March 28 and May 31.

Rides of greater length may be submitted to meet each requirement, but each ride may only be used once.

• V-SR Award Complete one 50K, one 100K, one 150K, and one 200K ride between March 28 and May 31.

For the V-SR Award, rides must fall into the following four categories: 50-99K, 100-149K, 150-199K, and 200K or above.

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This past Saturday, March 28 was the first day of the Virtual Brevet Series 2020 - the perfect time to do my Local Landmarks Ride!  As a bonus, Robert wanted to ride for a couple of hours, and so he joined me for the first part of my ride.

Originally, I had planned to start out by riding down Highway 11 S.  Although this is a fairly low-traffic state highway that I ride frequently, it has because less pleasant in recent months because rumbles are being added to all Georgia state highways on both white lines and the center yellow line.  Just my luck, in Jasper County they started with Highway 11 S.  At least for now, the rumbles have been completed only in the southbound direction from Monticello to Hillsboro.  I won't complain if the Georgia DOT takes plenty of time to come back and finish the job, like they usually do.

As Robert and I headed out, it occurred to me that going to Hillsboro via Goolsby Road would be much better.  We'd avoid the rumbles, and there would be even less traffic.  Why didn't I think of this from the beginning?  Even better, I picked up two local landmarks that I hadn't originally included on my list.  First was this marker from the Seven Islands Road stagecoach route from the 1800s:

After riding by it dozens of times over the years, only recently did I notice this marker.  Robert discovered it when he was doing research for his Seven Islands Road presentation a couple of years ago.  The stagecoach era is rather romanticized, but it's only a tiny sliver of the history of the Seven Islands Road.  It's a prehistoric trail that Native Americans walked for thousands of years.  Europeans introduced horses a few centuries ago, and last were stagecoaches.  If you're interested in history and maybe looking for something to watch during our isolated times, here's a link to Robert's presentation:

Seven Islands Road

My revised Local Landmarks Ride also passed the Hillsboro Hilton.  I've ridden by this hunting club in Hillsboro a gazillion times, and it still cracks me up.

We picked up my originally planned route when we got to Hillsboro proper.  The Ben Hill School was named for Benjamin Harvey Hill, a U.S. and Confederate senator who was born in Hillsboro.  The building is now a community center.

We then pedaled a little farther south so that I could get a picture of the Piedmont Wildlife Refuge (PWR) sign on Highway 11.  I looked forward to riding in the PWR the following day (see my 3/30/20 blog entry, Roni Riding).

From there it was back north on Highway 11 - yea, no rumbles on that side!  When we got to the Monticello square, I took a picture of our historic courthouse.  It's currently undergoing repairs.

Four state highways converge in Monticello.  (That's a lot of truck traffic for our small square!)  Several of the state highways near Monticello have been designated the Monticello Crossroads Scenic Byway.

The scenic byways are beautiful but usually not the best roads for cycling.  I mostly ride on county roads.

Highway 83 just north of the square was named Trisha Yearwood Parkway.  She has been so generous to her hometown.

We headed toward Shady Dale via Rock Eagle Road, a much safer route than going directly on Highway 83 N.  A few miles down Rock Eagle Road, Robert turned around to go home.  I continued on my Local Landmarks Ride.

Shady Dale is Jasper County's other incorporated city besides Monticello.  An old well is located at this historic stagecoach stop near the main crossroads.

To get to my next photo ops, I had to travel a little ways in Newton County.  Pitts Chapel Road is a beautiful road that connects Jasper and Newton Counties.  However, I forgot about the recent bridge repair work.

I've encountered bridges that were out during rides a number of times before.  For once I was able to walk across instead of having to wade across the creek!

The entrance to Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center is in Newton County, but the facilities lie in Jasper County.

The Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center has so many wonderful amenities - hiking, fishing, dove fields, horseback riding, etc.  One of my favorite things is the free classes offered to the public.  I've taken a bunch of them over the years, e.g., reptiles, migratory birds, edible plants, astronomy, wilderness survival, and - one of my favorites! - frogging by ear.

I rode a few more miles southward on Highway 11 to Dow's Pulpit.  Robert and I have always called this Preaching Rock.

It's right alongside the highway.  I don't know that I had ever stopped to read the inscription.  After my ride, I read a bit online about Lorenzo Dow.  He sounds like he was quite an interesting character.  I don't know that I would have agreed with him on everything theologically, but I do like his quote on the plaque:

Upon the great journey of life, eternity is the country to which all are traveling. - Dow's "Road to Peace"

I took a slightly roundabout route as I headed south to Monticello, staying on safer county roads.  When I got back to downtown Monticello, I stopped to get a photo of this wonderfully wacky mural on the side of the Big Chic building.

Murals were a common form of advertising in the late 19th and early 20th century.  I'm so glad this one was restored a few years ago.  The Monticello Downtown Development Authority secured a grant through the Georgia Grassroots Art Program, researched the original colors, and found an artist to complete the restoration.

I stopped by The Vanilla Bean on the square for a celebratory snack at the end of my Local Landmarks Ride.  They have the best pastries.  I would have been happy with just about anything they offer, but I noticed one piece of cake already individually boxed.  The cashier informed me that it was hummingbird cake - perfect!  I got it to go and enjoyed it while sitting on a bench on the square.

If you're wondering what to do during virus isolation, get out and ride your bicycle.  Explore your home (safely) and enjoy all it has to offer.  Ride on!

Roni Riding

COVID-19 has changed the world for all of us.  I remember those who have succumbed and those on the front lines: medical professionals, grocery workers, truckers, etc.  I pray that the virus will be contained as soon as possible, a vaccine will be developed quickly, and we all can recover physically, emotionally, and economically.

In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to address the problem (social distancing, washing my hands frequently, etc.) and not worrying because worrying doesn't help.  I can't teach classes, but I'm trying to maintain my other sources of income, which, thankfully, are mostly Internet based.  Although I'm not a Jordan Engineering employee, my physical office is located there.  The other office workers at Jordan Engineering have started working from home, but Robert and I are still going to the office.  He and I are a roni unit regardless, so we might as well go to the office where we can get more work done.

By the way, I've taken to calling it the roni because of the comic strip Tiny Snek.

Thankfully, no.  Let's keep it that way.

One thing I'm particularly grateful for is that I can keep riding!  Although I miss my Tuesday Worlds cyclopeeps and my rando buddies, I still can ride lots, either solo or with Robert.


Ice Cream Ride

Last Saturday, March 21 was supposed to be the Fried Clay 200K.  It had to be postponed, and so I devised my own, alternate ride for the day.  I did a longish road ride with a stop for ice cream at the end.  Best of all, Robert joined me - it was a date!

We were riding down Hillsboro Road in Putnam County and saw another cyclist in front of us.  Lo and behold, it was my buddy Graham!

Graham and his friend Jason had planned to do the 420K option on the Fried Clay.  Although both the 200K and the 420K were postponed, Jason decided to ride the 420K anyway by himself.  He had started the previous evening at 8:00 PM, as originally intended for the event, and ridden through the night.  Graham had headed out early Saturday morning in the opposite direction.  When he met Jason, he was going to ride the remainder with him.  It was fun to chat with Graham for a few minutes.

Robert and I continued on our road ride.  At first I had thought about riding through the Dairy Queen drive-through, but earlier that day I saw a Facebook post that Edge'ys on the square would be open for curbside service that afternoon.  They specialize in ice cream - time for a slight (and delicious!) change in plans.

And, of course, nothing completes an ice cream outing like a leg lamp.

Oconee National Forest MTB

The next morning Robert and I went to MTB church in the Oconee National Forest in south Jasper County.  He let me set the pace, and I'm happy to report that I felt pretty comfortable overall on my mountain bike.  I'm still not ready for anything too technical, but I'm doing pretty well with the more flowing trails.  It was such a beautiful early spring morning.

Atamasco lilies

Native azalea

Mayapples (They look like frog umbrellas!)

Blue paint marks the trail.

Long Branch

Crossing Long Branch

Sitting a spell at Waterfall Creek

Part of an old moonshine still

Trifoliate orange

Sneaky snake (cousin to Tiny Snek).  Actually, it's a non-venomous rat snake.  Robert got a long stick and moved it off the road so it wouldn't get run over.

PWR

Yesterday I rode to the Piedmont Wildlife Refuge (PWR).  The route was mostly dirt/gravel roads.  The PWR is one of my favorite places to ride, and I'm so glad it's still accessible during these times.

The PWR is managed for red cockaded woodpecker habitat.  It's an endangered species that prefers old pine trees with little underbrush.

The understory dogwood trees are in full bloom.

One of the few times I had to dismount.  I'm not coordinated enough to ride through the small gaps on either side of the sign.

One of the tools for managing red cockaded woodpecker habitat is prescribed burning.  Note flames on the right and smoke to the left of that.

Natural Rock Crossing.  The flow was moderate this day.  I walked my bicycle across - no arse busting for me!

River Road next to the Ocmulgee River

New Hope Church Road, a county dirt road.  I love the spring green everywhere.

I'm grateful for country churches with outdoor water spigots.

I had a really great roni ride this past Saturday, too, but I'll save that for the next report.

The Rides of March

Both personally and globally, it's been quite a month.  I've had several great rides the last few weeks but haven't had a chance to write about them.  Today is a quiet day, and so I'll combine them all into the Rides of March.

Team Camp

Our Georgia Neuro team had its annual camp February 28 - March 1.  Originally, we were going to an Airbnb in east Alabama, just over the Georgia state line.  The owners had to cancel shortly before our planned date, and so we had to find another location pronto.  Robert found another Airbnb on the opposite side of the state, near Hartwell, Georgia.

Cal was pretty psyched about the alternate locale because he knew of a great nearby mountain bike course at Paynes Creek.  Those of us who could get off work early on Friday met up for a little shredding.

I actually had a good time because the trails weren't highly technical and allowed me to work on my basic mountain bike skills.

Everyone else arrived in time to go to dinner in Hartwell that evening.  We fueled up for our main ride of the weekend, a 75-mile road ride the next morning.

I was somewhat familiar with some of the roads in this part of the state from randonneuring.  Before camp, I had Robert tweak the Saturday route to go by the Georgia Guidestones, an unusual landmark.  It consists of five large granite slabs with a granite capstone.  Four of the slabs radiate from a center slab and have instructions for living peaceably on Earth.  Each side of the four outer slabs is written in a different language: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.  Each side of the capstone has a shorter message in an ancient language: Babylonian cuneiform, classical Greek, Sanskrit, and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.  The Guidestones also have several astronomical features relating to the celestial pole and the traverse of the sun.

The Guidestones were erected in 1980, but their author is unknown.  As I expected, some of my teammates didn't know that the Guidestones exist.

The day got windier, which made drafting a lot harder.  Predictably, the guys dropped me.  I rode my best and was surprised to discover that I showed up back at the Airbnb only a few minutes after the guys.  All of us were battered and windburned.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying a delicious dinner that Allen and Jan prepared for us.

Our Airbnb was on Hartwell Lake.  It had a representation of the lake on the wall that gave some interesting facts about the lake.  It was built in the 1950s and is about 180 feet deep, definitely deeper than the lakes near my home.

I thought I remembered that Hart County is the only one of Georgia's 159 counties that is named for a woman.  That's correct - it was named for Nancy Hart, renowned for fending off Tory soldiers during the Revolutionary War when Georgia was a British colony.  I have several plates that depict scenes from Georgia history, including the one with Nancy Hart.

We had to check out of the Airbnb by 10:00 AM the next morning.  That didn't give us enough time to ride again as well as take showers, and so we all headed home after breakfast.  It wasn't one of our more elaborate team camps, but I enjoyed being with everyone.


Bridge to Bridge

For several months Robert had been planning a single-track ride from Juliette to the Sac o' Suds, which he named Bridge to Bridge.  He intended it as kind of a showcase of all the work he's been doing to restore trails in the Oconee National Forest in south Jasper County.

The Ocmulgee River, adjacent to the national forest in our county, sometimes floods.  It can be two to three years between flooding events, but the river has overtopped its banks five times this year since January 1!  Bridge to Bridge originally was scheduled for February, but Robert had to postpone it to March 7.  Even then, he wasn't sure he could host it because the river flooded yet again the first week of March.  Fortunately, it receded enough that he still could hold the ride in a rerouted version.  The coolest change to the route is that Robert installed zip lines across three creek crossings.

I didn't plan to do the ride because my mountain bike skills aren't up to snuff to keep up with the guys.  More importantly, I had to get ready for the state MATHCOUNTS competition on Monday.  Still, I wanted to get close to at least some of the action.  So, I took my greyhounds for a short hike to the first zip line to watch the guys cross.

Can you believe I dropped my phone right before I got to the zip line?  Eventually, I found my phone but not in time to record the crossing.  So, I had to look at the guys' pictures after the fact.  Still, it's easy to see how much fun they had playing in the woods all day on their bikes.

International Women's Day Ride/Recon Jasper Hike

I spent Saturday finishing getting ready for the state MATHCOUNTS competition because I had a full Sunday: a ride for International Women's Day and a community-wide Recon Jasper hike that Robert had planned for that afternoon.  Additionally, several friends from out of town planned to come for the hike.  We decided to have dinner at Robert's and my house after the hike because no restaurants are open in Monticello in Sunday evening.  Therefore, I was also scrambling to clean house and cook!  (Why do I over-schedule myself so...)

I got up before sunrise to finish cleaning house, especially jolly because I lost an hour overnight because of the time change.  (I'm not complaining, though, because I love Daylight Saving Time!)  Later that morning, I headed out for my International Women's Day bike ride.  This was an organized virtual event in which participants rode a local route of 25, 50, or 100 km.  I had wanted to ride 100 km, but I only had time for 50.  (Ha! Typical of a busy woman.)  I did my Rabbit Skip loop, which is 31 miles long, or exactly 50 km.  Perfect!  Also, it had been a while since I had done this enjoyable route.  I submitted my Strava file to the ride organizer.  I look forward to receiving my International Women's Day Bike Ride patch in the mail.

After a quick shower and lunch, Robert and I headed back down to the Oconee Forest trails to greet our fellow hikers.  About 20 of us hiked nearly six miles on a beautiful late winter afternoon.

Sediment left on these turkey tail mushrooms by the receding floodwaters

My friend Katherine

My friends Tyson and Jehan

Also, it was so worth it to have my friends over for dinner.  It was a great excuse to clean house.  More importantly, it was wonderful to spend time with them.

Katherine, me, and Kathleen (not pictured - Susan)

Tuesday Worlds

We're back on Daylight Saving Time - woo hoo!  That means it's time for another season of Tuesday Worlds.  A nice, big crowd showed up for the first ride of the season.

Mt. Zion Church, which graciously lets us use their parking lot, welcomed us all back with goodie bags full of granola bars, fruit, and other treats.  They are very generous to us, and we all greatly appreciate them.


Athens-Augusta-Athens 400K

Yesterday I did the Athens-Augusta-Athens 400K brevet.  I wasn't really jonesin' to do a brevet that long, but that was the only one on the Georgia calendar this month.  Oh, well - it was also good to remember what it's like to do a longer brevet because I hope to do a 1000K  at the end of April.  (The only reason I need to do a 1000K is to meet all the requirements of a particular randonneuring award - I'm like a magpie collecting shiny trinkets.)

I prepared myself mentally for about 18 hours in the saddle and packed my bicycle and gear on Friday night.  Unfortunately, I didn't sleep too well.  I hoped that wouldn't come back to haunt me too much during the ride.

Eight of us gathered for the brevet.  I rode the entire time with David B., Dick, Graham, Ian, and Jim.  A 400K is never easy, but between my great companions and good weather, it was about as enjoyable as I could hope for.  We all kept each other going.

Yesterday was also Pi Day!  (3/14)  Therefore, I was on a quest to find pi(e) somewhere along the ride.  We had an open control at a shopping center at the turnaround point.  Graham, Ian, and I went to Publix while the others went to Subway.  I found some pi(e)!

They had several types of pi(e), not just apple.  I got a peach pi(e) and shared it with Graham and Ian.

Usually, I switch from my contacts to glasses in the later hours of a long a brevet.  However, yesterday morning my eyes started hurting so much that I went ahead and put my glasses on then.  I suspected that the pine pollen count was high even though we didn't see the ubiquitous yellow coating that will appear any day now.

Sure enough, at our lunch stop we confirmed that it's pine pollen season.  Ian had pollen streaks from the air vents in his helmet, and Graham had pollen raccoon eyes.

Early in the afternoon before we got to Augusta, I went through a stretch where I felt sleepy.  (Amazingly, that was the worst of it, not even as bad as the final hours of the brevet.)  I got a Coke at one of the controls.  Additionally, I composed some haiku to help keep myself awake:

Coronavirus
All y'all stay the hell away
An introvert's dream

That mean ol' virus
Cancelled this year's festival
But not the blossoms

That second haiku is a reference to the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival :(  I composed several more haiku following our lunch stop in Augusta:

Need pi(e) for Pi Day
Convenience stores are pi(e)-less
Yea!  Publix comes through

Intricate design
Adapt henna for the South
Use pollen instead

We finished at 12:23 AM for a total time of 18 hours and 23 minutes.  That's about what I'd hoped for.  I composed one final haiku:

Rode 400K
Athens-Augusta-Athens
My buttocks are tired


Fried Clay

Next weekend was supposed to be the Fried Clay 200K (and 420K, but no way I'd do that - it would be hard enough on pavement, never mind off-road!)  Today we got word that Pat, the organizer, is postponing it due to the coronovirus.  I'm disappointed but not surprised.  It's such an uncertain time.  I hope that we can get back to a more normal routine sooner rather than later.

Pat plans to reschedule the Fried Clay for late May or early June.  I hope it works out.  It's already been a mixed up racing season.  The organizer of the Middle Georgia Epic cancelled that event last month for personal reasons.  Our Georgia Neuro cycling team requirements are to do at least five races a year.  The Middle Georgia Epic and the Fried Clay were going to be two of my five.  I think I can work around these changes easily enough.  Regardless, particularly with the need for social distancing, I'll be spending a lot of time on the bike.