1/19/15 9:03 PM

EDIT: Accidentally put MS in the subject line originally...focused more on Alabama & TN.


Ended up being scheduled to work back to back weekends in Alabama in mid March. First weekend in Birmingham and the next weekend in Tuscaloosa. Planning on staying down in the general area between the two weekends which means I can schedule a mini training camp of riding and running from Sunday through Thursday.

So - I'm fairly open to where I spend time and want to pick locations based on riding. Open to pretty much everything between Nashville & the Gulf. :) Need to keep weather in mind somewhat...

One idea on the radar is to ride the Chief Ladiga & Silver Comet trail from Alabama to ATL and back over a couple days. I have a friend in ATL so I can crash there before riding back.

http://silvercometmap.com/chief-ladiga-trail-map/

Another option is to ride some of the Natchez Trace....

Any other areas I should look into before trying to map out a gameplan?

Last edited by Smunderdog on 1/20/15 3:40 PM; edited 1 time in total

1/19/15 10:31 PM

"Another option is to ride some of the Natchez Trace"

I am more in tune with the north section. But I will say this, cars speed limit, care of bikes by cars was great. One thing notable is that it is all groomed and maintained the same mile after mile and it can get uneventful visually pretty quick.

If you get up into NashVegas, the Grand Fondo bike shop west side getting outer NashV has good riders and routes.

I used to ride w/harpeth bike club. You could see online if they have anything going south and beyond, they may. Again, good riders, routes, etc etc...

1/21/15 8:13 AM

Good to know about Grand Fondo - might have a place on that side of town that could be used as a base camp for a few days. And the River Ride routes on the Harpeth website might be good options too.

1/21/15 9:14 AM

Just a note: you may encounter loose dogs somewhat frequently... Daily occurrence on my riding in the Franklin area. Which is the area you may have seen on the Harpeth Site/rides, Parker Branch ride area and south was my domain.

Here in OR for example, I have had a few dog issues in a few years. Folks in the south sure look at pet ownership in a certain way... ;)

The green circle in the pic below shows where 90% of my riding was, beautiful country rolling. I lived in Fairview. That winding S/SW road approx the middle of the circle to the left bottom corner is the Natchez Trace. I think North of 840 the speed limit is 40 max.


<img src="http://coupekiss.host-ed.me/images/ttf/37064-biking.jpg" >

1/21/15 12:18 PM

Do you mtb as well or road only? Alabama has some great trails in and around Birmingham. Oak Mtn State Park has been an IMBA Epic trail system for quite some time, and the trails up at Coldwater Mountain outside of Anniston are not to be missed. There is also other less known trails around there (Tannehill State Park, Lake Lurleen) that are worth it as well.

The trip on the Silver Comet is a nice one, and very easy to manage.

If you are looking for other ride ideas, and happen to be on Facebook, check out the Birmingham Ride Finder group. They can be another excellent resource for what is going on in AL while you are in town.

1/21/15 12:31 PM

I mostly stick to the roads because I don't own a mtn bike...but good to know about those trails since I'll be doing some running on this trip too. Assuming those trails are open to runners/hikers. I'll look into them.

1/21/15 1:20 PM

I assumed he meant road, but on the map there, in Fairview you can see the green/Park under the 'i' in Fairview. 800 acres with a 4.5 mile perimeter off road thru brooks and woods.

The trail head was one mile from my house. And they would close the trails in a minute when it rained. Thus folks that drove out from closer to Nashville would get pissed and just not come back much.

I used to love having it to myself most times... ;)

1/21/15 2:47 PM

Went to this camp south of Montgomery AL for a couple of years. Not sure if the camp or its schedule works for you. The roads and riding down there were very pleasant. No killer climbs, well maintained and low traffic. Great early season miles.

http://www.alabamacyclingcamp.com/

A quick peek at the website shows they have some route maps available.

2/10/15 10:38 AM

Steve - thanks for reminding me of that link...I had run across it awhile back and saw they had route maps. At this point it appears that I won't be spending any riding days in AL...all my AL time will be the days I'm working track meets and I'll only be able to get runs in on those days. Because of this my trip on the Silver Comet is not an option this time around either...next time!

Sparky - looks like I'll be spending 4 riding days right in your old neck of the woods. 2 rides will originate from the Bellevue area from my buddy's condo. The other 2 ride starting locations are TBD as I need to find a different place to stay on the nights the condo isn't available.

I'm looking at some AirBnb options in Franklin. If I stay there and start 2 rides from there - I assume I can come up with routes that don't have me riding the same roads I'd be riding from Bellevue?

At the moment I'm guessing that I'll be riding 40-80 miles each day. Not opposed to some overlap, but obviously like to cover new ground each day as much as possible. Will definitely take advantage of the Trace...but don't want to do out/backs so I need to look into where I can peel off the Trace and creat some loops with other N/S roads.

2/10/15 12:49 PM

I plotted 40 miler for you you might enjoy.

http://www.toporoute.com/cgi-bin/bicycle.cgi?routeKey=FDLGANNSHJAWBAV&calls=setNormalView,clearMetric,clearFollowRoad,setRouteLocked

You can ride from Fondo, or park either behind Loveless. Or there are a few spots early on the trace you park/start from. The Trace start from 100 is a decent hill soon in, be warmed up I suggest. We used to spin a little extra from the start so not to hit that hill before warmed...

On that link choose action and plot elevation for lay of the land. 300 and 500' dips on the route, but 5 miles to go down and 5 miles to go back up is quite bearable, and does not slow you up much. 6 mile for the 600' [12 top to top]

I'd do that counter clockwise, the jaunt of 96 east has wide shoulder and only short. By that I mean South on Trace to pinewood, then no on pinewood/46 to Parkers branch then west segment. 46/pinewood in Leipers Fork has a place called Elmers with an Andy of Mayberry cop car parked near by for sundries.

The jaunt on 46 when you come off the Natchez not so accommodating, but right time of day should be cool. The west segment is pure county roads and some moderate hills here and there and was one of my fav quiet jaunts.

2/15/15 7:10 PM

Did the weather co-operate for your jaunts ??


This is for the zip/city we lived, Fairview. To the left of the circle of the above map

Smokes! We feel so lucky, we hiked yesterday and today in somewhat light gear. Today popped 60^, but we were on top of a Butte and the wind was howling!

I wish I could send some to all of you easterners to ride in...

2/15/15 8:37 PM

Trip is next month. :)

2/15/15 9:02 PM

Right, mid march.. Sorry...

3/25/15 6:42 AM

Back from my spring training trip sandwiched between the two NCAA track meets I was working down in AL.

Ended up staying in Franklin TN for 2 nights and then just a few miles north of that on the SW corner of Nashville for 4 more.

Hooked up with the Harpeth Cycling Club on Sunday morning for their "Pancake Ride" which is actually false advertising as the ride has morphed a bit since it was started and pancakes at the mid ride stop aren't the focus anymore. Didn't matter tho' - introduced ourselves to the first guy we rode up on in the parking lot who happened to be the club's former president. Recently retired, we rode with him that morning for an easy 40 or so with 1900' of climbing and then he offered to take us out the next morning as well.

We requested a "flatish" route and ended up doing 62 in perfect weather. The following day his Tuesday/Thursday retiree cycling group was getting together for a St. Patty's Day easy ride and then a massive lunch/party at one of their homes afterwards...which of course he invited us to...that was a 32 miler followed by massive amounts of corned beef, salads, other sides and dessert as well as some carb loading beverages.

So 3 days in unfamiliar riding territory and we hadn't had to think one bit about where to ride because we had been adopted - awesome.

Last day we went out on our own and rode 60 with the most climbing we had done on any one day - nearly 4800'.

Coming from pancake flat Indiana and considering it was the first riding of any type I had done all year, I was pretty happy with 195 miles over 4 days with 11,000' climbing. This area is great for riding - plenty of rolling terrain, smooth asphalt and any climbs are fairly short as these foothills only go 300' high from the valleys to the peaks.

For Sparky's benefit - some of the roads where we hit climbs were Parker Branch, Old 96 (coming east towards Leiper's Fork), the few hills on the Trace coming north from 840, Still House Hollow Rd, Poplar Creek Road heading west from Bellevue and McCrory heading north from Loveless Cafe.

Of course we also had to take the ramp off the trace down to get the below view of the bridge and snap a photo..so I guess we also climbed back up that hill too. :)

Brian - I also snuck down to Oak Mtn State Park for a run while I was in Bham. Made the mistake of parking at the south trailhead and ran up the mountain to check out the waterfall...was quite a slog up the hill! Totally see what you are saying about the mtn bike trail system - looked awesome. Next time I'll drive up to the waterfall parking area and run laterally on the mountain to get a longer run in and minimize the "straight up the mountain" parts of the trail system.

3/25/15 9:46 AM

It is nice riding out on the country roads in the area. The bridge over 96 on the Trace is cool, was in easy reach by bike from my house. Between bike and car I must have went over and under it several hundreds of times.

Glad you got some weather and miles...

3/25/15 6:26 PM

Oak Mtn. State park is a gem with some really good hiking trails, and some fabulous mtb trails. The folks of BUMP (local mtb club) have been amazing stewards for the trails that they have made at the park.

What route did you take to the falls? Did you take the road up or use the trails?

I used to know almost every inch of the Peavine Falls Trail at the park (parked in the lot by the boat launch before you got to the South Trailhead). When my wife and I were preparing for a trip in Peru, that trail had the largest elevation gain over the shortest distance of the trails in the park. We used to hike it back and forth multiple times each trip to try and make sure we were ready for the real mountains when we got to Peru.

If you are ever in B'ham again, and can't make it out to OMSP, then give Red Mtn Park a try. I was on their volunteer board, and they have some great trails for running. Just outside of downtown, but still within city limits, it's a great history site as well, with a number of the old iron mines still visible on the park property.

3/26/15 6:47 AM

Now you tell me Brian! :) My route on the trails sounds very similar to what you guys would do...pretty sure this is what I did:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6565395

I can't really call what I was doing on some parts "running." :) Next time I'll be parking up at the Falls lot and running "horizontally" on the trails. :)

Very likely I'll be back in Bham again...they have invested in a world class indoor facility that has a hydraulically banked 200m track and all the bells and whistles that the NCAA and USATF look for when awarding championship meets. Will definitely check out Red Mtn as it is quite a bit closer to downtown.

I also did an easy urban run from the convention center area down to UAB and back - really enjoyed what they are doing at Railroad Park...