3 State 3 Mountain, May 1, 2010

This was my 2nd attempt at completing this ride. In 2009, Ron and I turned around after the first mountain pass called Suck Creek,due to severe weather. It was raining hard, lightening and thundering and watching the number of riders going down the 1st mountain while climbing up it along with the stories of riders sliding off their bikes due to the volume of water going over the road on the other side convinced us to turn around and go back to the hotel.

The forecast this year was looking bad all week and didn't really change when we got to Chattanooga. 40-60% chance of thunderstorms, heavy rain and temps in the 80's. Nashville, a scant 120 miles to the West, ended up with something like 14" of rain during the ride (yes, that's a fourteen). But, while the skies looked threatening a few times, we didn't get a drop of rain. I suppose the hillbilly God's were making up for the past 2 years when there was copious amounts of rain for everyone. We guessed that it would rain by 3pm so we'd need to finish before then to stay dry. While this turned out to be a non-factor, it was a good motivator. Descending Lookout Mountain in the rain is just plain crazy and not something I wanted to do.

I was in much better shape this year for this very hilly ride. I made it up Suck Creek right behind Lige with no problems. The descent was a lot of fun and reminded me of the twisting downhills along the Costa Brava back in March. We hit a bit of wind along the large reservoir but the clouds helped keep the temps down along the the ride before we got to Sand Mountain. The road leading up to Sand Mountain is appropriately called the "Goat Road". It was very bumpy and with lots of road kill on the roads.

Sand Mountain was a tough climb. I never walked any of it but I did stop twice to catch my breath. Mark S. caught up with me about half way up and he proceeded to pass me. There were several steep switchbacks but I finally made it to the top and continued riding towards the sag stop. The views at the top were breath-taking and I eventually caught up with Ron and we stopped to take a few pictures. At the rest stop, I was feeling very fatigued and took a longer break than Ron so I was on my own at this point. Unfortunately, I did not review my route map and proceeded to go the wrong direction from the stop. I ended up riding about 3 miles over several smaller hills before realizing I needed to turn around. As a result I ended up adding 6 miles to my ride before turning on the correct road.

A lady on a trike rode up next to me and told me I was in last place. I proceeded to tell her why and decided that I was not going to stay in that spot by the finish. I ended up riding over 30 miles non-stop and passsed a bunch of riders along the way before I got to the sag stop below Burkhalter Rd. Mark had warned me about a steep little climb before the sag stop and when I got to it, I just hunkered down and slowly got to the top of it. There was a very strong and fit looking rider about 50 yards ahead of me at the bottom of this climb and somehow, I actually passed him on this climb. It had to be pretty demoralizing for him to see this big goliath of a rider cruising by up that hill.
Unfortunately, because of the pace and length of riding before stopping, I started to develop some severe hamstring and calf cramps by the time I got to the sag stop. I tried to stretch them out and rested a bit but they wouldn't stop so I asked if a sag driver could take me to the finish. There was another lady biker who was feeling pretty sick who also hitched a ride. We drove up Burkhalter Gap Rd and saw Ron and Mark climbing the mountain. At the top I changed my mind and decided to ride the rest of the route. You can imagine the surprise in their eyes to see me already at the top. I took a lot of grief by hitching a truck ride to the top but my legs would never have survived that climb.
Ron and I rode together for most of the way into Chattanooga. I ended up with like 103 total miles due to my error at the sag stop after Sand Mountain. The ride down Lookout Mountain was exciting but unfortunately I had to take it slower than I wanted to because it started drizzling along the way.
All in all, this was a great ride with scenic views, lots of climbing and many friendly riders along the way. And most importantly, I was not last !!!