Dalhonega

Life at the Hostel here is good, free breakfast, comfy beds, and new company every single night! Hikers pass through here as they start their [ambitious] trip all the way along the Appalachian trail (which was apparently started by blacks as they fled north during the slavery times). I have this general theory (which has yet to be disproved) that outdoors people are just nice people in general, which seems to be true no matter where in the world you are.


The riding here is fantastic, mountain passes/climbs are referred to as "gaps" here, they will take up to 40 minutes to get up, and have varying grades. Andrew (one of my 2 travel partners) is loving it. First time up in the mountains, and improving at an alarming rate, we are going up these mountains, and screaming down the other side, becoming more confident with each "gap".


The most notable gap of the trip is the "Brasstown Bald" climb (see below for pictures and stats). When I got almost to the top I tried to get ten 30sec as *hard as possible* intervals with 1:30 rest, but promptly broke my chain. after fixing my now super short chain, the last one of us was up and we just had to make the rest of the ascent to the very tip top. I went up, got the car keys, went back down for camera and beers, and then we had a great time at the lookout station at the highest point in Georgia.

Rolling Rocks up top!

Crit racing on the deck!

We got over to the local bike shop Dalhonega Wheelworks  http://www.wheelworksga.com/ to check it out and met a couple of pretty interesting guys. The owner of the shop is John, an ex pro mountain biker/cat1 road racer who runs a shop now, coordinating rides, events, and getting people stoked on bikes. I got in there and heard about a 100km cyclocross race that's going on Saturday. My first thought was "WHY would anyone punish themselves on a cyclocross bike, in the mountains, with over 6000 feet of elevation gain (roughly 2km), this early in the season-or ever?". John quickly made me aware that he wanted me to do it, I told him my brain injury story, and then he REALLY wanted me to do it, I said maybe-which meant no.