Tour de Tugaloo

On Saturday, Vicky, Sean and I got up very early and drove to Tugaloo, Georgia, for their annual bike ride ("early" = 4:30 a.m.) 

Sean had done the ride once before, but on his mountain bike--leading several other riders to ask him if he was crazy.  (it wasn't exactly phrased that way, but it is a family blog so we will leave it at that).

The ride is for a non-profit group that is attempting to purchase and restore some of the original countryside.  One of the things we like about organized rides is that it is a fun way of donating to worthwhile charities and causes.

The ride is beautiful.

Pretty cold in the morning, so we were bundled in layers.

We each got TWO shirts.  Included with registration (plus a package of chamois butt'r, trail mix, first aid kit, etc.)  You get a lot for the price here.

 

The first rest stop was at an historic stage-coach inn.  Fanciest rest stop we have ever had.

 Over the course of the ride, layers were removed.

 Beautiful fall colors.  Best weekend of the year, I'm sure.  Mile after mile of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens. 

 One of many interesting structures along the way.  One sees the full range of homes.

We crossed the river into South Carolina.  This is the first state that Vicky and I have both visited for the first time.  Frankly, it looked a lot like Georgia.

 When we entered South Carolina I serenaded Vicky with "Nothing could be fine-a than to be in (South) Carolina in the m-o-o-o-orning."  I was sure the other riders were so pleased that when we re-entered Georgia I serenaded her again--this time with "Georgia, Georgia......just an old sweet song."

Second rest stop.

 

After the second rest stop, the ride is a 6 mile out and back on a beautiful road (if by "beautiful" one means "hilly").  We have not done hills for about two months, and unfortunately for us, when we don't ride we can lose our conditioning quickly.

On the map it appears as if you can ride out on the 6 miles, and then just cross the dam and be back at the starting point.  That would have made about 30 miles for the day, and we thought that was sufficient to have enjoyed the ride and do something for our legs.

However, no such luck.  It was a dead end.  You could throw a rock across the river and see the road leading to the starting point, but I had forgotten to pack my Speedo so we couldn't swim it.

Turns out it was good luck, not bad.  We enjoyed the ride back, despite its hills, and were glad we had done the 40 miles.  Our original plan was to do the metric century (62 miles), but we would have needed more time (we needed to get back because Sean and Emily had an evening engagement).

After the ride:

Loading the bikes for the ride home.  The Yakima brackets work as designed.  We needed brackets and extra gear because, of course, when we travel, we don't bring along the tailgate.

Here is a comparison of the elevation profil that was published by the sponsors, and the one we obtained.

 

This looks pretty mild, doesn't it? 

Here is ours:

What can be seen is that the profile on the website is "smoother," omitting a lot of the smaller hills. The ride was actually comparable to a Whidbey Island one for the same distance.  A great, short workout.  I hope we can come back some day and do the metric century, assuming we don't have a long lay-off before we get here like we did this time.

We wanted to do a ride in Sean's home state, and do a ride with him.  It is a very well organized ride, with friendly staff and several SAG vehicles.  Although there are no shoulders (anywhere, not even a single mile with them), there isn't much traffic and drivers were very considerate.  It felt like a safe route.

We are so glad we did it.  We can now say we have ridden on both coasts!