| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
47.52 miles
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Altitude Gain:
3,988 ft
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Avg Speed:
14.47 mph
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Route:
Cheaha Mountain
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Avg Grade: 135 %
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Max Grade: 162 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Steep
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 60F NE wind @ 8 mph |
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Today was a mountain day with an ascent of in Cheaha State Park and through Taladaga National Forest. Felt tired as I pedaled the first ten mile flat section to the park and would occasionally see some floating black spots and thought it might be a long day. I also noticed that there was a large white mushroom cloud over the mountains generally in the area I thought I would be climbing in. So then it occurred to me it might be a short day if the forest was in fact on fire. The second section is a ten mile climb with a couple of breaks in the middle. It is a nice twisting climb on the western approach a mostly a five percent grade broken up with a half dozen twelve to fifteen percent corners. I entered the wood smoke cloud near the bottom and noticed that the people I encountered did not seem to concerned with the smoke or potential wildfire. Of course Alabama is a free state and nobody would probably try to stop me from keep going if I was I really was stupid enough to ride my bike through a forest fire. Climbing went fairly well though I went into the climb fresh as I really had milked the first ten miles. Smoke got thicker as I continued to climb and burned areas were visible and still smoldering on the roadside. After nine miles of climbing I reached the lower section of the state park and had risen above the burning section that was visible to my south. The last mile and a half of the climb up the mountain is pretty much a constant eight to ten percent to the crest and it wasn't too bad today. The hardest part of the ride is the last fifteen miles of course. Although it is mostly screaming highway descent it is broken up with several fifteen to twenty percent grade walls. My back was really screaming after a few of those. One would think that you could coast up several of the rises but the bike really sheds speed quickly on a twenty percent climb. Body hurt as I finished the ride and coasted quite a bit on the final sections. I did check out the forest fire when I got back and found out it was a planned controlled burn bythe forest service.
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