Georgia/Tennessee Update

So I am now in Dawson Georgia located in the Foothills of the North Georgia mountains. I went out for a 75km recovery ride here yesterday following a route recommended by a local bike shop. The route was beautiful and entirely on quiet country roads. Every road has rolling hills here and twists and turns constantly through valleys and along ridges. Its always interesting.
Monday I did a 110km ride starting in Gatlinburg Tennessee. It rained the night before, so the roads were wet, and the parkway up Newfound Gap was closed due to snow and ice (I wanted to finish my ride on top of the 1500m summit). I did a loop called Cades Cove that is the ultimate road for cycling and is actually closed to cars in during summer mornings so cyclists can take it all in. The road followed a creek through a valley and had huge cliffs and rocks on both sides. You have to climb 400-500m in 5km to get over the first hill, then it was all downhill for 20km. From there it was all uphill to Cades Cove for 20km. I felt up my bottles then turned back hoping the Parkway would be open so I could finish atop the gap. My speed was between 40-50km/h on the down hills and 20-30km/h on the up hills. When I got back down to the entrance of Smokey Mountains National Park and saw that the parkway was open, I called my dad to say I was meeting him at the top rather than at our hotel in Pigeon Forge. We planned to go this way to Georgia anyways, so it worked out perfectly.

The climb was about 20km long averaging between 4-5% gradient. I did it the day before and averaged 20km/h up it. I found it pretty easy because it never got steep and had short flats for recovery, but I was still hurting all over from the effort. I was thinking it would be harder to breath near the top being 1500m high (only 300m lower than Mont Ventoux), but that was not the case at all. I hammered up the last pitch breathing calmly and felling relaxed. The decent was not fun at all because the roads were wet and salty and I was freezing. I had to pull over about 5 times to stop shivering. Had it been warmer and dry, I would have easily coasted down at 60km/h for the full 20km. It didn't seem much colder at the top, but you could tell it was by how much snow there was up there. Half way up the snow banks appeared, and by the top the were about 4ft high.

I was happy to not have to descend the mountain again on Monday. With about 1000m of climbing in the legs already I knew I would not be averaging 20km/h up it, but I didn't allow myself to use my 27t cog and made it up in 1hr 15mins with an average speed of 16km/h. I was pretty cooked halfway up, but I new what was coming, told myself it was easy and just powered along. this road was busy and had no shoulder, but motorists were great and passed safely. Some even cheered me on, and a bunch of people congratulated me at the top. It was a good feeling. My parents arrived a few minutes after I got to the top, we snapped some flicks then headed packed my bike to head to Georgia. The top of this Gap was the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina. There is a road that goes along the line to the top of Clingmans Dome (2050m), but it is closed in the winter, so unfortunately I could not climb it.

Some pics from the top

Today I wanted to drive up to Blairsville and ride the final stage of the 2008 Tour De Georgia, which finished atop Brasstown Bald. With snow in the forecast for the higher elevations, I am postponing this ride a day and riding around here again instead. I hope to do that route twice while here because Brasstown Bald is an intense climb with an average Gradient of 9% and two pitches at 25%. You also have to get over Hogpen Gap along the way; another steep one. Its chilly today, tomorrow looks to be the same but sunny, then Its supposed to warm up into the 50's for the weekend.