Saturday, October 18, 2008

Day 35: Townsend, TN to Cherokee, TN – October 18, 2008


Group 2008 10 18_2414, originally uploaded by rhanke.

Miles: 55 Miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 56 minutes
Avg. Speed: 14.1 Mph
Total Climbing: 6,100 feet
Work: 2376 kJ

Today we said goodbye to Tennessee as we entered North Carolina. Our ride took us on a beautiful gradual climb winding along the Little River for 13 miles. Next up was another 13 mile climb to the Newfound Gap at 5048 feet. Since today was Saturday we had a ton of cars also driving the Smoky Mountains to check out the changing colors of the trees. As we have found along our trip, 99 percent of the drives are kind but once and awhile a bozo appears.

As we climbed the temperature started to drop. It was only about 50 degrees we left Townsend and about half way up we ran into thick fog with visibility sometimes down to 30 feet. I was climbing up with Hollywood but my feet started to get cold and I could not keep up his pace. I had to stop at the van and put on booties. Hollywood never stopped since we didn’t want to get cold. I was never able to catch back up to him but at least my feet were warm. Captain reported that it was 37 degrees at the top.

The van had pulled up at the top and we all climbed into it to warm up before descending. Because of the fog we were not able to take any photos. Newfound gap is also the border to North Carolina so we not even able to take our usual “Welcome Sign” photo.

After warming up, adding another layer and putting on long finger gloves we started the 10 mile decent to Cherokee. About half way down we finally escaped the fog and were able to take in the fall colors.

We stopped at “Big Boy” for lunch instead of our normal picnic lunch. On this cool fall day we were glad to be inside and warm. Even without the views at the top it was still a great ride. The Little River section was just awesome. Trek Travel sure did a good job picking out the roads in Tennessee.

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