BFE, Tennessee

Went down south for a little hill work in the Appalachians this weekend. Wheels down at 2pm. There were seven of us to start. We hit some rollers. And regrouped about 50 mins in.

And then it was up, up, up the Cherohala Skyway....

A few guys took off. I passed one just before snapping this shot of the 3,000 ft marker.

 It was constant uphill for about 90 mins. And as we climbed, it got colder.

But there were some great views.

We hit the TN/NC border and headed back down. It was a long, cold, fast way down! And we'd worn out one of the guys, so he headed home. Left us with six.

The next morning, it wasn't so warm. And the sun was hiding, so we opted to stay low and hammer some rollers. It was all farm country. And I'd never seen so many off-leash, unfenced dogs come running after cyclists in all my life. One rider got a flat soI took the opportunity to pee. I saw a little wooden dog house looking thing. I figured I'd just go squat behind it. Wrong. Out come the roosters. Cock-a-doodle-doodle-ing. No joke. I opted for a bush across the street.

Apparently, it's normal (and fun!) to ride your road bike up these steep gravel fire roads, so that's how we ended the ride. Again, we re-grouped at the top before heading back down...

...and again crossing the roadkill that seemed to gather at the bottom.