I started my Tuesday off on the bike with a morning road ride. I wanted to ride the gaps in the area that I had not ridden before. Our apartment was on the Six Gap Century course, so I had easy access to climbing. Within two miles I was on the bottom grades of Neel's Gap. Instead of climbing Neel's Gap from Blairsville, I took a right turn on Wolf Pen Gap Rd. I had heard Wolf Pen was the more difficult of the climbs in this area. It was much shorter than I expected at just 3.0 miles from the turn. It's a bit steeper than the other gaps, but nothing like Brasstown Bald. It's ranked as a Category 2 climb with an average grade of 6%. I enjoyed the twisty nature of the road and the fact that it was almost entirely in the woods which meant plenty of shade. After the descent, I rolled on to the town of Suches, past the drained Lake Winfield Scott. This lake is known as the gem of the area, but the dam burst a while back and they are in the process of draining the lake to rebuild the dam.
Wolf Pen Gap Rd.
Draining Lake Winfield Scott
Next up was Woody Gap, which again was much shorter than I anticipated. I didn't realize the climb is much shorter on the north side, which is the side I came up. It's just 1.4 miles long with an average gradient of 5%, making it a only a Category 4 climb. The descent on the other hand is 5.3 miles long. I enjoyed the turns, but there was a lot of road construction ont he way down so I didn't get to go as fast as I wanted.
I hung a left at the bottom of the descent from Woody onto Hwy 19. It's a rolling road that takes you to the base of Neel's Gap on Hwy 129. The climb up to Neel's from Hwy 19 is about 5.5 miles. It starts very gradual, then gets more difficult before a break at about the two mile point. You get a slight descent, then begin climbing a steadier grade with plenty of corners. There's a fun switchback near the top. The two sections of the climb both average 5% making for a Category 2 climb. This climb had a lot more traffic on it than the previous two as it is more of a main road between Blairsville and Cleveland.
I then descended Neel's back down to where I had turned onto Wolf Pen Gap earlier. The plan was to meet up with Shannon and go down to Helton Creek Falls for a quick hike. Then I would finish my ride through Helton Creek and Hatchet Creek Roads before climbing Craig Gap back to the apartment. I was ahead of schedule, so I time to climb back up to Neel's Gap to get the north side in as well. This side is 3.2 miles at 5%, which is a Cat. 3 climb. I liked this side as the gradient got me into a good rhythm. It was long enough to make me work, but not long enough to blow me up. You pass by Vogel State Park on the way up, where you can look to your right and see Trahlyta Falls through the trees.
Trahlyta Falls from Hwy 129
Shannon and I met up at the top, then she followed me down the descent to Helton Creek Rd. It started as a fast, narrow paved downhill, then changed over to fine, hardpack gravel. I was not expecting gravel, but it was in better condition than some of the pavement I had ridden earlier in the day. We reached the trailhead after descending 2.5 miles down the gravel road. I chained my bike up and put on some hiking shoes to walk the 0.2 miles down to Helton Creek Falls. It was a nice, two-stage waterfall. Both falls were great spots for a swim and there were people doing just that on the upper portion. I dunked my head to cool off, then it was back to the parking lot to grab my bike.
Helton Creek Rd.
Lower portion of Helton Creek Falls
Upper Helton Creek Falls
Video clip of upper Helton Creek Falls
We were going to continue down Helton Creek Rd., but there was a really deep creek crossing just past the falls. Shannon had no chance of driving it in her car and I did not want to wade across it. The road on the other side was made of large, pointy rocks rather than fine gravels so it did not look very friendly to my lightweight tires and carbon rims. We turned around and I got to climb 2.5 miles back to Hwy 129. I enjoyed the gravels and rode a little faster than on the other climbs. The grade averaged 4% on the gravel.
Backtracking forced me to take a different route back to the apartment. I wound up climbing Wolfstake Gap up to Craig Gap before spinning around another few local roads to end the day with 60.3 miles. Wolfstake was a short, but really fun climb of 0.9 miles, followed by a twisting and really fast descent off Craig Gap. It was a great way to end the ride. It was raining in the distance, but it never rained on me. Steve and Penny said they haven't had any rain at their house in a month. Twice now it has rained nearby, but nothing that interfered with our day or helped Steve and Penny's garden. The forecast for the week was for 60-80% chance of rain every day, but so far it has only rained one quick shower on Saturday that happened before we even got there. They're having quite the opposite weather here than what we have been getting at home this summer.
Rain in the distance over toward Brasstown Bald
Looking toward Craig Gap
After lunch, we went back out for more exploring on foot. This time we started north of Blairsville at the Track Rock Petroglyphs. The petroglyphs are carvings in giant stones that were made by Native Americans. They were interesting, but much harder to make out than the petroglyphs we saw at Dinosaur National Monument last year.
A carving at the Track Rock Petroglyphs
We then drove over to Vogel State Park to hike around Lake Trahlyta and get a better view of Trahlyta Falls. It was a short, easy hike around the lake. You get some great views of Blood Mountain and Slaughter Mountain from the lakeshore. If you wonder about the grim names, they come from a huge Native American battle that took place on the two mountains hundreds of years ago. Legend has it that there were so many dead that the mountain streams ran red with blood.
Lake Trahlyta
Trahlyta Falls is on the backside of the lake, below the spillway. It's one of the nicer waterfalls I have seen. It's a very easy walk to get there. Practically anyone can get to.
Trahlyta Falls
Video clip of Trahlyta Falls
After we got back to the apartment, Steve and Penny told us that the dead end road the house is on actually turns to dirt and continues on to the other side of the gap. So we had to hike that too! It was a nice little walk on the side of the mountain, only about a half mile each way. There were two little stream crossings and lots of vegetation to check out. It looked like a great place for a mountain bike trail!
Our end of the day hike from the apartment
No comments:
Post a Comment