3 Toothed Cog: October 2010

This Saturday was host to the 4th Annual Pumpkin Pedaller. Big thanks to Asheville on Bikes for putting together this gigantic rolling costume party! The party started in front of the Court house and the headcount was somewhere in the neighborhood of 132 people. We snaked around the city, much to the amusement/frustration of the residents. Unlike a critical mass (read critical mess) this form of bicycle advocacy stresses that riders wear helmets, obey all traffic laws, and basically frowns upon acting like a dumbass and purposely trying to piss off drivers. I stopped participating in critical mass rides when attending Virginia Tech due to hordes of riders pretty much making cyclists look like a bunch of hooligans that liked to disregard traffic laws and snarl up traffic by blocking lanes. Great idea, piss off the car drivers, they'll definitely respect us on the weekday commute. This ride was filled with costumes, badass bikes of all shapes and sizes, good friends from out of town, awesome phone calls about found stolen bikes, and so on. Once again thanks to Mike and Rachel and all the AOB volunteers! PS. I got my first tamale from the burrito cart guy. Super good stuff, you should support him.

Not part of the group. Welcome to AVL

I've been meaning to take a road trip for the past couple months, trying to squelch my inability to stay put for long periods of time. I knew that I wanted to bike somewhere new, but at a destination that also had some dorky tourist attractions to get into. I remembered reading an article on bike town destinations a couple months ago, and Chattanooga was one of the towns that had made the list. Two months ago I had made a day trip to Ooltewah for some motorcycle parts, and was intrigued by the signs for Ruby Falls and Rock City. My friend Heather told me about visiting Ruby Falls and Rock City as a kid and said they were such weird places that I had to see them. I also learned that Sorba Chattanooga had built and maintained a large network of trails on Raccoon Mountain. Bikes, gnomes, and underground waterfalls? Yes please, it's on!

For some reason every time I thought of Raccoon mountain I thought of Raccoon City, or maybe I was hoping that Chattanooga was the epicenter of a zombie outbreak. Arriving at our destination, we only found trees ablaze with the colours of fall, and tourists from all over the US. Setting up camp, we met out neighbors, a group of college friends that had come from all over the east for a small reunion. Later they would be the source for some amazing steaks and grilled vegetables. We felt kind of lame offering up hotdogs and canned chili in exchange. Since we got to town later than we had hoped, we decided to forgo the mountain biking until the next day since the sun would be setting in a couple hours. Neither of us had thought to pack lights. Instead we decided to go ahead and do Ruby Falls. Since it's an underground cavern, I don't think it really cares if you visit it after sunset or not.

We bought our tickets and luckily caught the last elevator down to the tour group that was about to start. 260 feet down, we met our tour guide, Ralph, who would point out the various formations in the cavern, as well as make sure that everyone was present and accounted for. We saw various stalactites and stalagmites, as well as several formations, that if you squinted and crossed your eyes enough, looked like certain animals, or everyday objects. The main attraction of the tour was Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall with an unknown water source. It is speculated that the water seeps into the mountain side and accumulates into rivers farther back. Geologists, and cavers have tried to track the source, but the opening of the falls, quickly becomes impassable. There is a great deal of dramatic build up to the viewing of the falls. The main cavern is dark, save for a couple of red hued lights that make the cave look like a scene from Tron. After a minute the house lights come up and you see the falls. It was beautiful, and kind of weird. Very similar to watching the light beams come into the slot canyons in Antelope Canyon. Even if you don't like dorky tourist attractions, I highly recommend seeing Ruby Falls.

Back at the camp, we enjoyed the neighbors steaks, followed up by our paltry hot dogs and canned chili. Anticipating a long day of biking the next day, we headed to sleep about 11:00. What we hadn't counted on was the complete train wreck of a 3 family group camped out on the other side of us. I know you will probably jump to the conclusion that it was screaming kids that robbed the whole camp ground of quiet. Sadly I have to report it was their parents that caused all the drunken ruckus. This crew was determined to make sure every last beer and fire log was consumed, as well as give the entire campground a running tally. I was appalled at one guy complaining about his wife's lack of love for camping while in the same breath hitting on the wife of his friend. All in earshot of his two daughters, classy. The session of too much information continued till about 3:00 when they finally got the hint from the wives telling them to quiet down, and me glaring at them and finally loosing it and unleashing a very audible "sshhhh" which was about to be followed by "-ut the f*ck up". Needless to say, 7:00 came very quickly. *sigh*

The morning was started with yogurt, peanut butter sandwiches, and French pressed coffee. Bikes were loaded onto the car, and we made off to Raccoon Mountain. It was only about a 10 minute drive before we cam upon the parking lot for the put in on the Tennessee River (Tennessee sure likes to name things with double letter...Chattanooga). With mist still on the water, the engineering geek got the better of me and I decided that I needed to take several pictures of the gigantic valve on the site. This would later be followed by several pictures of the switching station on the top of the mountain. Parking at the visitors center, we geared up and were about to head out when the guy we had passed on a road bike earlier that morning, rolled up and asked if we had a map for the trails. We said we did, but weren't sure how accurate it was. He handed us a really nice overlay map with distances and elevations. Score!

We were informed that that best way to do the the loop around the reservoir was counter clockwise. Right out of the gate the terrain became very apparent. It was kind of a mix of the sandy trails of the Virginia Beach area, mixed with the rock of Farlow Gap in Pisgah, or some of the Dupont trails. I was definitely not on my game at the beginning of the ride, and not paying attention, slow rolled and stuffed my front wheel into a rock. Just missed hitting the boys dead on, but the pain was about the same. Raccoon Mountain fights dirty! The rest of the trail was filled with fast lines, trials techy gnar gnar, and beautiful outlooks over the Tennessee River. I also discovered that the spikes on my carbon bike shoes make very good shoes for bouldering on mixed routes. Overall the loop took about 3 hours. We didn't see every inch of trail, and I would like to go back and get a better look at the freeride area, but it is well worth the trip. As most trail reviews point out, Small Intestine is a must do. It was also wonderful to see Pisgah Chattanooga putting in some work. Those of you interested in singlespeed ridged riding the area, 32/18 works fine, and suspension is not a requirement although would have been nice in some sections.

After a quick shower it was on to Rock City. Honestly I had no idea what to expect. I had been informed by Heather that all she remembers was scary dioramas of gnomes depicting fairy tales by black light. I was going into the affair with the mindset that it would be like a hike at chimney rock. Needless to say, the former description was more accurate. Rock City would be a climbers paradise. It was essentially a paved boulder field that wandered up to a lookout that allowed you to see 7 states at one time. The rock was mostly limestone, and had several, cracks, overhangs, and huecos. This being October, there was also a German Festival on the grounds, complete with beer garden, brats, and pretzels. There was also an oompah band, along with several girls dressed up in tradtional get up. Yep, Rock City was worth the visit. Getting to the last part of the trail that wandered the grounds, we entered the Fairy Tale land. Inside these dark halls were the creepiest depictions of fairy tales I had ever seen. Garish colours, lit by blacklight, depicted the most famous of the Grimm and Anderson Fairy Tales. Honestly I thought I was going to have nightmares. Once again, this spot is a must do. The views are amazing during Octoberfest, as well as the landscape. I would maybe caution small children in Fairy Tale land, it scared the hell out of me.

Well, the trip was coming to a close. The brats and pretzel were no longer tiding me over. We decided to go down to the river front to find some food. The area by the aquarium and art museum were amazing. So many features that I wanted to ride my bike on. The pedestrian bridge across the Tennessee provided excellent views of the skyline. My favorite sight, was the dogs that sat with the carriage drivers that carted people around the down town. Being a saturday night, all the eateries were packed with at least a 45 minute wait. At this point I will say that Alexis was right again. We ended up back tracking to Mojos for some amazing burritos. Full on gut bomb, big as your head affairs. Taking these back to the campfire, the resulting food coma was immanent.

All in all, this was an amazing trip. There are still many things I need to check off in Chattanooga. For example, more trails (a pump track and dirt jump park are slated for 2011), visit the Lynskey factory, go climbing, and buy ice cream and just sit on the bridge and watch the people and boats go by.