CLIMBING ACHIEVEMENTS

 Awhile back someone asked me if I had cycled up "can't remember the name" mountain.  The answer was "yes" but it got me to thinking of all the mountains I've been on.  And as I listed them out, some of the other significant climbs that weren't mountains came to mind.  I'm sure I've blogged about all of them, but this post is a list of those adventures.  

The first group was on the Cycle Washington ride.  Then we took our first cycling vacation to Vermont.  Next came Cycle Montana and our #1 tourist destination, Glacier National Park.  Bicycling Magazine listed their top Ten roads in North America and I planned to do five of them in one trip.  The Koocanusa Highway is pretty, and it does go up, but not like a mountain, so it didn't make the list.  The Kananaskis Highway in Canada was a possibility that didn't pan out.  On the way home from Montana I cycled the West Summit in the Beartooth Mountains and Rim Rock Drive, Utah.    The West Summit was an up-back ride.  I planned to ride clockwise on Rim Rock, giving me a relatively short climb and long descent, but ended up counter-clockwise resulting in a long climb but thrilling descent.  In 2001 I cycled coast-to-coast.  Later, after retiring, I went with Marty Jemison on two Tour de France trips and rode in the Pyrenees and Alpes.  

I've ridden the Blue Ridge Parkway three times, once with Black Bear Adventures, once with friends, once by myself.  Each time, I climbed Mount Mitchell.  On a New England vacation I cycled up Cadillac Mountain (but didn't make it to Mount Washington).  I put some books on consignment in the bookstore in Leadville.  The ride down Independence Pass was cool.  I've cycled up to the McDonald Observatory once, and stopped a bit short on another occasion.  Velo View Tours allowed me the opportunity to ascend Bobcat Pass.  I made it up three-quarters of the Flagstaff climb in Colorado before needing to stop.  Which is why it isn't on my list of places climbed.

Brasstown Bald is the highest point in Georgia at 4,784, although the parking lot, which is as high as a bike can go, is 4,593.  This is two and a half miles, with a couple of 16% ramps and a 24% ramp.  I guess because it goes by "Bald" instead of mountain, I didn't list it, or the six gaps that I do in Georgia.  So I'll list them now: Wolfpen Gap (3,260, three mile climb); Woody Gap (3,160, five mile climb); Neel's Gap (3,091 eight mile climb); Unicoi Gap (2,949 3 mile climb); Jack's Gap (2,940 five mile climb); Hogpen Gap (3,525, ten mile climb).  My highest speed was 49.x going down a long straight on Hogpen.  It is almost as strenuous as Brasstown Bald.

Climbing a mountain is not like climbing a hill.  I have one day of hills that stands out, and is mentioned here: On the coast-to-coast trip, from Chillicothe, Missouri to Kirksville it is only 82 miles, but we pushed up 214 hills.

Nowadays going up takes a lot more effort, but I haven't lost the thrill of descending.