2025 Butterfly Route, Part II

This is the vacation part of our sojourn.  After a trying, but successful, trio of races in Wisconsin, we drove 760 miles to the Kennedy Creek Resort in Suches, Georgia.  We've been coming here since 2005, enjoying the solitude and cooler air of the mountains for two or three weeks.  This year it was twenty-three days.  In the middle week, family from Texas and Maryland joined us for a reunion.

We arrived July 3rd and settled in.  In the past we have attended the Suches fireworks show, a fundraiser for the volunteer fire department but this year decided to skip it.  But a couple of gentlemen who are regulars, bought their own fireworks and when it got dark, set them up.  Now folks, these were really nice displays and they went on unabated for an hour!!  We had a great view from the front porch of our cabin.  

Suches is in the North Georgia mountains and my main activity is cycling the gaps.  Marilane's main activity is completing puzzles.  Dahlonega (just down the mountain) is known in cycling circles as the home of the Six Gap Century.  I completed it in 2011, all 105 miles and almost 11,000 feet of climbing.  For vacations, though, I usually just do three.  It's either Jack's, Unicoi, Hogpen or Woody, Neel's, Wolfpen.  Up until a few years ago, I would also try Brasstown Bald, a real beast of a three mile climb with several 16% grades and a 24% wall.  Not this year.

The first cycling day in the mountains is always Woody, Neel's, and Wolfpen.  I always suffer going up Neel's Gap, over five miles of climbing.  My time is a consistent three hours twenty minutes, give or take.  My experience in Wisconsin gave me a clue that climbing might be more of a challenge on my new bike.  Sure enough, I found myself seriously wanting another gear.  Apparently my suffering wasn't much of a deterrent, as I finished with the same time as previous years.

The weather for our whole stay couldn't have been better.  My plan included more than the eleven days I actually rode, but I just needed more rest days.  Having the Tour de France on TV may have influenced my decision.  I also restricted myself to just Woody, Neel's, and Wolfpen.  I detest Jack's, and Hogpen is almost as difficult as Brasstown Bald, so I skipped them this year.  But I did take a couple of trips to Brasstown Bald. highest spot in Georgia.  It was to ride my time trial bike around their spacious parking lot.  We had to drive twenty-two miles to find this safe, flatish spot to ride.

I like to say I was doing my altitude training, but at only 2,800 feet it doesn't compare to Colorado Springs, for example.  But I got in 250 miles and 25,300 feet of climbing in preparation for racing in Iowa.

                                               Headed toward Neel's Gap

Going up Woody Gap

Two different curves on Neel's Gap.  Fun going down, not so much going up.