How High Is Your Mountain?
Greensboro (NC) Velo Club
With the blessing of ignorance, my husband Rick & I
bought our first road bikes so that we could ride the mountain century we’d
happened upon one fine September day on a drive across Grandfather Mountain. We hopped on new LandSharks, with only six
months of cycling experience, and rode the Bridge to Bridge. We finished, too, long after the cut-off
time. The re
When
the cycling calendar formed for 2004, the listing for the Blue Ridge Brutal in
West Jefferson, NC was not included.
Fearing the loss of one of our favorite mountain centuries, I began to
surf the web in search of a replacement.
I often browse through other bicycle club websites (indexed here: http://peteandedbooks.com/bclubs.htm)
looking for inspiration for recreational events for the Greensboro Velo Club,
and in doing so, I came across the web-site for the Smoky Mountain Wheelmen of
Knoxville, TN. (www.smwbike.org) They advertised an ev
ent called the Cherohala
Challenge, billed as 115 miles with more than 9000 feet of climbing. My interest was piqued by the route – I had
always wanted to ride the Cherohala Skyway.
The CS is a scenic highway built between Robbinsville, NC (30 miles SW of Bryson City) and the tiny
hamlet of Tellico Plains, TN on the southwestern edge of the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. It’s a favorite
destination for motorcyclists, providing 32 miles of uninterrupted, well-paved
beauty. In addition, the route would
traverse the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, one of the largest preservations of
virgin timber in the US.
A 5
½ hour auto drive brought us across the Unicoi Mountain Range and down into the
lush mountain valley cut by the Tellico River, into the small town of Tellico
Plains. Consisting of not much more than
a grocery, gas station and a couple of eateries, Tellico Plains is a quiet
place where time slows to a mountain draw.
Saturday
morning dawned cool and hopeful. The
ride began at the high school, high atop a knoll above Tellico Plains. We checked in, received our goodie-bags
(really good event tee, by the way) and pulled out the cue sheet. Very nicely organized directions were printed
on one side, and an elevation chart was printed on the other. That was my first indication that the day
might prove more of a challenge than I could handle. As we descended the high school driveway, we
could see far ahead of us, a seemingly endless ribbon of cyclists – four hundred
and ten or so – sweeping down into town and out to the north. That’s really the most beautiful part of an
organized event. The sound of four
hundred and ten pair of cleats meeting pedals, followed by the swoosh of wheels
in the cool morning mist.
The
first 20 miles were rolling, through a valley of peaceful farmland followed by
another 20 miles along the rivers dammed by the Tennessee Valley Authority to
control flooding and provide electrical power to millions of residents. We covered almost 45 miles before we began to
climb in earnest. It wasn’t long before
we were trailing miles behind the others, as is always the case. The cool morning warmed into brilliant, hot
sunshine and humidity approaching 95%.
We found a few other Lesser Souls with whom to ride, and made our way
from one rest stop to the other. We
climbed the Tail of the Dragon – a ribbon of asphalt that winds through 318
curves in 11 miles. Finally, at mile 73,
we turned onto the Cherohala Skyway. It
was 11 more miles of 9% grade, to the crest at 5,390 ft. elevation. I made it 3 miles up the road before,
overcome by heat, humidity and knowing that I only had about 6 ounces of
road-warmed water in my bottle, I dismounted and began to walk. Rick had gained about ¼ mile on me and was
out of sight around a curve.
A
sag car approached and I was never happier to see it. Iced water helped improve my attitude, but I
knew I’d never make the 4:30pm cut-off, even if I did manage to climb the next
8 miles, so I did the smart thing and accepted a shuttle to the top. We picked up Rick a mile ahead and he was
more than happy to shuttle along with me.
Some folks (I know who you are) will consider this cheating. I consider it self-preservation and I’m not
the least bit ashamed. We got out at the
top, and finished the remaining 32 miles of breathtaking descents interspersed
with minor climbs, each less than a mile in length. Reaching the car with 107 miles on our
cyclo-computers was plenty for a day’s work.
We’d been in the saddle for nine and a half hours. We didn’t stick around for the post-ride
meal, but headed back to our river cabin where we jumped into the Tellico River
in full cycle wear and let the salt dissolve and the core temperature cool.
Later,
after soap and shampoo had improved our outlook on life, we drove across the
river to a restaurant on the Skyway, and passed the last three cyclists of the
day...eleven hours after the start with 2 miles to go. We recognized them...they were the Lesser
Souls with whom we’d ridden.
Definitely
tougher than the B2B, the Cherohala Challenge has the advantage of being very
well organized and produced, having incredibly beautiful routes with very light
traffic and providing the most challenging terrain of any mountain century
we’ve ever tried. SAG wagons were seen
throughout the event, rest stops were still well stocked when we went through
on the back end, and the post-ride meal was still being offered some 2 hours
after their advertised closing time.
That’s Class, folks, with a capital “C”.