One of many running streams I saw

Mountain road in Georgia

Lucille:

May 27 - Tuesday - I'm afraid my view of today isn't as positive as Tom's.  The time spent driving in the mountains was the highlight.  It was beautiful and peaceful with few cars at that point.  Last night we were up very late trying to figure out today's route.  I am overwhelmed looking at the Georgia map.  There are so many roads, many of them with multiple numbers.  Today was a difficult navigating day.  I stayed close to Tom, driving ahead, stopping every few miles and waiting for him to pass, etc.  Even so, I took one wrong turn, and later Tom took a wrong turn.  Thank goodness the cell phones worked today.  We hope to be in Donalds, SC Thursday.  We'll have to see how many miles we can do with the rolling hills the next 2 days.

Day Thirty-Three - 5/27/2003

Total Trip Distance: 2709.99

TOM:

Day 33 – The weather was great from the start today.  Sunny skies and a cool temperature.  The maximum temperature was 85 degrees just before starting to climb Fort Mountain.  On top of the mountain, it was 60 degrees.  The first 2 hours and 45 minutes of the trip were getting out of the Chattanooga, TN urban area and into the calm mountain area.  This part of the trip was flat but had lots of trucks and cars and their associated noise and smoke.  It was a real pleasure to get to the base of the mountain at 730 feet and have lunch with Lucille before starting the climb.  The climb of 2112 feet started at 730 feet and went to 2842 feet in seven miles at a nearly constant slope.  After getting into this area there were very few cars.  The only sounds were the sounds of running water, singing birds, and the wind in the trees.  This environment is very calming and peaceful.  Too bad I did not have a recorder to capture the sounds.  The trip up the mountain is slow and quiet and burns lots of energy.  After reaching the top the views are spectacular.  The trip down is fast, has wind noise, is exhilarating and requires hardly any energy.  Afer descending the mountain there were about 15 miles of fairly flat area with rolling hills that had some small farms and a few homes along the way.  It looked like a nice place to live.  I rode about 10 miles past the City of East Ellijay where the motel is located to reduce the number of miles to travel tomorrow.  This was another fantastic day to bike.

Another view of the forest from mountain top

Fort Oglethorpe, GA to Oakland, GA 67 miles.  Today's trip was half urban sprawl and half mountainous.  The mountain was Fort Mountain with an elevation of 2842 feet.  The starting elevation was 770 feet and the ending elevation was 1620 feet.

Chattahoochee National Forest, GA