Today, the much-anticipated Mountain Goat Trail pedal (where, ironically, I saw no mountain goats). I’ve been wanting to do this since I first read about the MGT, and even though the trail is nowhere near complete, it was a great. Of course, Mother Nature thumbed her nose at me again, with freezing temperatures and sleet up on the plateau – but still, an awesome pedal. There’s only a 5ish mile segment opened between Monteagle and Sewanee right now; when it’s complete, it’ll be almost 40 miles one-way, from Cowan (west of Sewanee) to Palmer (east of Tracy City/Gruetli-Laager). Of course I’ll be riding that.
FTG (following the gym; I might as well start abbreviating that), I loaded up the bike for the first Jeep-cycling adventure, despite it obviously being much, much colder than the prognosticators forecasted. No biggie – I’ve ridden in cold before. However, because of the heavy rain on Saturday, I decided to stop at Foster Falls first, because it’s right on the way.
It did not disappoint.
After that, on to Monteagle, also on the Cumberland Plateau – so, yeah, the elevation was not going to bring any warmer weather. About 30 degrees when I headed out to explore the town. It’s a small town, with not much to see, especially on a cold, sleety day. I’m sure in warmer weather, it’s more interesting. After about 6 miles in the town, I hit the MGT, and headed for the University of the South in Sewanee, a little over 5 miles away.
the Mountain Goat Trail – click for larger
The trail is great. Paved, reasonably flat, winding through woods and crossing roads several times. After the quick ride down the trail, a spin up to the University in search of coffee (success!) and compelling scenery, in the form of an old cemetery. I love old cemeteries, and this one was as interesting as the State Line Cemetery I visited on the TGA paddle. Headstones dating back to the 19th century, with loads of history. I’ll need to go back on a warmer day and explore more.
Following the ride back to the trailhead in Monteagle – you guessed it – shopping. Conveniently, Mountain Outfitters is located right at the trailhead. Surprisingly, I bought nothing – not even shoes – but it’s good to know there is a great outfitter near what will be many future adventures.
Hines Pond – click for larger
After reloading everything, a little scouting for future adventures. There are several parks and trailheads along the mountain highway back to Tracy City. I suspect I’ll be visiting this area quite often over the winter, and when I get my new tires and wheels installed on the Jeep (ETA, Wednesday!), I’ll be able to explore the more remote areas. This is what it’s all about – I’m going to be able to go on adventures I thought were out of reach.
On a side note, the bike rack on the Jeep did great. I was a little nervous about strapping my expensive MTB to the back of the Jeep, especially for a pretty long drive through the mountains. It did really well, though – money well spent. Yeah, I’m sure I could pull the front wheel off and stuff the thing in the back, but that just seems like a hassle. I haven’t mentioned this, but in addition to the back seats folding down (probably the only action they’ll ever see)(!), the front passenger seat also folds flat, so I can carry a decent amount of stuff, if I need to. The bike carrier itself is capable of holding two bikes, but I’ve only installed the hardware to carry one, because, hi, have we met?
As always, a map (and the Master Adventure Map has been updated):
click for larger, or Endomondo data or Movescount data
Because of the cold weather, Endomondo was spotty on recording the trek (30-degree temps, plus the phone strapped to the front of the bike equals a wind chill of probably between 0 and 10 degrees), and I forgot to start the Suunto watch for Movescount until about a mile and a half in – but I still got a good map, and that’s what matters.
In other fitness-related news, despite the cold weather and rain on Saturday, I hit my 700th consecutive day making all my numbers on the AppleWatch (and my 100th week hitting all the goals). No one is more surprised than I am – not so much that I’ve hit my numbers for 700 straight days, but that I haven’t lost the watch, forgot to charge it, forgot to put it on, whatever. So, about 30 more days, and that’ll be 2 straight years. The next badge isn’t until 1000 days (not consecutive; just total – but I’m going to shoot for consecutive); I should hit that sometime next July. Plus, I hit 42 million steps on my Fitbit today, so there’s that.
So, despite Saturday being a complete washout, Sunday more than made up for it. Mother Nature may smack me around and try to kill me to death from time-to-time, but not enough to keep me pinned to the sofa. Life’s too short for that. Y’know?
