By Tom Sheffield
Meeting Place: Pleasant Union Elementary School Date: 11/06 Time: 7:00am Distance: 63 miles (73 miles with repeats), Climbing: 6300' climbing (9150' with repeats) Difficulty: 100'/mile (125'/mile with repeats) Pace: 14-16mph
We'll depart from Pleasant Union Elementary at 7am. We'll plan on leaving the parking lot at the HRSP Visitor's Center at 10am. My guess is that we'll begin our return trip around 4pm, which will get us back to Pleasant Union School around 6:30pm.
A few notes about the ride. Course maps will be provided. Kurt Massey will lead the ride. Tom Sheffield will sweep the ride. We will not drop anyone (not even "our friends"), even at the Surry County line. :-)
All of the big climbs (Sauratown Mt, Pilot Mt, Hanging Rock) are "out and back" roads. You can chose whether or not you want to climb any of them, all of them, or participate in the planned repeats. We'll regroup after each big climb. We plan to ride Sauratown once, Pilot Mt twice, and Hanging Rock three times. We'll stop briefly after the Pilot Mt climbs (~35m) at the Visitor's Center at the bottom of the mountain. We'll stop again (~48m) at a store where the route crosses NC268.
This is a great opportunity to ride one of the most beautiful routes that the Piedmont has to offer. I've ridden it numerous times over the past year and a half. The roads are in pretty good shape, probably because they are very lightly traveled.
After you've done whatever negotiating/groveling/begging is necessary to get permission to join us, please send me some email so that we can make carpooling arrangements.