chilhoweeeee!

on sunday, i headed east to the ocoee area with some friends for some mtn biking. ideally we would have gone to tanasi, where a group of my atlanta friends were riding, but we ended up at chilhowee instead. we parked in a lot at the bottom of the mountain, which meant there was only 1 way to go: up. (and up, and up). what a way to start! after a steady spin for a long time, we arrived to a point that, while not the top, at least signalled some rolling action. we were drenched as temperatures were surely in the mid-90s. thankfully we were usually in the shade. this was the first time i've ridden at chilhowee and i thoroughly enjoyed it (the A24 race was supposed to feature singletrack here, but it had been closed to do the bear attack). i know i could have ridden some areas better, but that at least gives me something to look forward to during my next trip out here. during the ride we went through diverse vegetation - lush, wet, rainforest-like to sandy rooty areas to dry rocky stuff. i always find it interesting that we can hit all of that within a short 3hr ride. (and oh yeah, did i mention the poison ivy? apparently it loves growing in the TN dirt. it's love is spreading over to me unfortunately.) i didn't whip out the camera much, but here are some shot from one area.