<>March 13th, 2005'
Cyclists,
I give this ride an A+.
"Directions to the ride are at the bottom of this page"
Yesterday, I decided to ride in the
Green Team's weekly "Round Rockmart Ride". I had been putting it
off for two reasons. I don't like riding with any group with the
name "Team". "Team" ususally means a group of riders faster than
me. As it turns out,
nobody knows where that name came from, there is no "Team". It
is a group of riders changing in makeup week to week like any
other ride. I thought the drive might be too long. It is
exactily a 65 minute drive from my home in Sandy Springs to the parking
lot ride start at the Silver Comet "Coots Lake" trail head, no big
deal. Even better if you live up I - 75 North. It's about a
40 minute drive from Cartersville.
This is one of the best rides I have
been on. It is a moderate to strenuous 42 or 51 mile ride.
(there is a cut off at the 15 mile mark if you wish to ride 42
miles) None of this ride is on the Silver Comet Trail.
There are a couple of excellent up hills, think gaps in terms of grade,
however only about 1/3 - 1/4 the distance of Neels Gap. There is
one fantastic down hill that you can really let it all hang out
on. Because it was my first time, I touched my brakes a few times
and still got up to 43 mph, Mark O. the ride leader said he gets up to
50 mph on this hill, it is relatively straight. This is one of
the lowest trafficed rides I have ever been on. The brewery ride
is low traffic. This ride is much lower in traffic than the
brewery. There is a store stop at 30 miles. The scenery is
great and will get greater as we move in to spring. There are
dogs, think brewery in terms of dogs, however these dogs seemed to be
barkers, I never felt threatened.
Thanks to Buster Johnson, Mark
Oestreich, and Mitch Askew for taking the time to map and mark this
above average route. The route is marked with easy to see blue
arrows.
There is only one possible
problem that I foresee. The Coots Lake parking lot will only
accomodate about 20
cars. Car pool if you can. There is a store about 1 block
away. They may let you park there. You should get
there early or discuss parking with the people at the store
if you need to park there. There were only 5 cars in the
Coots Lake lot when I got there at 9:15 and there is a Port A John.
I will be adding the excellent
PDF map that Mark put together to the Maps Section of my web
site site. See the Route and the Elevation pictures from
my GPS below.
__o
_-\<,_
(*)/ (*) Tom Hanks
Minimum elevation 728 ft. Maximum
elevation 1326 feet 51 miles in distance.
Directions
From Marietta: Take Whitlock Ave./120 to hwy 278 (14 Miles) Turn
right onto 278 and go 15 miles to Coots Lake Rd Take a right, go
about 100 yards to the Coots Lake SilverComet trail head
From Atlanta: Take I20 West to Thorton Rd/278 exit. Turn
right (North) and go 29.5 miles and turn Right onto Coots Lake
Rd, go about 100 yards to the Coots Lake SilverComet trail head
Any Question Contact
Buster Johnson
busterjohnson2020@hotmail.com
