Fall Bicycling: the Silver Comet & Chief Ladiga Trails

Two excellent trails – the Silver Comet Trail and Chief Ladiga Trail – are close to Rome and we enjoy bicycling on them.  We made two bike trips recently and enjoyed the fall colors as well as bicycling.  On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 6, we headed to the Rambo Road Trailhead of the Silver Comet Trail in Dallas and rode west to the Brushy Mountain Tunnel and back, a round trip of 15 – 16 miles. You can see the trip log here: Rambo Nursery to Brushy Mt. Tunnel and back
The Silver Comet is a well used trail, especially on weekends, and it was busy on this Sunday afternoon.  In addition to lots of walkers and bicyclers,  we saw several hand cyclers and a unicycle which was moving pretty fast.  A highlight of this section of the the Silver Comet Trail is Pumpkinvine Trestle, over 750 feet long and 126 feet above  Pumpkinvine Creek.
               
Knowing the fall colors wouldn’t last much longer, we headed out again on Tues., 11/ 8, with our neighbors Gordon and Nadine to bike from the Esom Hill, GA Trailhead to Piedmont, AL.  We were soon in Alabama on the Chief Ladiga Trail, a seamless extension of the Silver Comet Trail, and very much like the Silver Comet except not quite as wide.  From Esom Hill to Piedmont is a lovely ride, gently sloping mostly downhill taking us through the Talladega National Forest and across Terrapin Creek, a good place to stop for a view of the surroundings.
                                
To the west is Duggar Mountain with fields in the foreground as we approach Piedmont, a hospitable little town. Check out the trail stats: Esom Hill, GA to Piedmont, AL Note the push pin marker on the map. We put that in to mark what appeared to be a campground. Sure enough it is: Chief Ladiga Trail campground
                 
In PIedmont we were rewarded for our ride by lunch at the Solid Rock Café, a locally owned sandwich and coffee shop which attracts bicyclers as well as locals.. After our 14 mile ride, we enjoyed lunch and ice cream as well. It was a delightful ride on a lovely fall day.
            
                         

Greenville Swamp Rabbit Trail

 

We found an interesting camp ground in Greenville called Paris Mountain State Park. Though it had narrow roads and was heavily forested, it was a beautiful peaceful park and was quite close to our bike trail, the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The park office is located in the old CCC-built lodge building which had very interesting stone work.

   

We arrived at the park in Greenville in late morning and got to the trail right after lunch. The trail begins on the north end at Travelers Rest and is 13.5 miles one-way to downtown Greenville, but we elected to start at Furman University which is a beautiful spot in itself.

           

This is an exceptionally nice trail. Read more about it at http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/oct/23/path-prosperity-swamp-rabbit-trail-offers-family-r/. Our ride was about 17 miles RT. Check a track of our ride at ms-msa=0&msid=201062930514639309031.0004b0497ac07a8e59d13 Click on the end point to see statistics of the ride.

            

     

    

We spent a pleasant night at the park with sleep coming easily except for the occasional hickory nut hitting the roof. The next morning we headed home via I-85 through Atlanta.

		Greenville's Swamp Rabbit Trail VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Charlotte Trolley Trail

 

            

We had been wanting to ride the Charlotte Trolley Trail for quite some time. We had read that Charlotte was being visited by representatives from other cities to see how they had constructed a light rail trolley into town along with a pedestrian/bike trail paralleling it which stimulated development of condos and restaurants along the line. We parked downtown and rode south. We parked at the fire department which was adjacent to the trail and had some unnumbered spaces in a very large and nearly empty lot.

 

                

             

   

          

                                  

We had a great ride, but upon our return we saw that our truck was missing. With a closer look we discovered that there is an obscure sign saying it is a paid lot and listing the tow company’s phone number. We were already tired and thirsty (having drunk all our water on such a warm day) when we learned that the tow yard was two miles away. We would not only have to navigate to the tow yard, but to an ATM downtown for cash as well. This was the first serious use of our smartphones. They ably navigated us to both. However, one of the roads came to a dead end with barrier at the Norfolk Southern RR main line. As we could see no alternative, we jumped our bikes over several tracks to the street on the other side. The tow yard was not too far from there and we got our truck back. Still no water, though, until we got back to the coach.

Actually, the Walmart where we were parked was in a bad neighborhood – bad enough that we had planned to leave when we got home and find a better place to park over night. However, we were so tired there was no way we were going to move. Fortunately we had an uneventful night. The next morning we headed for Greenville, SC, and the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

Fall RV Trip to the Carolinas and More

 

In mid October we set out on another coach trip to North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. Originally we had planned on attending the Country Coach International Club rally in Beth Page Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay, but George had an unexpected mediator training class scheduled, so we modified our trip to get back in time for that.

We joined up with our friends George and Jan in Asheville, NC. We stayed at an RV park that is on the French Broad river and has a bike path passing through it. Our main goal though was to have lunch again at the marvelous Grove Park Inn. 

          

Departing Asheville we caravanned with George and Jan to Jack and Marylou’s house just north of Charlotte, NC. What a lovely place they have on Lake Norman, and what a delicious meal they served that evening. We enjoyed seeing Jack’s garage and aviation mementos and enjoyed a bike ride with Marylou at a park on the southern end of Lake Norman.

The next morning our friends headed to Beth Page while we headed to Danville, VA to visit my brother’s namesake T. Harley Moss and his friend Jackie. There we biked with them on the Danville River Walk Trail after having lunch at Short Sugar’s BBQ where president Obama had lunch while he was campaigning in Danville.  The trail runs behind the BBQ restaurant and goes through wooded areas, beside parks, and passes by the dam on the Dan River.It was a great ride.

                 

                 

                                            

                  

After the ride T. Harley and Jackie came over for a visit at the “house” parked at Walmart, our favorite hotelier. The next morning we headed to another Walmart in Charlotte for another bike adventure.

Biking and RV’ing

 

At the first sign of cool mornings in late summer we began to bike again. Rome just added a new trail and trail bridge over Silver Creek that allows us to do a ten mile ride from the health department in south Rome to the baseball field in north Rome and back. 

In mid September we enjoyed a rally of our Southeastern Country Coachers club in Nashville. There we found a good trail along the Cumberland river called the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. On this trail a quite impressive pedestrian/bike bridge crosses the Cumberland river. We biked this trail with our friends George and Jan and met up with Jack and Mary Lou who were walking on the trail.

          

                   

                          

On another day we biked on the opposite side of the river near downtown with our friends Jack and Marylou.

              

                

We enjoyed seeing everyone at the rally and also enjoyed a night at the Grand Ole Opry where we saw Ricky Skaggs and Bobby Osborne.

HS Reunion: Day 3

 

The last event of the 50th reunion of the class of 1961 was a church service led by class member B.J. Greene Funk in the Chapel of First Baptist Church with music provided by Ed Barr.  B.J. taught kindergarten, felt called to the ministry, and went to Emory University to prepare to be a Methodist minister.  By the time she retired from teaching, she had completed her degree in theology and is currently pastoring a church in Chula, GA, near Tifton. 

B. J. brought a message of God’s love for us and his presence in our lives to help us when we need help.  Afterwards, there was time for those attending to share remembrances of the 27 class members who have died.  As they were remembered, we all recalled the times shared by this class who mostly went to 12 years of school together – not just high school – and the different world in which we lived then. 

The service was a wonderful culmination of this outstanding class reunion weekend, and I thank Johnny Anderson and all those who served with him on the reunion committee.  Ya’ll did good!

HS Reunion: Day 2

 

On Saturday morning, Irene went with Dodie and Iris to tour the Valdosta/Lowndes County Museum which is in the old Carnegie Library Building. The history museum is a large and interesting museum, but most of our time was spent talking with class members and looking at scrapbooks of high school events.  (We’ll have to go back to see the history museum when we’re in Valdosta again).

From the history museum we went to the Wildcat Museum located at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium, the historic location of many Valdosta Wildcat victories.  While the location is the same, the stadium is totally renovated from our high school days.  It now has artificial turf, stadium seats on the home team side in black and gold (wildcat colors), and is much larger with a seating capacity of 11,249.  The museum was filled with photos, trophies, plaques, and other memorabilia – and more class members to see.  Mrs. Bazemore was also there, enjoying exchanging memories.

       

After Irene returned to the coach, our niece Meredith and her daughters came to visit.  Katie is performing in a musical at church and sang her solo for us.  She has a beautiful voice!  Rebecca (4 years old) sang Jesus Loves Me.  Irene and Meredith didn’t sing – they just talked, so George entertained the girls. The first activity was easy – taking the girls out to walk Tina. After that, the job became more challenging as all he had was two Newsweek magazines.

Soon it was time to move on to the next class reunion location.  Dinner Saturday evening was held at class member Larry Rodger’s cattle ranch south of Valdosta.  We drove the coach there and parked in the pine trees near the lodge.  People began arriving at 5:30 and dinner was at 7:00 so there was time to visit and take photos, including another group photo, before dinner – and afterwards.