Friday, September 23, 2016

Back to Tennessee

I left home on Labor Day this year for my annual fall trip to visit my parents in Tennessee.  The weather was a little warmer than normal but it felt a lot nicer than Georgia!  Mom and I did a lot of riding during my 10 day stay, including the 50 mile endurance ride I participated in at the Big South Fork park.  Here Mow and I are coming in after our first loop of the competition.
 
Getting checked out by the vets before resting.
 
Ready to head out for our last loop. 
 
It was a long day filled with a few troubles but somehow Mow and I made it through the 50 tough, steep miles in just under nine hours.  We finished in 14th place out of 28 starters.
 
In between neighborhood Happy Hours and working in the garden, we ended up riding another 60 miles during my visit.  To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the National Park Service the Big South Fork offered a centennial challenge:  if you ride/hike/bike/paddle 100 miles in the park you can earn a patch.  My goal was to earn this patch and we were easily able to add up the miles.  We even rode some new-to-me trails like the one that took us to the O&W railroad bridge.
Mow and Santana patiently waiting on us to eat our lunch on the bridge.
In order to get to and from the bridge we had to cross the North White Oak.  Every time I've visited this river has been too deep to cross.  As you can see from this photo, it was finally low enough! 
 
Mom and I also volunteered to take down the ribbons that marked the trails for the endurance ride.  Here we are in our matching Volunteer shirts.

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