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I made a return trip to Morrow Mountain again today. I enjoyed last week's trip so much I was motivated to try it again this week. Last week, not only did I have to live through the humility of coming up the learning curve on my camera, I found out from my cycling buddies that I only did 1/2 the climb!!!

Halfway into the park the main road "splits". Last week I only took the road that took me to the top. Today I took the other road that took me down to the lake which doubles the climbing distance and elevation gained. Duh!!!

The entire climb is about 3 miles with 600 ft of elevation gain with some stretches hitting 11%. Not too bad but certainly makes it a little more work.

To make the ride more interesting I took a completely different route on roads I had not traveled before after about 30 miles. Well, I learned to not put much stock into a road that is called "Short Cut Road". The mapping software I was using showed it as a good connector for my route and it turned out to be a gravel road!!

So, I'm off my route and unexpectedly wind up needing to take US Hwy 52 for about 10 miles....This is a 55 mph Hwy that can get some pretty speedy traffic on it. I'm sitting at the intersection trying to decide what to do and have my headphones on listening to a Classic Rock radio station. Would you believe that what the DJ started playing was Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Roll on down the highway"!!! So, that's just what I did.

Several miles later I got to a point where I was back on "my map" but still off course. I had a choice of taking some extra miles and getting back on the roads I had mapped or continuing on US Hwy 52. Now the DJ plays "Roll with the changes" by REO Speedwagon. So, I just stayed on US Hwy 52 and eventually it put me back on course.

The ride over was not too bad as I had a 10-15 mph tailwind and averaged about 19 mph. However, the wind seemed to continue to get stronger as the day went on so the ride back got pretty ugly. Plus, I had to wing some roads on the way back and one turn turned out to be a 8 mile mistake.....

Food/drink report:
1/2 a PB&J sandwich
1 banana
1 Energy Gel
1 Deli Turkey Sandwich from Subway
2 Bottles of Gatorade and 1 Cherry Coke (this time the Coke gave me a headache!)

Temps-mid 40's
Mostly Sunny with high clouds
Breezy as Heck

Distance: 107 miles
Rding time 6 hr 39 mins
Steepest climb 13%

What I learned? Those guys writing those Classic Rock songs really knew their stuff!!

The pics below are of Alcoa-been there 100 years and built the lake for aluminum production; an old but nice golf Course in Badin, where Alcoa is located; the one with my bike is at the start of the climb; the lake in the distance is Lake Tillery as viewed from the top of Morrow Mtn and the last pic is a view from the top looking west-that is where I'm heading back to.