Road Cycling - ATTENTION-Georgia Riders

Is anyone from this forum going to be doing the GRITS ride on the SCT on Labor Day? I was thinking about it, and wondered if we might get a group together.

Let me know....

I can't imagine that many folks on bikes on the Silver Comet.

Did you do it last year?
Does it start in Rockmart?
What's the distance?

Got a link to a website or something? I wanted to go SOMEWHERE for labor day..Georgia's an alright drive...

Well, as a matter of fact, I do!


Here's the email I received on it:

GRITS ON LABOR DAY

Plan now for a great bike ride on Labor Day - the TrailExpress Fifth Annual GRITS Labor Day Ride on Labor Day, Monday, September 1. GRITS is Georgia-Rails-To-Trails and the ride will be a lot of fun and proceeds will benefit the GRITS maintenance of the Silver Comet Trail.

The ride will begin at 9:00 AM on Labor Day (sign-in available at 8:00 A.M). There will be options of 12 miles, 31 miles, 52 miles and 83 miles. The 52 and 83 mile options will travel on roads and the Silver Comet Trail to the Alabama state line and back. This will be an opportunity to see the newly open section of the Trail that goes from Cedartown to the Georgia-Alabama state line, plus some beautiful roads in Polk County AND the Silver Comet Trail.

Registration price is $ 20 until August 20th and $ 25 after that date.

There is now a PRINTABLE REGISTRATION FORM on TrailExpress.com. You can also register by Credit Card (for a small additional fee) on Active.com (www.Active.com).

For more information log on to www.TrailExpress.com


WWW.TrailExpress.com (http://www.trailexpress.com)


If you have never ridden on the SCT, you are in for a treat. It's 39 miles of no cars (well, a couple, but I'll share that in a minute) no hills, lots and lots of beautiful scenery, and once you pass Dallas, hardly any walkers, skaters, or boarders. It's paved on the Cobb county end, and concrete in Paulding and Polk. There's huge trestles, and an 800 ft. tunnel under Brushy Mountain. There's lots of places to park and get on the trail, with water and restrooms. A lot of the towns near it are building trails off of it to take you to shopping and restaurants and such. It's a great thing, so go to the website and find out more.

There are a few places where you have to stop to check for traffic that crosses the trail on some secondary roads, and there's one big intersection with a 8 lane highway, but soon there will be a bridge over it.

Also, if you are into geocaching, there's several caches along the route to keep you happy.

Check it out.

Team Maniac will be in attendance
www.TeamManiac.org (http://www.teammaniac.org)

Lookin good...know of any cheap but not icky places to stay? That's my only roadblock. Any non-creepy non-smoking people wanna put me up??

Hey, Nat, my mother-in-law lives in Dallas, a couple of miles off the trail. And my sister is about the same distance also. They are the average non-creeepy variety.

But have you seen my creepy cousin? He's the one on the left!

http://members.cox.net/pointyhead/idiot.jpg

I'm not too proud to beg :D I can't see that pic :(

sorry, i'm gonna be doing the juniors category races at the inmotionx in columbus GA this labor day.

I'll be doing the Savannah Century on Sunday. This might make for a good recovery ride after Sunday... HMMM

Hey Nat,
Check out Trail Express (http://www.trailexpress.com) I think they have a listing of close by lodgings there. Look for the Tie-Died Team Maniac jerseys:

I am concerned about cramming a bunch of riders onto such a narrow trail at one time. But I will be in Savannah so it's out of the question for me anyhow.

I was there last year, and it strings out pretty fast After a couple of miles, there is no more pack of riders.

Hmmm. This is the first I've heard of the GRITS ride.

I was considering the Savannah Century but I may stay in town and do the ride with you (and how many others?? :D ).

Beats driving all the way across the state. And since I'm still unemployed (I think it's a permanent condition) I can save the cost of lodging, food, gas, etc.

Just look for this jersey. Should be at least a couple of us in attendance.

I had not heard of this ride.We may try to do it.

HEY! I never got an email telling me there were more posts in this thread >:(

Y'all out there in the south are too much! GRITS! Like "Kiss my grits?" ;)

If I had the money, I'd definitely attend that one, but I'm kinda busy paying for some other trips to the other coast.... :( Would love to do it next year. Do they have a jersey for that one? I'd love to get my hands on one!

Koffee

Yes may'am!

Although, I was here for 15 years before I actually saw grits...wierd stuff man...

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Y'all out there in the south are too much! GRITS! Like "Kiss my grits?" ;)



You are not making fun of our grits, are ya? I could bring up "Coco-wheats" and we could discusss the relative merits of both?!?

:p

That's one of the great things about America, regional foods! Makes me think of once when I was in Missouri, I went to a local town fair. The customary dish was something I can't remember the name of, but it was made of raw hamburger, onions, and spices. I thought it would have tasted better if it was cooked, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it!

Anyone still thinking of doing this? I'm flipflopping on the idea again. I may take off this afternoon, I may go tomorrow. Or I may not go at all.

MYSELF AND SEVERAL OF MY FRIENDS WILL BE THERE. WE'LL BE DOING THE 83 MILER. C'MON BAMBO, COME RIDING WITH US!

Oh forget it...I consulted my evil checkbook and she said 'no'. That and my shoulder's trying to kill me. My physical therapist did some super fun things with it Friday morning and I spent all day yesterday watching South Park while lying on a heating pad. Today I've run out of South Park so I'm grouchy.

Oh well..have fun guys :)

OK, then will you at least tell me which one is you in the picture?

on zee right

When I was down in Atlanta I was told that GRITS was an acronym for Girl Raised In The South. I'm not sure if it was a good thing or not.

2 Things:
Natophelia, you are very lovely.

MKRG, Speaking as a Damn Yankee(defined as a Yankee who came down south, and stayed) I can honestly tell you that Girls Raised In The South are definitely a good thing.

Originally posted by Natophelia
That and my shoulder's trying to kill me. My physical therapist did some super fun things with it Friday morning and I spent all day yesterday watching South Park while lying on a heating pad.


A couple of years ago, I tore a ligament in my shoulder from playing raquetball. The P/T guy gave me a stupid rope and pulley contraption, and a long piece of latex rubber and told me to pull on these twice a day. They didn't help much at all, but what worked fantastically was 30 lbs of pure fun, Oreo, our cocker spaniel. I would drag him around the house, or he would me, with his rope toys. Within a month my shoulder was healed and I've had no problems with it since. So my advice, GET A DOG.

:D

Thanks Pepper :)

Pointyhead, I don't know why but that make me laugh really hard :D My roommate has a dog. She's a giant hairball. I don't know what hurt my shoulder in the first place, but it's been messed up for about 4 or 5 years. It could have been a repetative use kind of thing or the seat belt squashing me in a car wreck around the same time. I had xrays done after the wreck and no one saw anything unusual, but that's all I can think of. Anyhoo, apparently my clavicle has been separated from the scapula the whole time and now I have arthritis. I'm 25 and I have arthritis! Dancers are dumb. We hurt all the time so we don't go get things looked at. Psychos. I won't do that again. The physical therapy was helping the pain until she 'massaged' it Friday morning. Now my neck, shoulder, back, and jaw hurt :( I'm being whiney. I feel like poo :( I wanna ride my bike :(

I think I may be able to make it to the GRITS ride in the morning, What if we hadn't registered in advance? My wife is 8 months pregnant, and my Brother- in- law brought my Mother-in-law to stay with us for 4 months. ( he came because my mother-in-law can't speak english, My wife and in-laws are from Thailand. all can speak english well except my mother-in-law.) to make a long story short, I wasn't going to be able to ride on Labor day, but I just got the go ahead to go , but I will probably just ride the 52 mile because I need to take them out in the afternoon. Let me know how to identify the BF people @ Rockmart.

Jason

Well, after starting this thread, I found out that I won't be there after all. In my shortsightedness, I forgot to check our Standby Roster at the office. I'm stuck carrying the emergency pager for two weeks. I can't be more than an hour from the base, so I'm just riding locally. I went out this afternoon and did some hill work, if you can believe that we have some in Central Georgia, but we really do. I live 1.3 miles away from the highest point in the county. And it drops down quickly to a creek bed, so there's some decent grades to pull.

But, alas, I won't be able to make it for the ride tomorrow. Someone please take some pictures for us that can't make it in person.

Will do if everything works out for me in the morning

Well, this one is on the chopping block for me next year. The support was somewhat lacking. Ran out of Gatorade at the rest stop 25 miles into the ride. But that's OK, I figgered, it's only 8 or 9 miles back to the Cedartown rest stop. No G'ade there either. That's OK I figgered, there's store stops in Cedartown, and it's a charity thang, so I'll buy some gatorjuice and ride on back to Rockmart. No support whatsoever back in Rockmart. They folded up thier tents and went home. So on to the Rambo trailhead we went, Red MnM, BentRider and me. Just before the Brushy Mountain Tunnel, BentRider, toungue firmly implanted in cheek asks me, "So you think there'll be any support at Rambo?" I replied "Fat [expletive] chance. I was completely and utterly right. Fortunately I sprang for two bottles of go-juice at the Silver Comet Depot in Rockmart, which was enough to last me exactly the 30 miles from Rockmart to Rambo and back.
Next year, folks, keep your lame t-shirt and spend more for food and sports drinks for all the nice people who shelled out $20 or $25.00 for the honor of riding the roads and trail, which are otherwise free for our use.

Bummer :(

I was there also, But I did not take any pictures. I did not have any problems with the rest stops except for the Rambo one. But I was smart because I started Early and parked at Rambo and rode the 16 miles to Rockmart , Then Hooked up with my friends and did the 52. Then All I had left was 16 miles back to the car, the Coots lake rest stop had some friendly folks and made me a PBJ sandwich and that kept me going. Sowhen I got to Rambo I checked the Stand and like you said totally Empty but I didn't care I was done riding for the day and I had my car.
And I was thinking that would suck if I had to turn and do another 16. That heat was starting to get brutal. So Kudos to you for being prepared and completing the ride. Maybe someone will read these notes and give feedback to the sponsors. Overall I enjoyed it.....

I was there also, and was surprised at the lack of support. I rode the 52 mile option, as I had a commitment, but I was expecting something back in Rockmart as well, everyone had already packed up. I didn't take any pictures either. The heat was quite brutal on the ride.

Hey Ga. guys and gals please check out this post;

http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35706