Trans North Georgia 2021

 Thursday: Me and my dad were going to head up to Clayton to stay in a hotel Thursday night before the start at 8am on Friday. I took my bike to the shop on Tuesday or Wednesday to have some last minute things done (new chain, brake pads, etc.) I went straight to the shop to pick up my bike when school ended. "There's bad news," was the first thing I heard when I walked through the door. I was told that the extremely small crack that I had gotten on my drive side seat stay had progressively gotten worse, and that it would not be safe to ride. I had been monitoring it, but I guess the progress was too slow for me to realize it was worsening. That was a massive blow. After some frantic calls by my mom, Coach Alex saved me and offered to let me borrow his old bike for the race. I brought it to the shop and with Caleb's help at Adventure Cycles we transferred as much of my fit numbers as we could onto it. Very thankful for good people. After it was as good as we could make it with just 12-14 hours before the start, I went home for the first time to try to finish packing. I had thought I would have plenty of time before we left, but it couldn't just be that easy. I was so frustrated that everything was taking so long, and nothing was happening as I needed it to that thoughts of not starting were all that I could think about. After some tears and a lot of thought I knew that I would be happier if I started and DNFed than if I didn't start at all. We made the drive to Clayton.

Friday: We had an early 5:50 wake up to make the half hour drive to the start. I fully expected to not be able to sleep due to nervous energy, but I slept surprisingly comfortably in an otherwise gross hotel. I ate my oatmeal and hopped in the truck to make it to a random bridge on the Georgia South Caroline border. We started promptly at 8 and started the journey to Alabama with doubt ever present in my mind. We started out pretty easy meeting people and in a decent sized group of maybe 10 at most. As we went further into the first 15 miles people started to drop, and other pulled away as the climbs got longer and steeper. I stayed near to the front. Near mile 35 we had our first big obstacle of the day; Nick crashed in a corner and reopened a major wound from a few weeks back. Blood was pouring down his arm by the time I got back to him. I used antiseptic wipes and electrical tape to patch him as best as I could. That surprisingly stopped the bleeding pretty quickly. I have never been one that is comfortable around blood or injuries, but I managed better than I would've expected. 55 miles in and we got to the Around then Bend hostel where they were selling food and drinks to TNGA riders. The owners luckily had a great medical kit, so we took off my makeshift patch job. That caused him to start bleeding even more now, so we had to use tons of gauze and bandages to stop it this time. We began climbing again only to figure out that Nick left his wallet a couple miles down the road. Since the TNGA didn't have enough miles or climbing, I went back down the mountain to get it for him. After some trouble free miles and endless climbs we descended Hickory Nut off of the endless Trey Mountain going into Helen. Somewhere along the descent Nick hit or brushed his arm on something, and it began bleeding again. We didn't know this at the time because it was dark. We rolled into the gas station along the route in Helen to discover that his jacket sleeve was soaked with blood. After unwrapping, cleaning, and reapplying aid to him, he made the decision that it was neither safe nor worth it to continue on in the shape he was in. I know he was disappointed, but he handled it admirably well as it was as much, if not even more, of a goal for him as it was for me. He will be back soon, though, and next time he will show it who's boss. There were two single speeders stopped with us at the gas station. We had been back and forth with them all day, but had never really talked with them. I was hesitant to ask them to take in a 16 year old with zero experience, but they were absolutely okay with it. I can't even begin to thank them enough for saving my race. The three of us pushed on up Hogpen and Wolfpen which are two more endless climbs, but thankfully they were both paved. In the middle of the two we snuck into Vogel State Park and took a much needed mental break. The day had been more than exhausting, and it wasn't over yet. After Wolfpen was a long, fun descent that we were probably going a bit too fast on considering it was completely dark, but it was awesome. At the bottom was Coopers Creek store. They were staying open 24 hours for TNGA, and had home made meals and all kinds of food. We arrived there at 3am on Saturday, but I consider it part of Friday. There I ate the best lasagna I've ever had, but that might just have been the hunger talking. We went to sleep a little after 4 in a wet grassy field, but I ended up with maybe an hour as my sleep setup was less than ideal.

Saturday: The three of us woke up around 7 and ate a nice breakfast at Coopers Creek. I like the lasagna so much that I ate it again for breakfast. I wanted to stay there forever as it was very inviting and cozy. Unfortunately for us, though, we still had a lot more miles left. We ate another breakfast at Iron Bridge Cafe a few hours later. Stanley gap came a little while after that. It was just endless, steep hike-a-bike. Some of it was so hard that it was a struggle to find a way to push your bike up it, much less ride it! It was a fun, rowdy descent back down, though. After Stanley we had a handful more easy, flat miles before we began the trek up Mountaintown on Pinhoti 0. P0 was a muddy, wet mess all the way up. After some anger and way too many hours we were at the top. We descended the first part of Potato Patch, and went into the Bear Creek singletrack where I broke my frame only a few weeks earlier. As awesome as it would've been to clear it as redemption, I don't usually make super dumb decisions (doing TNGA was an exception), so I walked it. After that was P1 which was mostly fine, and then P2. It started to rain on P2, and steadily got worse as night rolled in. The rain got to the point where it was so thick and heavy that using a headlight was useless because you couldn't see anything but the reflection of the light off of the rain. After a whole lot of cursing on the P2 descent, the route had mercy on us as we finally hit the gravel road to Mulberry Gap where we would spend our second night. We arrived there around 10pm. They had hot food, and I got a fantastic burrito. We got the full package, and had a warm bed, shower, and we had our clothes washed. I think we slept to 6 hours which really recharged my systems since I had hardly slept the night before. I had pretty bad trench foot which was extremely painful, but I could luckily solve that by airing them out as I slept.

Sunday: After another burrito for breakfast we started riding again. Leaving Mulberry was so hard since I knew what I was getting myself into. Luckily I wasn't alone, or I might've stayed. There was a lot of hours of hiking up Pinhotis 3-5. Because of the nature of the weekend we got poured on quite a few times. Since we started the morning with good spirits it went surprisingly quickly though. In Ramhurst, the first town of the day, we stocked up on food for the flat 25 mile transfer into Dalton where the next big section would start. While we may have not been able to make good time because Cedar and Brian only had a top speed of about 13, the reprieve was nice. In Dalton we ate McDonalds and restocked at a neighboring gas station. I had never ridden this last part of the course, but based on the elevation profile I thought that after the Snake it would be pretty easy and fast until the finish. I was sorely mistaken. The climb up Dug Gap was not as bad as I expected it to be, but then we started the Snake. My technical skills are not great, so I struggled through a lot of it. I did enjoy that first part until the gravel road bomb because the challenge made it fun. I still walked a lot of it. Brian and Cedar live near Pisgah, so their technical skills far exceeded mine, but they would wait for me every few miles. We stopped at the first gravel road we got to to eat, and I thought the course would ease up at this point. The trails may have been the same difficulty as anything we had ridden before, but it seemed much harder and much steeper. It seemed like every climb was impossibly steep and long. We were moving at a pace slower than seemed than possible. Cedar had been cursing David Muse (TNGA route creator)earlier, and now I was fully on board. I just wasn't having fun any more. The great part of riding with multiple people is that usually there will be at least one person in good spirits, though, so they eventually picked me up out of that hole. After that awful singletrack we got to some "gravel" that was just essentially just grass that was a path based on the fact that there were no trees going through the middle. It may have been a gravel road at one point, but you couldn't see your own front tire, much less anything buried in that grass. It had been hammered with rain over the past couple days, so there would be mud holes that we couldn't see that we would smash straight through, almost getting thrown off our bikes each time. There were logs in there that you didn't know about until either the guy in front of you started cursing or you smashed straight into them yourself. Cedar saw the eyes of coyote just off the trail on one of the descents, and we could hear their howling all round us. It was unnerving as it was the only noise besides that of our tires on the trail. At this point Cedar wanted to ride straight to the finish, and Brian wanted to sleep. I was torn as I wanted to get out of this awful state, but I was also mentally tired. I didn't really need sleep as I was still rested from the previous night at Mulberry Gap, but I needed a break. We laid down on the side of the gravel driveway of the horse barn at mile 285. It has normally been open to sleep at and fill up water bottles at, but this time both gates were locked, and it was very obvious they didn't want us to enter. We laid down from 1-3am. The bugs were awful, so again I got no sleep.

Monday: When we got up we decided to hop the fence to fill up our bottles from their hose. Every sound was amplified by the silence. I was sure that we would be heard, but thankfully we were fine. We rolled out some easy miles to the first really big climb of the day. Again more hiking for miles. At least it was steep so we gained elevation quickly. I stayed at the back with Brian while Cedar pushed ahead with strong legs. The sunrise was incredible over the surrounding mountains as we trudged to the top. Brian was having a bad time, so I tried to help pull him out of it like he did to me. At the top of the climb we had a fun descent before rolling along the ridgeline for some miles. The climbs at the top were steep, but thankfully short. After a longer descent off the ridge we crossed a highway before beginning yet another steep climb. We knew there was a gas station 4-5 miles off course, but we really wanted to get to the finish as soon as possible. I had eaten hardly anything since we started riding that morning, so I was dangerously out of calories. We decided to keep going, and Brian kindly gave me some of his food. The climb was more steep gravel that was mostly walked. About a half mile after we started the trail from the top we still hadn't been able to ride because it was so rocky. Brian to checked his phone only to discover that this trail went on for the next 7 miles. He made the decision that he was pulling out of the TNGA. We had no idea where Cedar was in relation to us, and my mom was adamant about me having someone with me at all times being only 16. I knew pulling out with only 55 miles left was not an option with hundreds of hours put into training, money spent, people rooting for me, etc. I called Cedar to let him know what was happening, and he said to get moving, and he'd meet me at the parking lot at the bottom. I rode harder than I ever have to make up time. It was incredible just how deep I could dig with zero calories in my stomach and over 300 miles into something like this, but I was mushing VO2 max up every climb. I'm not sure how long had passed, but I finally caught up. Cedar gave me half of an energy bar, which brought me back to life. That trail ended soon after. We then started on a rail trail. When I heard that I thought of a Silver Comet esque trail, but in reality it was just slightly pressed down grass and occasionally some gravel. The slow pace continued. Cedar was out of water, and I thought I still had two full bottles, but in reality I gave him my only one. We knew there was gas stations at mile 325, but time was traveling impossibly slow. I couldn't see straight and started catching myself drifting off the trail. WHat seemed like days later we got to the first gas station. It was easily the most gross thing I have ever seen. I thankfully didn't have to go, but apparently the only toilet was full of crap. I was lucky I was so desperate or else I would've walked straight out. I ate an absolutely disgusting 840 calorie microwavable cheeseburger and drank two large sodas. I am now disgusted by myself, but I was so desperate that I didn't mind. After the gas station we were riding on a highway for what seemed like an eternity because the the brutal heat. There was no shade in sight and the sun was beating down on us. I drank most of the 50 ounces of gatorade I had in the first half hour. We eventually got off the busy highways and onto backroads which were much more enjoyable. We filled up our bottles in Cave Springs straight from the springs. That was easily the best water I have ever consumed. We only had 15 miles left, and knew we still had one Pinhoti left before the finish. At this point the clutch on the derailleur had gotten so dry that it would squeak incredibly loudly every time I pedaled. Just another misfortune, but at least I was almost done. The last trail had mercy on us and was very easy, but it certainly made progress slow. We popped out on a wide open gravel road that we took most of the way to the finish. I was smiling ear to ear because I was so glad to be this close to the finish. At the same time, it was kind of sad because it had been such an incredible journey with so many obstacles, lows, highs, and varying emotions. We made the turn onto the Silver Comet which the route finished on, and I was elated. Just a couple seconds later the Comet crossed a road and Cedar called out that there was a car left, but I was right about to cross. I locked up the brakes and skidded to a stop, but my cleats were so jammed with mud that I couldn't unclip. I fell. I was so angry that it happened so close to the end, but I couldn't let that damage my mood. I laughed it off and kept going the last miles. I told Cedar that I'd let him cross the line first so that they could get a good picture, but he said we would finish together. I entered Alabama with a stupid grin on my face and so many emotions to express. So many things went wrong, didn't work out how I wanted, didn't happen at all, yet somehow I was still riding my bike through the make believe line that separates two states. I was overjoyed.

While it may have looked nothing like I expected it to, I wouldn't have changed anything about it. TNGA had been a long time goal, and I am still in awe that I knocked it out. While it was the hardest thing I have ever done by an immeasurable amount, I can't help but think I could do it faster, go further, do something bigger. But as for now I will stick to the couch for a little while and try to feel normal again. I can't begin to thank all the people who helped me get here and to the finish line of such an incredible journey. The list is endless, but most importantly my parents, sister, Coach Elliott, Nick, Coach Alex, Caleb, Cedar, and Brian. Until next year, TNGA!