Travels in the NW Georgia Mountains

September 18, 2005

I'm trying out a new format for sharing my pics with family and friends so I'll have to ask everyone to bear with me while I work out the kinks. The following collection of photos were taken while researching a ride I'm planning with a buddy from work. He commented the other day that one weekend we should just get on the bikes and ride. He's more of a weekend rider, and infrequently at that. It's not that he doesn't enjoy riding, he simply has too many demands on his time. At the time he mentioned riding I was planning a trip up Lookout Mountain in the furtherst corner of NW Georgia. I had just returned from a prior trip in that area and his comment made me think I could combine part of that prior trip with the Lookout Mountain loop and create a day-long ride. Last Sunday I decided to test-ride the trip before I got up a group ride. Here are the photos from my ride.

Leaving home later than planned, it was already mid-day before I got to the first area I wanted to photograph. This marshy area (behind bike in photo) is only a few inches below road level. I suspect the slightest rain would be enough to flood the road and create one truly hazardous road!

This first half of my trip was a repeat of a ride I took a few weeks ago. It begins with a trip through two fertile mountain valleys, one nestled beside Pigeon Mountain and the other between Lookout Mountain and Pigeon Mountain. This area was well settled by the Cherokee and Creek Indians before the arrival of the white man.

After the following road sign you enter the Johns Mountain Wildlife Management Area. The road meanders along a stream and the roadside is dotted with campsites. Both times I've been through this area the smell of campfires took me back to the old days of Boy Scout trips in the North Georgia Mountains.

The first leg of my route ends in the town of Villanow, GA. Turning south I entered a valley dotted with hay fields and barns. This is just one of dozen such scenes.

Nearly every turn of the road in this corner of NW Georgia reminds you that you're in the Bible Belt. Other than residences, I think I saw more churches per mile of road than any building. This is one of the more picturesque churches I found.

I saw the following home and had to turn around for a photo. Unfortunately, the home owner wasn't too pleased that a helmeted freak was standing in front of his home, taking photos. I snapped a couple of pics but will have to return when the home owner isn't standing there waving me off. Nice home.

On my last trip through this area I found that one particular road on my route brought me down off Lookout Mountain in, how shall we say, rather direct fashion. In little more than four switchbacks of the road you drop from the top of the mountain to the valley below. Shortly after reaching the valley below there's an old stone structure on the left side of the road. Motorcycles are nearly always lined up outside so I pulled my bike in for a rest. Not to mention a sandwich, Moon Pie, and co-cola.

Back on the road again I was heading for the new section of the day's ride. Leaving the tire tracks of my prior trip I headed into new territory, up Lookout Moutain again and it's northern most point. Lookout Mountain terminates just south of Chatanooga, TN. Here the Incline Railway provides a view of the city below.

Since I had eaten at the old stone building a few hours earlier I wasn't really hungry but I think my next trip will include a meal here, at the Lookout Mountain Cafe. It has a nice patio shaded by these trees and the menue runs from burgers to salmon. Mmm, good eats!

I turned south from the tip of Lookout Mountain and rode along the western edge where views of the valley below peer from between homes perched at the top of the mountain. The guide book I have mentioned a site where hang gliders launch from the mountain. This windsock told me I was approaching the area.

As I stopped to take in the view I realized that not all the birds I saw in the sky were birds. Above me were at least a dozen human "birds" sailing on the thermals created by easterly winds hitting the western slope of Lookout Mountain. The neon green glider in the following photo was actually much closer to the mountain than he appears here. This is due to the effect a wide angle lens has on perspective in a photograph. I must return to this area for more photos!

This young couple found perhaps the best viewing spot to take in the glider action.

The valley far below is on the western side of Lookout Mountain but appears to be a carbon copy of what I rode through on the eastern side just a few hours earlier. Good riding country!

It was getting late in the day and I wanted to return home before dark. I turned my bike Southeast and rode GA 136 back to Interstate 75. On my way I stopped at a rail road crossing with a train passing through the intersection. After the train passed I pulled my bike off the road so that I could, um, "relieve" myself of a certain burden. (There, is the euphemistic enough)? As I returned to the bike I heard another train coming. As the folks on the Aero750 forum are aware, I like to use short and wide photo signature pics of my bike in unusual settings. There were no other cars around I thought it would be a great opportunity to park my bike across the middle of the street and get a photo of her with a train speeding across the background. As the crossing guard rails began to drop I began moving the bike into the road. Just then I saw a car approaching behind me. I had to make a quick decision whether to follow through with the planned photo or stop now for safety reasons. I decided on the latter just as the third rail car passed. It was the third and LAST rail car. Turns out that it was a VERY short train that was waiting on a side line for the prior train to pass before continuing on its way. Being so short there never would have been enough time to get the photo I wanted anyways. I'm just surprised I chose safety over the photo. Must be getting old! ;-)

Well, that's it for the first installment of my motophoto blog. Please give me some feedback as to how easy it was to view this blogspot, the display quality and brightness of the photos and any other issues. If you're a forum member you can post a reply to the message where you found this link. Family and other friends should already have my email address. If you simply ran across this site and want to yell at me, then just use the "comments" option.

Thanks for your time!

Jess