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deCycles Southeast America 2014
Journal Entry
Day 17 ... Monday, July 7

Start: Asheville, NC

End: Gatlinburg, TN

Distance: 90-miles

Terrain: Two huge mountain climbs

Climate: High 82-degrees  Sunny, gorgeous.

Wheeeeee!  What a day!  A gorgeous day for pain and gain.  The deCycles had two mountains to climb today.  The riders covered 90-miles and climbed over 15,000-vertical feet with the big climb over Newfound Gap in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  That is a major league accomplishment.  It's like doing the Hilly Hundred ride in Monroe County twice in one day with three times the amount of climbing.   Before departing Asheville, the look on the rider's faces was either deep down fear or pure anticipation and excitement.  There are several girls struggling on this trip mostly because of undertraining.  They have spent a lot of time in the SAG wagon.  None of the boys have escaped to the SAG wagons because of riding difficulties. Those who did most of the pre-trip training rides are having the most fun.  As a collective group, the boys are the movers and shakers out on the road.  It's off road that becomes their problem.  It's hard for some of them to focus.  That probably comes as no surprise to their parents.

After pedaling through downtown Asheville, the riders climbed about 2500-ft over the first mountain.  They skirted around beautiful Lake Junaluska.  The scenery was breathtaking.  And then, the big payback.  The downhill into Cherokee, a large Indiana reservation on the east side of Great Smoky Mountain NP, was the big thrill.  Whoooosh!  Yeeeehaw!  What a buzz.  This had much more zip than the zipline trip the previous day or any amusement ride in Universal Studios last week.  The downhiil was payback for a hard fought climb up the eastside of the mountain.  However, it is the scariest for me.  At the top of every big mountain, I have vivid thoughts of an unsuspecting teenager flying over the guardrail.  I'm particularly talking about the boys.  Medical science proves that the teenage boy's brain is not fully wired for risk and consequence.  So for that reason, the adult leaders have to literally get in their face.  Our goal for the boys is for them to complain at the bottom of the hill uttering ... "Gee, I wish I would have gone faster!" ... instead of muttering ..."I wish I would have gone slower!" ... while spending time in the emergency room.  

After lunch in Cherokee, the riders focused on their next challenge ... climbing Newfound Gap in the national park.  The 3000-ft climb was absolutely gorgeous to an elevation of over 5000-ft.  The boys attacked that mountain.  Cricket chose the project of pulling the slower girls up the hill.  It took them forever.  Not sure how they kept their bikes upright going under 2-mph.  Leading slower riders up a huge mountain is a thankless job and Cricket was exhausted from constant cheerleading.  Going slower can actually be more challenging because the aching goes to the skeleton, not the muscles.  She is a great role model for these young ladies who are nearly a half century younger and in their prime.

Reaching the top of a huge mountain is always a unique achievement.  The reward is the scenery and self esteem and persistence.  The payback again is the downhill.  Wheeeee!  Whooosh!  Whoosh again!  40-mph speeds on a smooth winding and curvy downhill is the ride of your life.  All the GO PRO cameras were recording the thrill.  My camera battery died, so for the first time in a long time, I flew down the mountain without stopping to roll the camera on other riders.  Conversely, I became the filming subject when rookie Matt Schwarzkopf came up behind me with his GO PRO unit.  So it was time to show off some speed, some cornering, and some screaming downhill speed.  A few hours later, we watched the video and it is absolutely insane.  Matt did an amazing job recording that downhill.  

The downhill ended in the charming town of Gatlinburg with a lot of riders with huge smiles on their faces.  Several indicated today was the best day of the trip.  The ride was in stark contrast to the flat terrain of the first half of the trip.  And this is what is so neat about this trip ... a combination of flat seashore riding to the challenges and thrills deep in the mountains.  Now we get to spend a rest day in Gatlinburg to see the sights and spend some money.  This is also a tourist trap and it's easy for teenagers to depart the town with empty pockets.

Now it's time to talk about people.  Male rookies Caleb Langley, Drew Stults, Luke Burks, and Sam Durnil are complete gentlemen.  Strong and powerful, handsome and graceful.  Rookie JD NIght is our fun guy and he's learning how not to destroy a bike.  The Kase twins, Dillon Dayhoff, Louis Luke, Jake Lowinger, and Gibson Oliver are powerful machines in smaller younger bodies.  Alex Asher, Aiden Weiner, and Oliver Hannel are multi-talented young rookies who add more than biking to the fun on this bike trip.  

Female rookie standouts are Gretchen Lieffers, Abbey Guidry, Grace Saccone, Samantha Hayes, Sadie Farmer, and Becca Belcher are having no problems getting down the road.  They are the deCycles poster girls who are tiny but mighty.  When onlookers see these girls with a gameface and determination to never quit, they are amazed.  

The deCycles roster is loaded with veteran superstars too numerous to mention.  Maggie Kennedy and Rachel Shaefer are both previous Female deCycles Rider of the Year award recipients.  They continue to participate as All-Star riders.   Jared Arthur and Nick Perhala are also previous Male deCycles Rider of the Year award recipients.  Both are veteran group leaders and power their groups down the road.  I could go on and on bragging on all the other multi-trip veterans and we'll acknowledge them later.

We just found out that two multitrip veterans who first met on the deCycles 2003 Key West to Bloomington trip have announced their engagement.  6-trip deCycles veteran Colin Henry proposed to 5-trip veteran Liza Horton this past weekend.  Both of these veterans were strong and fun group leaders and are now getting married.  Cycling is life and they will be a fun couple.  You never know who you will meet on a deCycles trip.

There are 5-days and about 500-miles left to pedal before rolling into downtown Bloomington this coming Sunday at around 5:00pm.  But first, we will spend this rest day in Gatlinburg having fun, fun, fun.

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