Bucket List Biking

Why climb Everest? Because it's there.

With about this level of reasoning my newly minted PhD friend SI and I (SD) set out to complete an item on the bucket list-bike commute from his home in Alabama to our home in Tennessee. Distance: 121 miles. Route: The beautiful rolling hills of the Natchez Trace.

To prepare for this ride, I had spent the past two weekends fixing up my bike which cost a lot more than I would have liked, but was cheaper than the $75,000 for an Everest climb. It would have been nice to also have done some training, but hey I've ridden 100 miles without training before and it was only the most miserable bike ride I have ever had. So what if this would be almost 20 miles further than I have ever ridden before.

The great thing about the Trace is that it has marker every (almost) mile, so that we could count down the miles left. Since we rode 100 miles on the trace, these markers also lent themselves to the world longest version of "99 bottles of beer on the wall..."


The first 60 miles were quite pleasant, full of sights and conversation. AM sagged us at the halfway point and although SI's heart rate monitor kept beeping to tell him he should be working harder, he didn't seem to mind, and we were able to maintain at least a reasonable pace.

Shortly thereafter, though, we hit a long, long climb that really took it out of me, and from then on, the ride stop being much about fun and was more just about finishing what we had started out to do.

From mile 80-95, I kept debating whether it would be best just to stop by the side of the road at the century mark and let SI ride on to finish as my pace had slowed to a crawl so that not only was he easily dropping me on every climb, but he was even dropping me on the downhills. But I figured by then I had ridden too far to quit.

Thanks to the SAG support from CI and kids at the century mark, which included pouring a gallon of cold water on my head, I felt much better and was able to finish and that's all that really counts to a commuting cyclist like me.

Car Accident

My Saturday was pretty much shattered by an afternoon car collision. After dropping off a slide to one of our friend, I decided to take the back road to take JP short shopping at Old Navy. On our way there, a car hit our minivan on the front left driver side. I am mostly shaken by the accident but JP and I are fine. The guy was sure apologetic about the accident stating that it was all his fault. I am going to file a claim through his car insurance, so that we don't have to pay any deductable.

ABD no longer

Congratulations to SI, the last of a cohort of my friends and family to go from ABD to PhD! It took longer than his wife expected, but it doesn't matter now, it's done and he can get his promotion from instructor to assistant professor.

Now the race is on for tenure. I'm thinking NG or JS has the inside track. (Or MTN if you count secondary education tenure.) BE has had a temporary set-back but I'm sure will be coming back strong.

First & Second Day of School

This year we have a child in 3 schools. One in elementary, one in middle school and one in high school. Our morning started at 4:30 a.m. with JP waking up to get ready for seminary which starts at 5:30 a.m. I(AM) take him to early seminary and 2 of his friends in our ward. Then another parent will take him to high school which starts at 7:05 a.m. Next kid to wake up is ME at 6:30 a.m. this is her very important day. She is in KINDERGARTEN. Wow our little princess is all grown up. Her school starts at 8 a.m. You are wondering why does she wakes up so early. This is the answer, because it will give her time to really wake-up and start moving to get ready. My kids got used to waking up late during summer time, now it is time to get their body accustomed to getting up early. ME's 2 days of half-day were exciting. She said she doesn't have all her classmates name memorize but by the end of next week she will be able to know them. JP is going to have a full and busy high school schedule, but he is excited about all his teachers and subjects. He was overwhelmed of how big high school compare to middle school. But on the second day, he manage to find his classes. JA is excited to be back in school. This year she will be walking to school by herself and she is the only one that can sleep in because her school doesn't start until 8:45 a.m.

I am happy that the kids had a wonderful 2 days of school. I am not excited about all the paper works that they all brought home for me to fill out.

ME's First Day of Kindergarten (Half-Day)

TIME TO BE SERIOUS IN MY SCHOOL WORK....COLORING

EXCITED TO RIDE THE SCHOOL BUS....ALL BY MYSELF

WOW!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE AN EXERCISE....LUCKILY IT HAS A HANDLEBAR TO HELP ME WITH EVERY STEPS!!!

I SURVIVED THE BUS RIDE!!! NOW I HAVE TO WATCH MY STEPS OUT OF THE BUS!

Fiery Gizzard and Foster Falls

Fiery Gizzard Trail
For reference, the first 1.2 miles (2.4 mile roundtrip) is what we hiked for the family reunion in 2006. Total DogHole/Fiery Gizzard loop is 9.7 miles.

At 1.5 mile mile, we leave the official Fiery Gizzard trail to take the Doghole Trailloop, which climbs up the bluff and thenfollows this for about 2 miles, were it reconnects to the Fiery Gizzard trail at the Ravenpoint junction near the backpacking campsite.

Doghole Mine-a saltpeter mine so named because only a dog could walk upright into it.


2.7 mile Yellow Pine Cascade-good spring for reloading water before reaching camp (we were trying to minimize hauling water weight.

3.4 mile Werner Point-one of the nice look out point overlooking Fiery Gizzard Gorge.


4.3 mile Ravenpoint campsite (home of enormous spider see other posts.)

Anderson Falls (descend wooden platform to reach base of falls and water for breakfast and morning hiking.)


Trail Notes: Raven Point junction/campsite is the midpoint on the trail and where Doghole Trail reconnects with the Fiery Gizzard trail. Continuing along Fiery Gizzard trail on the bluff 0.2 miles brings you past Anderson Falls and then if you continued on the trail (which we did not do) for another 8 miles it would bring you to Foster Falls trailhead. A halfmile spur (0.9 mile round trip) from the junction takes you out to the end of Ravenpoint. Taking the Fiery Gizzard trail that descend into Fiery Gizzard Gorge returns back to Grundy Forest trailhead where we started.



The spur out to Ravenpoint gives nearly 360 degree view of Fiery Gizzard Gulch. Saw red-tail hawk flying below us. JPD thought a zipline across the gulch would be fun. A several pitch rapple would have saved us some effort...

This tree at Raven point seemed to be growing out of solid rock.


Near the bottom of the descent into Fiery Gizzard Gorge (Maybe the 5.5 mile mark?) after cutting our way through spiderwebs.


Most of the trail in the Gorge consisted of rock-hopping. Good thing our packs were lighter thanks to eating dinner and breakfast already!


Cascade were we ate lunch. Maybe 6.5 mile mark?


Tree near cascade that seemed to be growing out of rock slab.

Street curb falls Maybe 7.1 mile mark?

Water cutting channels in the rock

JPD in the "fruit bowl." 7.8 mile mark? Now the hiking got easy again. Thank goodness, our legs were shot.

Sycamore Falls 8.5 mile mark. What we have been waiting for all day! The chance to swim in the water fall pool beneath the 12 foot falls. SD also jumped from top of falls (which according to sign at trailhead is not permitted, good thing we didn't read it before we started!) For reference this was our final point on family reunion hike.


After finishing our hike, we then drove to the Foster Falls (the other end of the Fiery Gizzard Trail. To through hike this someday we will need to have two cars. That hike is a total of 12.5 miles.) Our original plan was to backpack in the 0.5 miles to the Father Adamz campground, the last campsite at the far end of the Fiery Gizzard Trail, but we were tired and a sign said the campground was full and the next campground was 2.3 miles in along the trail.

So we just hike to the bottom of Foster Falls,

SD swam,


we watched this crazy guy free climb halfway up the falls, then we just hiked into Father Adamz for future reference (it would make a great family camping site, just need to haul the stuff a little ways,) and then we drove home.

Arachnaphobia Fiery Gizzard-style

Spiders Hunting Humans

We were so excited when we got to the Ravenpoint backpacking campsite, because it had an outhouse...


..until we tried to use it.

I was originally thinking this was a brown recluse, but now looking up pictures on the web and comparing to our pictures, it clearly isn't. This thing is large (Remember a toilet seat is probably 3 to 4 inches wide and this baby's legs spanned that easily). Anyone out there with more expertise that can identify it?


I tried to kill it, but it survived one good whack with a stick and then ran and hid. We decided that the standard backpacking call of the wild procedures would suffice for us.

Glowing Blue Lights

So I was sitting in the dark with my headlight on, when I saw a tiny blue light being reflected back at me. Curious, and thinking someone had left some trinket behind, I went over to investigate, but after lifting the leaves away, all I could see was a small spider. Then when I went back to my original position, I realized it was the spider eyes that were reflecting the light. The scary thing was how many more of these little blue lights I saw that night will walking around. Who's woods these are I think I know, their eyes make the forest glow...

Breaking Trail

Then hiking down the arduous descent (thanks goodness we were not ascending) from the Raven point to Fiery Gizzard creek for our return trip, I was breaking thru webs across the trail every couple yards. Finally I picked up long stick and start slashing X's through the air as I walked along. I must have looked quite comical. This helped somewhat, but I still managed to get a couple of spiders dangling in my face from my hat. I was so happy when we started running into groups coming the other direction on the trail, as that cut down on the number of spidey incidences.

Mushroom Hunting in Fiery Gizzard

JPD and I went mushroom hunting along the Fiery Gizzard Trail

We found an enormous variety of mushrooms that thanks to our intimate knowledge of Tennessee flora we were able to identify.

Barstool mushoom-used both to sit on while you dine, as well as dinner for four.

Golfball mushroom- used by weekend hackers to practice their tee shots.


Apple Core mushroom-taste sweet with a delicate fruity overtones, unfortunately highly toxic (believed to be the mushroom used by Snow White's wicked stepmother.)


Space Alien mushroom-very exotic taste, slight metallic, can give diner the sensation that they have been abducted.


Leopard Skin mushroom-has a taste that can only be appreciated by the fashion challenged.


Purple Heart mushroom-said to have restorative properties.


Arrow Mushroom (may be misidentified)-can be used to poison arrow tips.


Yellow Butterfly Mushroom-light and flighty taste with a hint of lemon.


Pineapple Mushroom-a definite tropical fruity taste.


Kidney Bean Mushroom-Children rarely like the taste of this fiborous fungi, but excellent when stewed in chilis and soups. Kiwi Mushroom-fruity and exotic taste with a odd texture.


Yellow Mellow mushroom-a sweet and mellow taste with a slight pop.


Papaya Mushroom-rare and hard to find in the United States, but of so delicious.


Scalloped Potato Mushrooms-always come is packs, a staple of many a large Appalachian family.

Figure 8 mushroom-Eaten by skaters before big competitions, boring, but nourishing.


Orange Hibiscus Mushroom-A tropical delicacy.


Flying Ninja Disc Mushroom-Their incredibly sharp edges allow these shrooms to be used as weapons, but also to add kick to any sushi.


Kissing Ms. Pacman Mushroom-Can be added to soups to increase passion. Should not be used in excess.


Cotton Ball Mushrooms-hundreds of uses, but not for food.