Cloudland Tour, Day 1
Winter is almost over in Chicago. Somewhere south Spring has arrived. Time for a road trip!
Perhaps troubled by fact the I had only ridden the minimum of ten miles in Georgia, this road trip's destination was Cloudland Canyon State Park in northern Georgia with stops in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee (I needn't have worried as I bike would return to Georgia in the fall).
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| PLS: Muscatatuck NWR, Wood Duck Trail (4 miles) |
After a stretch-the-legs ride and lunch in Indiana. I arrive at Mammoth Cave National Park.
Most visitors head straight to the cave tours. It is the longest known cave system in the world. But Mammoth Cave has more than just caves. On the surface, the park features 70 miles of hiking trails on 52,000 acres, 25 miles of paddling on the Green River as well as 10 miles of single track.
It's still early when I park at my campsite, so I immediately unload my 29er hardtail and head out. The mountain bike trails are on the other side of the Green River. The Green River has no bridge. Instead it operates a ferry until 6pm. Should be plenty of time to get some mountain biking in.
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| Green River ferry |
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| Ferry lean |
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| Mammoth Cave NP has some nice single track |
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| But the concrete picnic tables are the worst |
We camped here once before when the kids were little. The kids found a strange albino grasshopper hopping around the campsite. It wasn't until years later that I realized the grasshopper had wandered out of the cave system as cave inhabitants are often albinos.
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| O'Hara's Nitro Stout paired with homemade spaghetti |
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| Bike route through Mammoth Cave N.P. |
Next stop, Prentice Cooper State Forest.
| State: |
Kentucky |
| Date: |
2022-04-10 |
| Route: |
Mammoth Case NP: Campground to Big Hollow North Loop mountain bike trail |
| Distance: |
12 miles |
