The Battle of Apple Pie Ridge

Today, I finally did it after several years of thinking about it and being somewhat unsure that I could do it. I climbed Apple Pie Ridge and Battle is correct and I must confess that the ridge won. I had to stop 2 times to huff and puff so I guess I will have to try again in a couple of weeks to see if I can go all the way up without stopping.

The picture below is at the end of Apple Pie Ridge where it connects to Old Cornelia Highway.



This is looking up the hill and one must admit, that don't look steep. Optical illusion at its best. In addition, what you see is just the steep part. There is about 2 to 3 miles of climbing over the entire length of the road.


This is looking back over my shoulder from the top of the steep climb - 17% grade for about 1/4 mile or a bit more. Athens, GA is in the distant background but would not be visible even on a very clear day since there are no high rise type buildings.


The link will take you to a map of the ride and you can bring up the elevation chart which shows how steep some of this was. Ride time was 2:06:54 and I averaged abit over 13 miles per hour even with the climb. Overall climbing today was 2,572 feet. The good side of that is there was also almost 2,572 of downhill runs.