# Cleveland TN...



## rbart4506 (Aug 4, 2004)

Hey guys...

My wife and I will be heading down to Cleveland to do some riding and visiting. My wife has an aunt and uncle in town and we've been going down pretty regularly to do some riding. We first started with mountain biking at the Occee Whitewater center and Chilhowee, but have now since switched to road biking.

We're looking for some ride routes in the area, or anyone that might be interested in hooking up for a ride. We'll be arriving in town on Friday May 16th and leaving town on the Monday...We'll be heading to Rome, GA for there...We're hooking up some ride buddies down there to tour the area.

I've checked out the Chatbike site and grabbed the Cleveland routes from there (we did those the last time we were down). I've also looked at MapMyRide and found a few rides there. Only issue is not being certain of road conditions for those routes.

We're all set with bike shops, since we've been down a few times. We always stop in at Scotts and David knows us by name. We also are starting to get familiar with Trailhead since they are a Specialized shop and we ride Specialized.

Any leads would be appreciated...

Rich


----------



## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

Hey Rich,

Welcome to Cleveland. Unfortunately, I will be down in Florida while you are here. There are tons of great roads to ride on. Just about any road that leads out of town is a great one, and there are tons of places to explore. 

I go to Trailhead bike shop all the time. Charles and Corrie are great and have always given me great service.

If there is a way to let me know where you are going to ride I can tell you what it is like.

Brian


----------



## rbart4506 (Aug 4, 2004)

Brian,

Thanks for getting back to me. I've gotten a couple rides from the MapMyRide site, both head out from Scotts Shop. One of the rides heads North on the west side of I75 to Old Lower River Road and returns to Cleveland along Chatata Valley Road. The other one heads south and touches Georgia along Red Clay Rd. 

I understand what you mean about the quality of rides heading out of town. It's kind of the same as here. Pretty well anywhere you head is good, you just need to have an idea of direction.

Our fear is getting lost, but I've grabbed the routes and will be redrawing them on maps that I have printed from Microsoft Streets and Trips. The quality of those maps are much better and show more road names.

The big difference between there and here is that a majority of our roads are on a grid system. So you know that ever mile or so you will be running into a major road. Down there is seems you can ride miles at a time before you run into another road. By then you've twisted and turned so much you loose your sense of direction.

All I know is I can't wait until it's time to go!


----------



## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

rbart4506 said:


> The big difference between there and here is that a majority of our roads are on a grid system. So you know that ever mile or so you will be running into a major road. Down there is seems you can ride miles at a time before you run into another road. By then you've twisted and turned so much you loose your sense of direction.
> 
> All I know is I can't wait until it's time to go!


 
LOL. Tell me about it. When I first moved to Cleveland in 1999 I thought I would do some exploring by bicycle. I started out on a nice 15 mile ride, with only 1 bottle of water. It ended up being a 50 mile ride and I completely bonked. I had started going north on Frontage road (the road that you are going north on from Scotts) and turned 
left on some county highway. Then I ended up in Georgetown. I was a long way away.

One of my favorite rides is to go north up Michigan Ave, Turn right at Bowater (the paper mill) and go towards Chilhowee. There are a ton of great county roads around there and not a car in sight. If you are feeling frisky you can ride all the way up to Chilhowee.

Brian


----------



## rbart4506 (Aug 4, 2004)

Cool....

Now that I look at that area you describe we actually might be able to venture right from my wife's aunt and uncle's place. They live of Bates Pike, between Burke Rd and Lyle Rd. If we could head out from there that would be great because it would save us some gas.

Once again, that is something we are use to doing at home. We rarely if ever drive to a ride start, we just head out from home and go...


----------



## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

I don't really know of anywhere in Cleveland that you couldn't just go for a ride from your doorstep. You may have to deal with some traffic but for only about a mile or two; and we are talking about small town traffic also.

If you just stay off Lee Highway/Keith Street you will be fine.


----------



## rbart4506 (Aug 4, 2004)

Just looking at the roads around my wife's aunt and uncle's and I think I've found a route that runs along Benton Pike over to Dentville Road and up to Bowater. We'll then take Chatata Valley Road or Dry Valley Road, depends on the total distance we want to make. I just want to make sure that Benton Pike and Dentville are a good choice. I see there are limited options to get over the Hiwassee and that's why I'm looking at Dentville Road.


----------



## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

Those roads should be fine. Benton Pike may have a little more traffic on it though. You will get some traffic on Dentville when you go through Etowah.


----------



## rbart4506 (Aug 4, 2004)

I guess it depends on what your definition of traffic is. We're pretty accustomed to dealing with varying amounts of traffic since our hometown is a city of 500000. Of course once we get out of town the traffic disappears pretty quickly.

I had a look at the roads using Google and your comments confirm what I had thought.


----------



## rbart4506 (Aug 4, 2004)

Thanks for all the info...

We had a great time and did 4 great rides!

Hopefully we'll be able to get down next fall for some more riding...


----------



## brianmcg (Oct 12, 2002)

Glad you had a good time.


----------

