Birmingham ridges, part ii

My bike at the Cahaba Beach road bridge. You have to hoist your bike over the barricade and carefully ride the planks to make it over to Cahaba Beach road. Watch out for the holes straight through to the river!

A post about climbing the ridges in Birmingham wouldn’t be complete without my favorite ridges southeast of town – especially the two high ridges on Double Oak Mountain. I rode out there today armed with my camera and ended up taking more than 50 photos. I picked out the best ones and created a topocreator map to highlight the ridges southeast of Birmingham.

Two screenshots merged to form a complete ride profile (10 mile, 250ft scale). The numbered ridges and creeks are labeled on the topocreator map below.
Topocreator map of the ridges southeast of Birmingham out to Double Oak (click to enlarge) or download the hi-res version (6.5MB)

This view from the high point on Dolly Ridge road inspired me to call this ride the “ridge to ridge” ride because you can see the ridges stacked on top of each other – each one higher than the one before!

Looking back towards the Vesclub part of Shades Mountain over a particularly hilly stretch of road.

Heading towards Cahaba Beach Rd – so rural there is no need to clear the road of a tree if it only falls halfway across!

My bike at the Cahaba Beach road bridge.

Rope swings over Little Cahaba River

Nice Rouge Roubaix style climb on Cahaba Beach road

A fairly small red tailed hawk flew across the road in front of me and perched in a low branch next to the road as I started my climb up Double Oak Way

Looking up at the first steeper section of the Double Oak Way climb

Looking up ahead at the Double Oak way gate – the steepest part of the climb is just past the gate when the road turns directly into the gradient of the hill

Double Oak way at the start of the 25% section – you know it’s steep when the road is grooved for traction

Once you summit the first steep section, you have several miles of rolling and false flat climbing on a “hit or miss” road that requires somewhat careful navigation

At the top of what I call the lower Double Oak Mtn ridge line … my Garmin was reading about 30-40 feet too low.

The view looking down the Double Oak Way roller coaster that separates the lower ridge line from the upper ridge line – 50mph descent both directions!

The rocky, narrow lower double oak mtn ridge line

Looking back down Double Oak Way towards Oak Mountain

Annotated view at the precipice of the Double Oak way descent

Another view shortly after the 25% drop-off looking towards Leeds. I took this picture because AL-25 crosses the farthest ridgeline at a spot just behind the trees on the right – and there is a spot where you can look backwards from AL-25 at the spot where this picture is taken from.

The Double Oak way ridge line from near the Shoal Creek saddle on Co Rd 41

Greystone Crest – a picture never does the true slope justice!

Looking back down Greystone Crest towards Oak Mountain and seeing this ridge line wrap around towards Highland Lakes

View from the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line looking northwest towards Birmingham

View from the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line looking southeast towards Double Oak Mountain

Another view from the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line looking southeast towards Double Oak Mountain from a different part of the ridge line – this time the Doppler Radio tower on top of the high ridge of Double Oak is just barely visible above the Greystone Crest ridgeline

US 280 at about 5:30PM – looking towards Birmingham from the low spot where 280 crosses the Brook Highland / Meadowbrook ridge line.

Tornado damage off of Caldwell Mill Rd from the April 2011 tornadoes

More tornado damage off of Caldwell Mill Rd from the April 2011 tornadoes

Tornado damage on the “tornado loop” from the April 2011 tornadoes

This set of switchbacks on the tornado loop reminds me of Italy

The ridge lines visible from my neighborhood

Home sweet home

Two screenshots merged together to form a complete ride profile (10 mile, 250ft scale)

Complete ride profile at 15 mile, 500 ft scale

Double Oak Way ridges ride stats part 1

Double Oak Way ridges ride stats part 2

Birmingham ridges

After three weeks of traveling out west and enjoying some really amazing riding and sightseeing with the family, I have been enjoying a week of riding back in Birmingham. Today’s ride typifies the type of ridge riding that you can do here in Birmingham. I started out this ride with a loop on the side of Little Valley Mountain followed by a route crossing all the major ridge lines to Birmingham. Then I turned around and took a different route home recrossing the same ridge lines at different points. After a quick stop at home, I did a loop through Bluff Park bouncing back and forth between the two ridge lines on top of Shades Mountain. That last bit through Bluff Park is shown with ridge and creek crossings highlighted in the first elevation profile and map below:

Numbered crossings of the two ridge lines across the top of Shades Mountain. Click to enlarge

1. My neighborhood – on the remnants of Altadena Ridge
2. Little Shades Creek – feeds into the Cahaba River
3. Little Valley Mountain – Panorama Dr home of S Cove, Renfroe, VHHS
4. Little Shades Creek again – after the S Cove Dr descent
5. Little Valley Mountain again – this time descending off the other side of the mountain via Gay Way
6. Patton Creek headwaters – near Vestavia Pizitz Middle School
7. Vestavia Lake overlook – high point on the lower Shades Mountain ridge
8. Vestavia Falls bridge – tucked down below a cliff, cool and shady
9. Hwy 31 at Shades Crest – right before the descent past Brookwood hospital. Crosses the upper Shades Mountain ridge
10. Shades Creek – high bridge (Hwy 31) over the creek and Lakeshore trail
11. Red Mountain on Woodcrest – http://goo.gl/maps/xHwf – super steep descent to Five Points South
12. Five Points South – still nearly hundred feet above downtown (Village Creek, etc…)
13. Red Mountain Crest Rd with all the mansions across the top of the ridge – http://goo.gl/maps/MTu2
14. Shades Creek – after descending down through Mountain Brook (Crestline Village)
15. Shades Mountain eastern ridge – the part of Shades Mountain east of US-280
16. Shades Creek at the 280 flyunder – http://goo.gl/maps/hjbV – flying down westbound 280, cross under on Shades Creek Pkwy, back up the ramp/climb eastbound 280
17. Shades Mountain high point crown – this includes the real high point at Vestavia Dr plus lower summits at Smyer Circle and Chester St
18. Little Shades Creek – awesome descent down Vesclub – crossing the creek at an upper branch
19. Dolly Ridge at Skyland roller coaster
20. Little Shades Creek – down at the actual creek
21. Dolly Ridge at Rosemary
22. Altadena Ridge back in my neighborhood

Entire ride profile with 15 mile zoom (numbered ridges, creeks explained below)

1. Little Valley Mountain
2. Shades Mountain
3. Shades Creek
4. Red Mountain
5. Shades Creek
6. Shades Mountain
7. Shades Creek
8. Shades Mountain
9. Little Shades Creek
10. Hoover
11. Patton Creek
12. Shades Mountain
13. Patton Creek

And finally, here is a topocreator map of the entire ride … plus a super hi-res version (10.7MB).
Entire ride – ridges and creeks annotated (click to enlarge) … or download the super hi-res version (10.7MB)

Lots of climbing stats

Today was quite a combination of rides — hitting a new personal record of shortest distance to 5,000′ of vertical gain on the way into work and then hitting 5,000′ ft again in less than 30 miles on the way home from work. Both rides were pretty slow with lots of weaving on the steep parts and several roller coaster repeats. The best thing about the roller coaster repeats is that they are insanely fast in the 53×11 on the descents and then nearly instantly into the 39×28 — that’s a lot of wear and tear on the derailleurs. No wonder I have broken three front and one rear derailleur in the past year and snapped several cables.

Morning ride (annotated) – click to enlarge

Afternoon ride topocreator map – annotated – click to enlarge

Annotated ibike data from morning ride (click to enlarge)

Annotated ibike data from afternoon ride (click to enlarge)

Finally, here are the garmin screenshots:

skyland dr rollers in the morning

one to two climbing ratio plus opposite maxed out acceleration (this is on the s brookwood roller coaster)

new record 5,000′ vertical feet in 23.7 miles

26 miles to climb one vertical mile (5280′)

one to two climbing ratio on top of vestavia dr late in my morning commute

morning ride – ride stats, temp, max speed, avg speed, avg heartrate, distance

morning ride – climbing ratio

Fast max speeds in the afternoon (annotated)

Elevation profile with max speeds indicated

Less than 30 miles to 5,000 ft of climbing on my afternoon commute

Afternoon commute ride stats – climbing ratio

Rouge Roubaix heartrate data and topocreator maps

Two more things to add to this year’s Rouge Roubaix race report: annotated heartrate data and topocreator maps (2D and 3D). Check them out below!

Heart rate zone summary

Annotated heartrate/speed/power curve (click to enlarge)

2D annotated topocreator map of the entire rouge roubaix course (click to enlarge) … or click here to download ultra hi-res version.

3D topocreator map of entire route (click to enlarge)

3D topocreator map of blockhouse hill (click to enlarge)

3D topocreator map of tunica hills (click to enlarge)

Southern Cross hi-res 2D and 3D topo maps

I don’t know why I never thought of making one of these before for the Southern Cross race course, but the topography is really cool and it certainly shows in the maps below … enjoy! Also, I noticed while doing the maps that the course enters 4 different counties. With a slight route change, it could be a five county race!

Southern Cross 2D map (click to enlarge)

Southern Cross 3D map (click to enlarge)