Coffeeneuring 2020 Week #2: East Chattanooga Triple Crown Death March

Max dropping in the slab at Bauxite Ridge

 

 

Coffeeneuring: riding bikes, drinking coffee, seven times, seven places, seven weeks; there's some rules. 

 

This week's entry mashes two potatoes with one fork: coffeeneuring week #2 and Max's Birthday Challenge ride. Max chose to celebrate his 29th birthday by riding 29 mountain bike trails at 3 different trail systems connected by roads in eastern Chattanooga. Reid and I tagged along (and made some coffee) for a very mega day. I have named this route the East Chattanooga Triple Crown Death March. 

 

About the ride: My favorite rides are adventurous and topographically diverse routes that require your bike to do everything from road to gravel to singletrack. This ride met those requirements and added the unnecessary and "unbibbed" challenge of pushing yourself to your physical limits. We started at Enterprise South, headed over to White Oak Mountain, and finally Bauxite Ridge. Max did all or most of the trails at each and Reid and I did all that our rigid MTBs and grundles would allow. Max finished with a hard-earned 50 miles, Reid with 20, and I with 36. Max and I both crashed within the last quarter mile of the ride, which I think illustrates the level of bonk we had reached. It was a very good day.

making "cowboy coffee 2.0" while Max rides a black diamond trail

About the coffee: This week I used the MSR Mugmate as my brewing method. From a utilitarian perspective the Mugmate is hard to beat. This recipe is a kind of "cowboy coffee 2.0" where the grounds (I used a 13:1 ratio) steep in boiled water for 2-4 minutes and are then filtered through the Mugmate into your cup. Cowboy coffee gives a smooth cup that's less bitter and the Mugmate keeps the grounds from getting your mug and teeth. A good bean, well-roasted, and coarsely ground would give you a truly decadent cup of coffee by any coffee-snobbery standard. This week I just used the Aldi brand equivalent of Folgers and it was still tasty.

 

Date: 10.18.2020

Location: 35.0777° N, 85.1256° W

Bike: Shanina

Coffee: Beaumont Coffee Classic Roast (Aldi Brand), MSR Mugmate, 13:1

Miles: 35.98 (strava)

Reid on the quiet, pine needle covered singletrack of the Black Forest Trail at ESNP