Spring Tour, 2011

For this spring break, I decided to do a flatland tour. I wanted to tour for about five days in northern South Carolina and Georgia. My definition of flatland may be a little different than most tourists since I live in the mountains of North Carolina. Flatland, in this case is not mountainous. Riding 50 mile is most directions from my home requires climbing about 4000 to 5000 of climbing - think Blue Ridge Parkway. I just wanted to tour with only a few thousand feet of climbing a day ;-}. The parts of Georgia and South Carolina adjacent to western North Carolina are not flat. The have rolling hills, most of which are 100 feet high or less, and they offer nice bicycling which meets my flatland criteria.

I started this tour in Greer, SC where my younger daughter lives. I'd planned to start this tour by riding from my home to Greer, but the weather was wet - flooding wet - and windy on the day I wanted to ride down. It was also below freezing at mid day, so I loaded my loaded bike in a car and drove down to Greer. The next morning, with sunny skies and temps about 50F, I headed south from Greer. I hadn't planned a route, but I figured I'd wander south - compass navigating - from the Geenville area and, at the end of the day, end up in Greenwood, SC. That worked out pretty well.

Because of interstate highways and rivers, there is no direct route except US 25 between Greenville and Greenwood. It turns out that US 25 isn't bad riding most of the way, but you don't see much of South Carolina when riding 25. I ended up spend half my riding day on back roads, covering 35 to 40 miles and ending up, by chance, intersecting US 25 21 miles south of Greenville and 35 miles north of Greenwood. I rode the rest of the way to Greenwood on US 25. That wasn't great riding, but most of it was good, getting on down the road, riding.

I started, in Greer taking Pelham Rd west toward Greenville. Pelham is a main drag heading into Greenville. At 10:30 AM on a Monday, it was OK riding because traffic was light and almost all South Carolina drivers are very polite to bicycles. Just before Pelham heads NW, I turned south and connected to Roper Mnt Rd. I followed Roper Mnt over I-385 and then wandered small roads from there to near Mauldin. Note: I don't know Greenville, Id didn't know these roads, and I didn't have a map or a cyclecomputer. I was just looking, as I rode, for roads than looked like they'd get me out of the Greenville area heading south. I saw a lot of Greenville suburbia, incuding a lot of very big fancy houses on huge lots on Phillips Mill Rd, and a lot less fancy suburbia, i.e houses that didn't cost millions of dollars, but very little of S.C until I got about 20 miles south of Greenville.

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Finally, on roads like Fork Shoals Rd, which I rode for about ten miles, and a road going towards Princeton from Fork Schoals which I rode for another nine miles, I was in rural northern SC and both the riding and the scenery was very nice. When the road going to Princeton ended at US 25, about five miles north of Princeton, I saw that I was 21 miles south of Greenville. At that point, I realized I better try riding the rest of the way on 25. My legs were already quite tired from the riding I had done and I wasn't going to make it to Greenwood today if I didn't take 25.
 
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The part of US 25 that I rode today is a five lane road with a small shoulder most of the way to Greenwod. There are several small towns on this part of 25 - with no services and lots of closed businesses. In each town and for a mile or so before and after each town, the shoulder is replaced by a small gutter with a curb. After Ware Shoals - the only town that doesn't seem to be dying and does have services, both the curb and the shoulder go away and the road gets a bit narrower. That 12 or 13 miles was the only section where I was less than comfortable with the riding conditions. South Carolina drivers are, with a few exception, really polite. Traffic was usually light - it got heavier near Ware Shoals and Greenwood - and 99+% of the drivers passed me in the other lane, even when I was riding on the shoulder. I think only one or two vehicles passed me too closely and even then it wasn't dangerous, just rude.

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When I got into Greenwood, I stopped at the Relax Inn. Indian run, $40, no wifi, but an OK basic motel. Just across the street is a local fast food place that sells, along with the usual hamburgers and fries, a main, two sides, cornbread or roll, drink and desert for $7.40 with tax. Not great, but not bad. It was very busy at 6:30 PM. That, with half of my snacks for the dollar store, and a small cheeseburger and a huge senior coffee for $2 at Burger King near Ware Shoals, brings my cost for today to just over $50.

Tomorrow, I think I'll head west, on SC 72 towards Athens Ga.