Day 2 - Calhoun to Canton GA - 42.3 miles

Jack & Bill Jasper GA circa 1985

Today's ride - Day 2 - (Video Link) is 42.3 miles. This is day one of three days I will spend in the mountains. The ride will begin in Calhoun at 689 ft and steadily climb to 1346 ft at Mile 37.8.  This will also be the highest altitude of the entire trip as I crest Byrd Mountain at 37.9 miles. The entire ride today is mostly rural. Very few places to get food and drink. Best bets will be in Waleska Georgia at mile 34.4 and the new Publix at mile 39.1. Today's ride is the only major variance from the trip we made in the 80s. I am taking a "southern" route east while we took a more "northerly" route back in the 80s. The northern route took us through Jasper (see picture) and Ball Ground. Waleska is home to Reinhardt University. Reinhardt Academy opened in 1884 as a grammar school and high school for students of all ages. The founders had originally wanted the school to be just a college, but at the time there were no students of college age in the area. When Reinhardt was established in the early 1880s, life was governed by the strict social rules and customs of the Victorian era. Alcohol (except "health tonics" prescribed by a student's family), bad public behavior, cheating, dishonesty, falsehood, fighting, gambling, malicious mischief, quarreling, playing cards, profanity, social dancing, tattling, and the use of tobacco, except for boys with permission from their parents, were prohibited. Girls were not allowed to tilt their chairs or cross their feet, and they had to call faculty members by their titles. From 1912 to 1927, soft drinks were prohibited on campus. Students caught with them could be expelled. This changed, however, as a result of Coca-Cola employee Dr. Samuel Candler Dobbs donating money to the school for construction of an educational building in 1926. All of these prohibitions were relaxed and had disappeared from the school by the early 1960's, with the exception of alcohol, which is still prohibited. By the year 2003, the school offered 24 four-year degree programs in 13 areas.  I will stay at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites  713 Transit Ave Canton, GA 30114 - 1-770-479-7300. It is located next door to a Cracker Barrel and within walking distance of a Racetrac.

and it begins... the Mountains