As planned I left the house early. This was to ride down part of the way to Muscogee county via highways, and at the early hour they were basically deserted so I had a pleasant ride down to La Grange where I turned south on 219, Whitesville road. I figured that similarly i'd have a light traffic road(actually a 3 lane stroad) south till i got out of town and then find it deserted again. But I hit it around 6am and there was a fair bit of traffic going both ways. Once I got to the interstate I realized why, it's because of all the junk(one of which could have been built almost in my backyard, Great Wolf Lodge that we successfully got denied) that has been built there, and people were using Whitesville road as a shortcut to get there. In any case once I was south of 85 it was deserted again although increasing. Soon I turned off onto gravel and had to deal with a closed road due to a culvert washout. It wasn't immediately apparent what to do, as it was entirely too steep down to the creek from the road directly, and even hopping the two culverts wouldn't have helped because it was way too far below the road level. so I had to hack my way through the brush beside the creek and cross at a little shoal downstream because the creek where the culverts were, was too deep for my liking. I got my foot a bit muddy by hopping from a tree trunk to the sandy bank but otherwise my foot stayed dry, and I hopped the creek easily and on back up to the other side of the road. As I did this there was a horsefly buzzing all around. It's that time of year again. Not too long after I ran across a route error that took me down a mostly abandoned track that had a gate on it. The gate didn't have a sign on it and so I decided to follow it a while. It eventually veered away from where I needed to go and in any case dead ended at a really tall deer stand(empty thankfully). I begrudingly retraced my tracks uphill, and watched my tires pack up with red clay wet by the previous day's rain and the dense morning fog. At length I came back to gravel, and found a very easy reroute that added only a bit extra distance. However soon after I got back on route, the challenges weren't over. Monument road wasn't maintained really at all and was being used primarily by ATVs as far as I could tell. It was rideable, and had a twisty descent down to a creek, where I got quite confused as it led to a gate, and no bridge or obvious ford, plus I was away from where the road was supposed to cross. I went back up the hill and found the old roadbed which was overgrown but obvious enough to follow. I soon found a large pile of rocks, and the old abandoned bridge over the creek still mostly intact. It was a modern iron beam style(i'm unfamiliar with the actual terms here, but it was relatively recent). The cross decking was gone but the beams and the span remained. The creek was really small and quite shallow, but getting to it and back up would have meant serious bushwacking. So I decided to walk across a beam, with my bike rolling on the adjoining one, with my left hand desperately grabbing the support beam on the left side. The beams underneath had 2x6s on top with nails sticking out but beaten flat. So it was slippery and I really took my time and was careful with every step. When I got to the end I had to negotiate some bushes, but I managed fine and pushed my way through the privet and over the rock pile on the other side, around some more brambles and back into the clearing where the road ended on the other side. And once I got over I found that ATVs had been fording the creek somewhere because a track led down to the creek. Oh well, it was pretty cool crossing such a neat old bridge. I wonder how long it's been since someone else has used it to cross that creek. Decades probably. I did a bit of digging and couldn't find much info on when it was closed. I made my way up the steep and washed out gravel, waved to an incoming white Tacoma heading towards the creek, and eventually worked my way via some more gravel back to the highway and the first Dollar General in Whitesville, which I bypassed, choosing to hold out another 12 miles till the next one, also near the interstate(I-185). I bought a bunch of snacks and actually a decent amount of liquids because I was already drinking a lot despite the dense fog. After not too long I turned off the lightly travelled highway onto Old River road which was deserted, just a wonderful road, and obviously a very wealthy area to live. Soon i rolled into Standing Boy State Park, and I was unsure if the trails were open. Home had gotten a bunch of rain the past few days but I didn't think that this area got quite so much, but still was unsure. I had a plan that if it didn't look like there were fresh tracks I would just use the two gravel roads through the property instead of riding the trails. But while I was dawdling at the tralhead a rider rode through and dispelled any notion that it might be closed. I was surprised to find the first trails to be directional, but it wasn't a problem at all because my route was set up exactly to match the Saturday direction. Trails were very well built, and quite fast even on a gravel bike, that is until the last bit(don't remember the name) towards the end which was rockier, still nothing too crazy(nothing like Coldwater mountain or Southside Park's technical bits). There was a nice little gated service road that led right to a very rich subdivision, with a little path around the gate. I was then able to follow neighborhood roads with no traffic all along Lake Oliver(Chattahoochee River), all the way to the Riverwalk, and around this time the sun decided to finally come out. I tried to resist the urge to explore and take pictures of everything and continue on and mostly succeeded. I stopped at a new Dollar General near downtown, one of the nicest i've been in. This being near the low point of the ride, it was all uphill from here. The wind forecast orginally was for south and southwest wind, but eventually guidance suggested it would be calm with some very light northwest or west wind. These breezes shifted around on my journey north out of Columbus, and were definitely a headwind, albeit a light one. I tried to just ride easy and not kill myself as it was still very early. All the way through town was a bit frustrating, it seemed like I got stopped by a million stoplights and had to wait in the scorching sun for way too long. And the stop sign intersections all seemed to be at the bottom of a hill. Sometimes that's just the way it goes. Eventually I worked my way to the overbuilt 4 lane highway called Technology parkway and it was deserted completely just as I thought it would be. But north of US 80 I had to deal with a decent amount of traffic, all of which was pretty courteous, which didn't die out till I turned off of county line road. I stopped again at Waverly Hall and was really thirsty and hungry so I took a second to stop and eat and drink at a shady spot with a bench across from the DG. I rode some nice gravel north out of town and really didn't have to worry about traffic again until the end of the ride. It was pretty uneventful till my climb up Hines Gap over Pine Mountain, which was longer and steeper than I remembered, but then again I had a lot of miles in my legs. I definitely enjoyed the gradual descent on the other side. Rode through Durand, and stopped in Greenville for the last time, for more fluids. The forecast indicated a halfway decent chance for afternoon thunderstorms but the sun was merilessly beating down all day. I took familiar Rocky Mount road through to Coweta, and was glad to see Senoia arrive after a pretty good traffic free trip down Luther Bailey road. Rockaway road wasn't too bad, only got passed by 4 cars, and I rode the remaining miles with a ton of energy left, enough for even a few hard efforts in the neighborhoods near Hip Pocket.