‍ I left very early since it was a weekday and I wanted to clear the sprawl of Atlanta and Gainesville before traffic got bad. I slept 4-5 hours the evening before and felt pretty rested and recovered to start the ride. After a few cars in Peachtree City, leaving town on 54 was deserted till I turned off to head north on the bypass by Trillith. While I was on Westbridge road I watched a coyote cross the road in front of me. Old National highway was also pretty deserted when I went through, as were the other large normally busy streets I took through East Point and College Park. I took some major streets through downtown as well and there was nothing going on there, so I had the streets to myself pretty much. After West Peachtree Street I moved on to riding small streets because I had already done the large roads through that part in the past. Also did a few dead ends mostly in DeKalb and they were steep of course and really brought my speed down. But there weren't many and I rolled on up to Gwinnett and Duluth where I mostly followed the railroad and the eastern continental divide. Nothing much to report here, I had the roads mostly to myself in the darkness and I felt pretty good. I was probably riding a bit harder than I needed to though. As I rode through Suwanee and Buford the sun gradually rose through the low clouds on the horizon right in the direction I was going. I zig zagged around on some quiet roads and headed north on Hog Mountain road on the south side of 985 and here was the first bit of traffic I saw. But most was going the other way. Next I took a divided 4 lane road through an industrial area that was very quiet north all the way to the south part of Gainesville. I explored an unmapped trail from North Georgia college that went from their campus and trails north all the way beside a highway and up to Chicopee. The first part was gravel or dirt but soon I came to a new looking freshly paved section with a new wooden bridge over a creek. Passed through a tunnel and then rode parallel to a very busy two lane highway. When the path concluded I was on a quiet street and I rode the grid north through a very smelly industrial area. Lots of chicken processing plants here, including some that actually made prepared chicken as well as raw, so it smelled very interesting. I rode another new path in downtown on an old rail line and then zig zagged my way north out of town. I was really looking forward to my first stop but I planned my carry well as I ran out of liquids as I got very close to my planned stop at a Racetrac on the highway. I filled everything completely and stocked up well as I would be heading into the heat of the day. I rode Cagle road on the north side of the highway which seemed like a very quiet road on paper. Indeed it turned out to be so but it was also closed for construction. I decided to just press on anyway hoping they were off for the holiday early. But I eventually saw workers on some machinery. I decided to just press on and if someone stopped me politely ask if I could sneak through. I had plenty of room to get through and nobody ever acknowledged my presence. I was very thankful because this would have meant a huge and probably busy detour around. After heading out on Cagle road it was clear I had fully left the sprawl behind and was in the north Georgia countryside. Although I rode past probably a dozen fields and large tracts of forests that had rezone request signs posted in front. So not country for long. The reason they were working on Cagle road was obviously for new development. I rode through Lula and then on to Habersham county and Cornelia. The road gradually tipped up in elevation and I was mostly exposed riding through open fields and pastures. The wind was picking up a little bit and it was mostly a headwind or sometimes a crosswind. Again I was pushing too hard here and although I was staying on top of eating and drinking I was exhausting myself. By the time I got to my planned stop I was very ready for a break and a cold drink. The day was hot by now and I filled up as best I could. I pressed on and the next obstacle was in Tallulah Falls. Tugalo bridge road was closed because they were actually working on a new bridge. I went down to see if I could maybe get through but there were lots of workers so I just turned around. Consulted the map and I discovered that the only real plausible detour was the highway. So I rode in the grass for a bit but did eventually ride on the shoulder some as it was pretty generous although terrifying because of high speed and high volume traffic going north. Abruptly my large shoulder ended to be replaced with a small one so I got on the grass again. Did a couple side streets in town and then used the sidewalk to cross the river rather than cross the highway twice. Next I climbed north on a very quiet road that wound its way through the forest and was twisty and well graded. I really enjoyed this part. But I was starting to get tired mostly from the efforts of the rest of the ride where I rode too hard. I tried to eat and drink more but didn't really seem to be able to keep up with it. The heat, while not as bad as it would have been at home, was still affecting me. I rode up Pool Creek road slowly and began to look for a creek I could sit in for a bit. Never a good sign that the ride is going according to plan. Once the road turned to gravel I soon found a small creek that I stopped and sat in and filtered some water. Saw a crawdad while sitting there then felt bad about mucking about in his home so I got back going again. I finished the rest of the climb after one more stop to cool off and then descended down to Warwoman road. Even just the very gradual climbs here were very taxing. I was really dreading the last big climb up to Highlands. When I crossed the Chattooga I pulled off and thankfully nobody was there at the river at all or else I might have skipped it but I resorted to getting in the river to help. It felt great and I did feel a bit better. I was trying to eat but by this point my stomach wasn't feeling great so I kept getting further behind. I climbed up slowly and stopped at the old firehouse for a nature break. I was hoping this would be like a light switch and solve all my issues but I still felt completely exhausted and was really slow. I flirted with the idea of climbing up highway 28 directly as it is more gradual. But even the low amount of traffic was too much stress for me so I chose the steeper but total solitude of Clear Creek road. This was a real challenge but I did it slowly and with no more stops. I rode right to the gas station in Highlands and got some pickles and a coke and sat for a few minutes to eat them. I felt much, much better after this so perhaps my problem was mostly sodium. Also the thrill of being almost done probably pushed me as well. 👏 139.98 new miles 🗺 Completed 50% of All of ITP 5 🏘 Completed 25% of Capitol View 🏘 Completed 25% of Castleberry Hill 🏘 Completed 25% of Downtown 🏘 Completed 25% of Ansley Park 🏘 Completed 25% of Morningside/Lenox Park 🍑 Completed 25% of Peachtree Pride 🏘 Completed 25% of Berkeley Lake 🏘 Completed 25% of Mount Airy -- From Wandrer