I awoke and got going as quickly as I could because I knew this would be the longest day of the trip. Despite not getting great sleep the previous night I felt lots better than the previous two days. The second day was very hot in the middle of the day and this morning had turned pretty cold considering, so I was keen on making as much progress as possible in the cool morning air. It was in the low sixties which felt wonderful.
The gravel was mostly hard packed and shaded, very hilly and winding, and even the pavement I was on was pretty rough, and almost everywhere I went was free of any traffic. There were a lot of abandoned land and houses along the way. The paved road leading east from the community of Shady Grove was just terrific. It was that wonderful combination of a good attitude on my part, plus a level grade, and good temperatures with good scenery and no traffic that made this road great. Pepper road, soon after, a perfect gravel road, was also very memorable. It had everything, from tall shady forests to open fields and farmlands with quaint farmhouses amidst winding narrow perfect gravel.
Woods Bottom road was wonderful as were the countless wooded bridges over clear creeks and endless pine forest. I rode through much recently logged land as well. Eventually I made it to Nelson Glen road which turned out to be gated right at a county line and church. I decided to continue around the gate as it looked like mostly forested hunting club land and this time of year, week and day meant I would probably be ok. There were three glorious old abandoned farmhouses, each more decrepit and overgrown than the last. The road finally came to an abrupt end at a pipeline cut in a dense overgrown bramble on the other side and I was not up for exploring because there was so much more ground to cover. I headed north to the nearest road on another unmarked access road and in short order arrived at another gate and a quiet paved road. Soon after I arrived in Wadley and a grand old depot. It was magnificent in its day i'm sure but was really falling apart. It was very hot by this point, and i crossed the Tallapoosa river and decided to shortcut a couple of roads and just use the main highway for a few miles to save some time and out of the way riding.Traffic wasn't too bad and I made it to the next gravel pretty quickly.
I started to feel the heat and despite having enough water it was beginning to wear on me. It was over a hundred in the sun on the exposed sections and there was a lot of low speed climbing because it was fairly hilly. The last 25 miles were pretty harsh and it seemed to drag on. I tried to enjoy it but it was hard with the heat and the effort of the day got to me and i stopped for multiple breaks. I was making good time but i needed to check in to my campsite and I had no idea what the process was if there was no attendant and no idea when they left for the day so I wanted to get there not long after the check in time. Also I really wanted to take a dip in the lake and drink from the cool well water at the campground.
I got there in due time and it turned out I had accidentally booked my night for the wrong week, a week in the past by this point. So I had to purchase another campsite which was no problem since there were lots available. The only trouble with this is i just kind of accepted their advice on which one to take, which was good and free of RVs close by, but it happened that it was the furtherst one away, and it was like a mile and a half more. No big deal but I was cooked. I had already stopped my garmin by this point while I was checking in. Finally I arrived and it was a great relief to get in the lake finally. I got there at around 4:30(alabama time) so I actually was able to enjoy the rest of the evening by the lake. I didn't have any energy for the trails though so i decided to ride them first thing next morning.