Helen Octoberfest Trip

Went to Helen GA for Oktoberfest/Biking weekend. We drove up Friday and settled in by trying a few of the German brews. We went out and had a few drinks before retiring back to bed (I think we were home by 10, such party people!).

The next morning we headed up to the Unocoi Lodge to eat breakfast. It was a breakfast buffet, so we all got our fill. I even resisted the urge to eat a biscuit, however I could not say no to the french toast. We got back to the townhouse and got ready to ride.
We had scoped out the trail head from town so we would not have to ride around and on the road this time. We took the Helen-Unocoi trail and got on the Unocoi Mountain bike trail. We rode this around and eventually got over to the field (the real start of the trail). We played in that area a bit as there was a small drop by one of the bridges that we jumped off of a few times. We rode around the bridges and tried to ride the railroad ties before heading back onto the trail. Finishing up there were some nice downhills and some short, but steep climbs. It was a decent short course. We headed back into town and stopped at Big Daddy's bar and sat out on the porch and had some Hopdevil while the sun started to set. There was a woman a few tables over with the most tattoos I have ever seen. She was wearing a tank top and had angel wings on her shoulders and a HUGE tramp stamp. She was there with her baby (at a bar!) so yes... Anyway, it started getting cold when we were in the shade so we headed back to the townhouse to go out for the evening. I sat in the hot tub for a few minutes and it felt great as it was a bit chilly outside. I was a bit tired so we decided to rest and go to the fest hall at about 9. I fell asleep and woke up about time to go. Moran decided to skip this time so he dropped us off and we went inside. This was definitely the place to be as it was packed. We got a couple of pitchers of Erdinger Octoberfest and enjoyed the music/dancing/people watching. Tommy actually got on stage and did the chicken dance with everyone. The fest hall closed and Tommy decided we needed to go to Huddle House. Of course this was the most packed place in town and we finally got to eat. While we we eating I got up to go to the restroom and I missed a fight right by our table. They said that the Huddle house ladies broke it up and threw the guys outside (don't mess with the hh ladies!). We walked home and went to bed.

The next day we tried to eat at Hoffers, but they made us wait 45 minutes for a table (when there were a couple of empty tables) and then said it was too late to order breakfast. I was a bit mad, but Grumpy Grund was not going to make an appearance this weekend so I just ordered lunch. Tommy was not feeling well and Murf was a little sore, so me and Moran decided to ride the Unocoi again as we couldn't really find anything else close. We rode a quick lap and called Tommy and Murf and they were riding around town. We met them and rode around some of the back streets and explored a little before heading back. We went back out, ate dinner (Tommy actually tried some German food and liked it!) and then looked for a place to hang out for a while. Pretty much every place in town was smoky and after last night at the fest hall I had all the cigarette smoke I could handle so we just went back to the townhouse and hung out.

The next morning we got up and packed to go home. Murf was trying to make it back to work a half day and I think Tommy was missing his Baby so me and Moran tried to find somewhere nice to eat. We ended up not waiting as all the local places we looked were covered up and hit the road. On the way, Tommy called and told us there was a place in Gainsville. As a last minute decision we looked it up on Moran's phone and somehow with the phone and 2 GPSs made it there. It was called Chicopee and we changed and got ready to ride.
We were looking at a map and started talking to one of the locals (Randy) and he offered to let us tag along. He was a pretty good rider and helped us tie the trails together to ride most of them. These trails were AWESOME! The place was a SORBA/IMBA trail and all the trails were just a lot of fun. I am definitely going to make it back there again. We headed on home afterwards and it was definitely a great weekend.

I will try to update the pictures as soon as I get them uploaded.