Labor Day Monday, Sept. 2 - 8:00 A.M.
Northwest Passage! 
Centennial Park, 2500 West End Ave., Nashville 37203 - Parking Lot on 28th Avenue North (on west side of The Parthenon)

The early explorers sought a Northwest Passage so they could sail around North America and get to the Pacific without going all the way around South America.  They never found one!  But on this Labor Day we have the opportunity of exploring the great northwest of Nashville!  And the outstanding passage on Little Marrowbone Road will take us all the way to Ashland City!  From Centennial Park the long riders will make their way to Eatons Creek and finish that road with a moderate climb.  Then the 8.1-mile gradual descent on Little Marrowbone is a real delight and makes the bikes want to go fast!  Even after that, there are scenic delights on River Trace and Sulphur Creek.  They return by the MetroCenter levee greenway, with hundreds of cute but smelly sheep, and go past the Bicentennial Mall to get back to The Parthenon with 47.4 miles!  There is a rest stop at mile 28 at Scottsboro, where the corner market is now a regular store!

There is a Short option of 36 miles.  It also goes to the northwest and includes many delights!  Those riders will do Bull Run, which isn't as long as Marrowbone but conveys a similar experience.  And they will also enjoy River Trace (regarded by the locals as the area's most scenic road), and Sulphur Creek.  In fact they get to do Sulphur Creek, a fun and shady road, in both directions!  The rest stop on this route comes at mile 21.

Our club has the tradition of urban rides on summer holidays.  This time we give lip service to that by starting at The Parthenon (along with the Capitol, the most distinctive buildings of the Athens of the South!), but this course is like a regular club ride and reaches some very scenic and remote countryside.  So if you haven't yet sought the northwest like the early explorers did, this Monday is your chance!  Here are the cue sheets:

Northwest Passage - Long - 47 miles - GPS

Northwest Passage - Short - 36 miles - GPS