So a bunch of us Floridians headed North. Here is the X-post from the South Forum
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1597664#post1597664
Thursday after work, Mark & Ross show up at my place and we load up the Xterra for the drive north
We drive through most of the night, pulling over around 3am some where in Ga at a rest stop to wait for Mike (a buddy of Mark's) that has been playing catch-up for a few hours. We sleep for a while they pull up and we had to Atlanta where we arrive at Mike's buddy's house around 5:00am sleep for a few hours and head out the door to our first stop "Blanket's Trail System" outside of Atlanta.
It was an 8 mile trail that consisted of an intermediate and advanced loop circling a scenic lake.
They alternate directions depending on the day. This is one of SORBA's ( www.Sorba.org ) trail systems and it was in AMAZING shape. Some of the clearest single track I have ever seen. We did 2 laps of the entire park. It reminded me of an Alafia, but with bigger climbs, faster descents and of course red GA CLAY :bigteeth: Here was a fun rock drop that we took some pictures on.
Matt
Mark
Me
Then we packed up and headed towards Ellijay, where we road Carter's Lake. I am not sure if it was from the 16 or so miles that we had already ridden, the car ride or what, but Carter's Lake KICKED my A$$. The trail was awesome as it circled this lake with pretty steep climbs, then descents, but over all probably only gained 300' in elevation, but man every climb seemd to start out of no where. I was so tired, the only picture I took was of the trail head sign.
Day 1 total Mileage ~ 25
Day 2
We headed towards TN where we rode the Tanasi trail system at the Ocoee White Water center. This place was SUPER cool, and Saturday was easily one of the best days I have had mountain biking. We arrive and I jump out and immediately start taking some pictures. It is just a cool place to be. Here is what you see when you first arrive
Then as the rest of the guys unpacked, my Heckler was feeling photogenic, so I snapped this pic
Then Ross in the same place
Then Mark started asking what the hell we were doing, so I took a picture of him too
Then all of us crossing the river to the trails. We are all looking in different directions because we were trying to coordinate 3 timers from 3 different cameras sitting on the opposite rail
from left to right
Mark, Ross, Matt, Me, Mike, Dave, Pete
Then we headed to the trail system,
which rocked. We rode it almost all of it. (we just didnt hit one section of the Chestnut loop)
Here I am looking at a climb that just seemed to keep going and going and going.
We hit every trail on our first go around. The RiverView loop was an incredible roller coaster ride. Then we hit every loop on the map. Being a stacked loop system it worked out great, pretty tough climbs followed by the reward. Here are the guys heading down a really fast, fun and pretty section of West Fork
Then the last trail we hit was called "Thunder Rock Express." One of the locals called it "Gnarly" and "Death on the Left." Well it was the BEST trail of the trip, but FAR from Gnarly, it was like a 2 mile downhill with REALLy fast turn, jumps and woops. If you have ever ridden Burnt Mountain at Dupont, it reminded me of that, but faster, and longer.
Here are the guys finishing up the end of T.R. Express
Then we came back, busted out the cooler full of lunch and relaxed for lunch
Here was my view from my lunch/resting spot. INCREDIBLE
We just lounged around for about 2 hours after lunch
Matt and Dave by the river's edge
Some of us relaxed more then others.
Then we geared up and prepared to go back and hit the highlights of the trails again. Here I am warming up on the rock next to our lunch spot
From there we climbed back up and hit the RiverViewL loop in the opposite direction and then down Thunder Rock Express again.
All in all day 2 was again over 25 miles.
Day 3
On Day 3 we headed back towards Ocoee, past the Tanasi trail system, and just a little further is the Chilhowee trail system.
Another great trail system and would of probably been even more fun if we had a little more knowledge, a guide or were just not so whipped from the previous 2 days of riding. We pull up in the lower parking lot and I immediately look at the map and realize if we park here we are starting the day with a 6 mile climb of almost 1200' to where the majority of the loops are. I lobby for moving to the upper trail head. So we head up the road, and along the way we stop and take a few pics of the over looks.
We keep driving and get to the top, where there is a really nice camp ground, trail head and swimming lake.
Ross, Mark, Me
We then head out into the trails. I am not sure what it was, maybe the map we had didnt have all of the loops listed or we were just delerious, but today was a little more confusing. We hit a lot of stuff, but the total ride had less flow, we did a lot of out and backs, retraced our routes and what not. However there was some incredible riding. I would love to go back here with a clearer picture of the routes.
Towards the top of one of the first climbs. (I have no idea how I got up there first to take the picture)
Mark's face kinda tells the story of 2 long days of riding and a nice climb to start the day
Ah but then the descents
Me
Mark
We rode a bunch of other loops and came across this really cool rock garden.
Ross
Dave
Mark
Me
Matt (he rocked the whole trip on a SS with just 1 back brake)
During one of the trails Mike took a decent spill and was hurting. So after lunch we mentioned hitting the long downhill trail back to the lower parking lot and back up. He mentioned he wanted to climb it, but his shoulder was hurting and was concerned about the descent. So he said how about he take the car to the bottom and climb back up. Well my fata$$ jumped on that opportunity and said I would be happy to go down and drive the car back up. :bigteeth: The ride down the "Clemmer Trail" was fast but nothing too exciting. Mark and I then took the car back to the top and rode around the trail head while the rest of the guys climbed the 6 miles. Here is me dropping off a small wall to the lake where Mark had to clean the dog poo off his tire.
At the end of the day we went down Clemmer again and I raced Mark, with him taking the truck/road down. He beat me by 6 minutes, I beat the rest of the group by 8.
Near the bottom of the Clemmer Trail
Another great day. I logged ~ 22 miles and the other guys got an addition 6 from that climb back up :devil:
GREAT trip. I dont think the area beats Pisgah/Asheville, but it is a must do in my book. I would go back in a heartbeat.
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1597664#post1597664
Thursday after work, Mark & Ross show up at my place and we load up the Xterra for the drive north
We drive through most of the night, pulling over around 3am some where in Ga at a rest stop to wait for Mike (a buddy of Mark's) that has been playing catch-up for a few hours. We sleep for a while they pull up and we had to Atlanta where we arrive at Mike's buddy's house around 5:00am sleep for a few hours and head out the door to our first stop "Blanket's Trail System" outside of Atlanta.
It was an 8 mile trail that consisted of an intermediate and advanced loop circling a scenic lake.
They alternate directions depending on the day. This is one of SORBA's ( www.Sorba.org ) trail systems and it was in AMAZING shape. Some of the clearest single track I have ever seen. We did 2 laps of the entire park. It reminded me of an Alafia, but with bigger climbs, faster descents and of course red GA CLAY :bigteeth: Here was a fun rock drop that we took some pictures on.
Matt
Mark
Me
Then we packed up and headed towards Ellijay, where we road Carter's Lake. I am not sure if it was from the 16 or so miles that we had already ridden, the car ride or what, but Carter's Lake KICKED my A$$. The trail was awesome as it circled this lake with pretty steep climbs, then descents, but over all probably only gained 300' in elevation, but man every climb seemd to start out of no where. I was so tired, the only picture I took was of the trail head sign.
Day 1 total Mileage ~ 25
Day 2
We headed towards TN where we rode the Tanasi trail system at the Ocoee White Water center. This place was SUPER cool, and Saturday was easily one of the best days I have had mountain biking. We arrive and I jump out and immediately start taking some pictures. It is just a cool place to be. Here is what you see when you first arrive
Then as the rest of the guys unpacked, my Heckler was feeling photogenic, so I snapped this pic
Then Ross in the same place
Then Mark started asking what the hell we were doing, so I took a picture of him too
Then all of us crossing the river to the trails. We are all looking in different directions because we were trying to coordinate 3 timers from 3 different cameras sitting on the opposite rail
from left to right
Mark, Ross, Matt, Me, Mike, Dave, Pete
Then we headed to the trail system,
which rocked. We rode it almost all of it. (we just didnt hit one section of the Chestnut loop)
Here I am looking at a climb that just seemed to keep going and going and going.
We hit every trail on our first go around. The RiverView loop was an incredible roller coaster ride. Then we hit every loop on the map. Being a stacked loop system it worked out great, pretty tough climbs followed by the reward. Here are the guys heading down a really fast, fun and pretty section of West Fork
Then the last trail we hit was called "Thunder Rock Express." One of the locals called it "Gnarly" and "Death on the Left." Well it was the BEST trail of the trip, but FAR from Gnarly, it was like a 2 mile downhill with REALLy fast turn, jumps and woops. If you have ever ridden Burnt Mountain at Dupont, it reminded me of that, but faster, and longer.
Here are the guys finishing up the end of T.R. Express
Then we came back, busted out the cooler full of lunch and relaxed for lunch
Here was my view from my lunch/resting spot. INCREDIBLE
We just lounged around for about 2 hours after lunch
Matt and Dave by the river's edge
Some of us relaxed more then others.
Then we geared up and prepared to go back and hit the highlights of the trails again. Here I am warming up on the rock next to our lunch spot
From there we climbed back up and hit the RiverViewL loop in the opposite direction and then down Thunder Rock Express again.
All in all day 2 was again over 25 miles.
Day 3
On Day 3 we headed back towards Ocoee, past the Tanasi trail system, and just a little further is the Chilhowee trail system.
Another great trail system and would of probably been even more fun if we had a little more knowledge, a guide or were just not so whipped from the previous 2 days of riding. We pull up in the lower parking lot and I immediately look at the map and realize if we park here we are starting the day with a 6 mile climb of almost 1200' to where the majority of the loops are. I lobby for moving to the upper trail head. So we head up the road, and along the way we stop and take a few pics of the over looks.
We keep driving and get to the top, where there is a really nice camp ground, trail head and swimming lake.
Ross, Mark, Me
We then head out into the trails. I am not sure what it was, maybe the map we had didnt have all of the loops listed or we were just delerious, but today was a little more confusing. We hit a lot of stuff, but the total ride had less flow, we did a lot of out and backs, retraced our routes and what not. However there was some incredible riding. I would love to go back here with a clearer picture of the routes.
Towards the top of one of the first climbs. (I have no idea how I got up there first to take the picture)
Mark's face kinda tells the story of 2 long days of riding and a nice climb to start the day
Ah but then the descents
Me
Mark
We rode a bunch of other loops and came across this really cool rock garden.
Ross
Dave
Mark
Me
Matt (he rocked the whole trip on a SS with just 1 back brake)
During one of the trails Mike took a decent spill and was hurting. So after lunch we mentioned hitting the long downhill trail back to the lower parking lot and back up. He mentioned he wanted to climb it, but his shoulder was hurting and was concerned about the descent. So he said how about he take the car to the bottom and climb back up. Well my fata$$ jumped on that opportunity and said I would be happy to go down and drive the car back up. :bigteeth: The ride down the "Clemmer Trail" was fast but nothing too exciting. Mark and I then took the car back to the top and rode around the trail head while the rest of the guys climbed the 6 miles. Here is me dropping off a small wall to the lake where Mark had to clean the dog poo off his tire.
At the end of the day we went down Clemmer again and I raced Mark, with him taking the truck/road down. He beat me by 6 minutes, I beat the rest of the group by 8.
Near the bottom of the Clemmer Trail
Another great day. I logged ~ 22 miles and the other guys got an addition 6 from that climb back up :devil:
GREAT trip. I dont think the area beats Pisgah/Asheville, but it is a must do in my book. I would go back in a heartbeat.
