120 Trails in 18 Days- A Southeastern MTB Epic

The actual trip included about 122 trails or trail segments on about 23 different trail “systems” in 18 days of riding. It took 22 days in all. The extra 4 days were rain and travel days. All said and done it was about 352 miles of trail, but some of that mileage was dirt and gravel roads and troads (roads labeled as trails). The elevation gain for those 350 miles was about 39,000 feet. Day 19 (and part of  21) were shuttle days, but I still climbed 4200 feet on day 19. The road route, as well as the trails, are shown in the map below. The trail tracks depicted are the tracks or ground I covered (not necessarily all the trails at a system).

I spent well over 90 hours driving the entire circuit.

• Fuel: ~$425 (~4230 mi)
• Lodging 21 nights: 2 hotel nights, 7 camping, 12 Walmart lots: $265 (includes a few park passes)
• Showers: $12 each (2x) = $24
• Misc supplies and bike repairs = $180
• Mega Cavern: $25
• Other food: ? (usually about 380/month for me, and this month most of it went to Walmart, not my neighborhood grocer)
• TOTAL: $919 +food and other

I left New York on the 19th of February, and returned 22 days later on March 12th:

• Day 1 travel day to Indiana
• Days 2-16, 18, 19, 21 riding (sometimes coupled with driving to the next location)
• Day 17 and 20 rain days
• Day 22 travel day home

My ambitious plans were to repeat this theme 24+ times: drive, ride, eat, sleep… The rhythm got cut to 22. Other than a few wrong turns on the trails, some trails that turned out to be roads, and ascents that should have been descents, the trip was great! My luck on the rain and freeze-thaw front this time of year was even better.

I selected trails based on ratings from singletracks.com, mtb projects, mtbr.com, from magazine articles that I dogeared over the years (dirt rag, mountain bike action, bike, and the IMBA Trail News…), and from conversations with other riders and trail builders. I realized the ratings, articles, and opinions weren’t necessarily how I would feel, but knew I would find out nonetheless based on some general consensus of what was “good.” I also chatted up some locals on my tour as it unfolded and rearranged some plans, leading to places I hadn’t heard of, and some that I knew of but decided against originally.

The trip above^ is tabulated below.  Zoom in to see trail tracks and info.

In the 21 nights I needed a place to sleep, 2 were in hotels, the rest were at campsites and the parking lots of Walmart (if they allowed overnight stays). Walmart probably saved me about $1,000. The All Stays app and Google map searches helped a great deal here as I modified sleeping arrangements on the go, sometimes a day in advance. I showered at two Pilot/Flying J truck stops, which were not nearly as bad as I expected. They were actually very nice. In lieu of showering for two nights, I opted to use baby wipes, which wasn’t at all bad. Of course the weather was cool to perfect most of trip so I didn’t seem to sweat that badly. I also had one really cold rinse in an Ocoee tributary.

This trip doesn’t cover “all” the southeast has to offer, but did hit a lot of the more “popular” trails. I did another trip a few years ago that included four Epics.

Brown County was high on my list as I’ve been skunked by rain on two other trips where I tried to include it as a stop. I will need to go back again at some point to hit the new Hobbs Hollow Flow trail. Mega Cavern was also high up on my list…because who doesn’t want to ride 8 acres of rollers, berms, and jumps in cave? Other than that, Bentonville (AR), Knoxville (TN), and Blankets Creeks (GA) were on my must-do list. Bentonville was a model town when it comes to trails, and so is Knoxville. Regretfully I didn’t get to do much in Knoxville because of rain, but I know for certain I want to return given what I did get to see. Bentonville also deserves a return visit.

The only real disappointment I had was in the Chattahoochee National Forest near the Cohutta Wilderness and Mulberry Gap. It was much too wide and included way too many roads (albeit dirt, and gravel). The return on climbing investment was low. I would not call the  trails, troads, and roads “high value.” The back country feel was fleeting, and the number of stream crossings bordered on and surpassed fun and novel to becoming an annoyance. I may go back again, but I certainly have no desire whatsoever to repeat what I did, even the famed Bear Creek and Mountain town trails, which while they were OK, were no SART or San Juan or Nobel Canyon etc.

^r means I would or will return, and x I will not. This of course depends on travel plans, but this decision considers how far I live from some of these areas and that there is so much more to check out if in the area again.

One trail visit in Oak Mountain Park (Pelham, AL) was strictly to record some data. I’m not sure if it will elicit the same vibe I got the first time I rode it, but if it does, I would love to recreate it somewhere one day. A dream I have is to one day build the trail equivalent of this, this, or this.

Pics

I slacked on pictures this trip (on some trails anyway). I was trying to enjoy the ride more than stop for pics, but some places elicited more photos for whatever reason. I have a lot of photos of signage and trail structures because I like having samples of that geeky tail build stuff, and looking at a slab of dirt rarely does that slab any justice. There are also a lot of weather system screen shots because I was trying to plan my trip around a few storms. I totally lucked out until the last few days.

More thoughts on certain trails