Rode Trail Creek Mountain Bike Trails in Athens GA for the first time today, so I'm laying down this review while the ride is sill fresh in my memory bank. This trail is just a short hop from the downtown area, and very easy find. Parking was not an issue at all when I was there.
Download Printable Map Here
My overall first impression is very good, and definitely a bit different than other GA trails I have ridden. To me, this trail is very "bike-park-ish." Each loop is short, and if you are looking for epic mileage this is not your best choice. Head on down to Ft. Yargo if you are trying to clock up your distance stats.
What this trail lacks in single loop distance it makes up for in fun factor by way of some excellent "intermediate/advanced" sections, which are "sessionable." By that I mean that most of the berm and jump sections are set up so that you aren't forced to go all the way to the end of the trail hit them after your first pass. Sometimes you can go right back into the fun sections and loop them over and over. On the really heavy stuff, you do have to follow through a little further, but even the ride back to the top is not very bad. You can access the entry points to the heavy stuff about 1/4 mile from the main parking lot, at the 3 o' clock point of entry off filed 2 in the mao above, then hang a right and you'll be at the start of the two heaviest sections. But let's go through the map trail by trail with my recommendation on how to do this trail the first time.
Orange Crush (orange on map):
To get to this trail, come down out of the parking by field 2 to Trail Creek Street and hang a right. Take Trail Creek Street until you see the cement path on the left. Hop on the path and talke it all the way to the entry point on the right. Yes I know we passed teh entry point to the Green Trail, but we are going to do that later.
When you get to the trail entry, hop on in and go clockwise. You're going to do a little climbing for the first half, then when you get to the top, the fun stuff starts. You'll see on the map a dotted orange section which is the berms and jumps business. If you aren't comfortable with berms and jumps, just take the other direction. If you take the intermediate section, get ready to commit because it gets fast quickly and it is hard to impossible to back out of a line once make your choices. I had to footdown twice on this section on my first pass, but I also roosted some good lines on the berms and caught a little air. Then when it ended, it was easy to see where you could hook around and repeat the section. This is what I meant about sessioning. I could easily ride just the intermediate section of this trail for like 45 mins to an hour, then call it a day. However, on your first time there, you need to experience more, so instead of doubling back, go ahead and close out the loop and you'll be back on the cement path where you started.
Green Trail (green on map):
Directly across from the outrance of the orange trail you are going to see an entry point to the Green trail. You can go in here if you want. I did not. I went back up the cement path to the main entrance. Once you pop into the trail, there are a few picnic tables you can chillmode at, and get your thoughts together about how you are going to kill it next time you do orange.
Green trail is almost totally flat. Not a lot to say about it, except that you can always use it as a cheat to get your distance numbers up by doing it 2 or 3x. It's only like a mile long, just like Orange Crush. If you are new to mountain biking and don't want anything too heavy, this is your trail, I mean, when I say it is flat, it is, but it is not so tame that you aren't really mountain biking.
Drive By Truckers (blue on map):
When you finish green, go back on the cement trail the way you came, then hang a right onto Trail Creek Street. You'll go about 1/4 mile til you see the entrance to the blue on the left. Head on in!
You're going to start twisting and climbing. be aware of bikes hauling ass the opposite direction! The rules at this park are that downhill riders have to yield to climbers, but sometimes they can be hauling pretty fast and not have time to get off the trail, so just keep your eyes open up ahead. If you look on the map you'll see a dotted line section of blue. You want to go to the left of this section, because it is a unidirectional intermediate section. You'll go about 1/8th mile and the trail will come back together. Hook around and try the intermediate section! You can handle this one. You can just roll over the jumps or you can go for some air. It is a short but fun section, and again, you could get to this spot and just loop around sessioning the berms and jumps til your heart is content. But today you are going to go back to just do it once and then keep going in the original direction. When you get to the top rightmost part of blue, you'll have reached the top as far as elevation for the entire trail.
So now you'll be going mostly downhill but some of the switchbacks take you back up a bit. The whole way up the berms on blue have been useless to you because you have been climbing, but now there will be a bunch of small jumps and berms that are working for you. This is a nice long section, so rock it all the way til you connect with the yellow/red trail entrances.
BONUS: if you look at the map you'll see that when you get to the intersection with yellow/red, you can also take a short path back to the parking lot so you can get a beer. You might need one for these next sections.
Panic (yellow on map):
Hold tight here you go! This is a sweet downhill section with bigger berms and jumps that you have encountered so far. Although they are larger, they are not terribly scary and you can roll over most of the jumps. But that's no fun. You'll have a few opportunities to catch a little air and maybe scare yourself a little. If you cleared the intermediate on orange, you'll dig this section which is longer.
Eventually you'll meet back up with the tail of red, and at that point the heavy stuff mellows out, but you'll still be cruising pretty quick. Make sure to keep an eye out on your left where the trails come back together so you don't collide with someone from red. Go under the bridge and at the next fork hang a right. This will pop you out onto Trail Creek Street, and you'll see the way back to the parking lot. You can go to the left and get a little extra distance, but I did not do that on my visit. I was anxious to get to the final section. Once you get back to the parking lot, you can easily head right back in and do this again. Sessioning!
Widespread (red on map):
Are yo ready? because this is where it gets real.
This section has the biggest berms, the fasted speed, and the most rad jumps. Take it slow the first time, but there will be spots where you can catch some air very easily. Most of the jumps are not gaps, they are tabletop jumps, but even the ones that are gaps are only slighting gapped, but you still don't want to case it with your back wheel if you try them. You're can go a zillion miles an hour down this section, but remember there is going to be a point where you meet back up with the yellow trail so keep your eyes open for riders to your right as the trails come back together. The finish is that same as red. Take a deep breath and realize that you just did something very rad! Then if you want to, go back up to the parking lot and do it again, and again. Sessioning! While I was there today tehre were some locals that were doing nothing but Widespread, over and over and over, ad they were rinsing it pretty good.
Drive By Truckers (blue on map):
To close out your first visit to this trail, go to the intersection where blue, yellow and red meet (again) and this time take blue. you'll be doing it the opposite directoin that you did the first time. Take it all the way back to Trail Creek Street. This will give you some extra distance, and you'll get to do the downhill sections of blue that you passed when you were climbing it previously. There are a few rock drop off options that you can try of you want to get really gnarly. I was not in that mode today, and truthfully they may be better for the full suspension crowd.
When you get back to the road, you'll know where you are at this point so you can go do some more riding or you can call it a day. If you call it, you'll be at about 7.5 miles/500ft climbing. That's All! So you can see how sessioning may be to your advantage for fun factor and to get your stats up.
Conclusion:
I love Athens. I love that all of the trail names have to do with Athens bands. I love that I have found a trail that is very different than every other trail in the area, I love that this trail seems like an entry level "bike park" only here you don't have to take a shuttle or lift back to the top, and you do need to do a little uphill business. I can't wait til next Spring when I can go and stay for a whole day. I think you should go with me.
NOTE: You'll see that there is a way to connect the bottom section of the blue trail to the green trail but as of this writing that section is closed so they can build a new bridge over the creek because the old one is failing. The trail stewards straight up said NOT to ride this section and you should listen to them. You can go to the
SORBA-ATHENS facebook page for updates on bridge construction and other trail related news.
Big Ups and Bike Together!
