Southeast - Silver Comet Trail
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Ed in GA
05-04-09, 12:17 PM
My wife and I want to do about a 30 - 40 Mi roundtrip ride on the Sliver Comet on Saturday Morning.
Looking for suggestions for a good place to get on the trail, near the Atlanta end, that would be good for a nice, leisurely ride.
Suggestions?
My experience on the trail is on weekday evenings, so the trail population may be very different on a weekend day.
To avoid the high jogger, walker, skater population I would suggest a start at Seaboard Road. There is a small park there with toilets. The ride west will be a little busy through the Rambo Trailhead, but then will thin out as you head into Paulding Forest. There is a very high trestle over Pumpkinvine Creek and about 11 miles out a tunnel with lights. Past the tunnel is the Coots Lake area. This would be a good destination, but only about 25-26 mile round trip. You can always continue on to Rockmart where you may find a restaurant for lunch.
There are very few road crossings on this stretch, many of them are underpasses. If you are birdwatchers bring your binoculars. The woods are full of warblers these days.
The park at Seaboard road is just just south of US 278.
Enjoy! Its a beautiful ride!
Ed in GA
05-05-09, 06:53 AM
Thanks, that looks good to me. We'll probably give that a try.
the48thronin
05-05-09, 10:04 AM
I agree, Seaboard is an excellent place to start. There are only a few road crossings so your stops will be minimal. :thumb:
Ed, if you want to avoid many the weekend walkers, joggers, rollerbladers, kids on bikes, etc. I'd suggest starting at either Floyd Road (mile marker 4.3) or Florence Road (~mile marker 9). Lots of parking at both locations and restrooms and water. The Silver Comet Depot (http://silvercometdepot.com/) is at the Floyd Rd parking area should you need bike stuff or bike service.
The traffic on the SCT will taper off dramatically as you get closer to Rockmart. The SC Depot is
a nexus for a lot of users as is the Smyrna terminus. IMO the section east of Rockmart for about
15miles is the most scenic in Georgia. It is fairly isolated, few road crossings and the trail is built
up in many cases from terrain. It is gently downhill to Rockmart for many miles, after a long gentle
uphill from the Smyrna end. There is a nice restaurant in Rockmart on the square close to the Park