29 Trails in 29 Days

As a mountain biker, winter can sometimes get a little depressing. Memories of summer epics have long faded while the cold temperatures keep us (and our buddies) indoors more often than we'd like. Frankly I'm a little tired of my own excuses for not riding more in the winter so

Snake Creek Gap Time Trial #1 Race Report

On Saturday I started my 29 Trails in 29 Days challenge with a bang, riding the 34-mile Snake Creek Gap Time Trail in Dalton, GA. Temperatures were predictably cold at the start (34 degrees, 18 with the wind chill) but the sun was out and the trails were mostly dry.

Snow Biking in Atlanta: Trail #2

It's day four of my 29 day trail challenge and I'm already falling behind. We got about 5 inches of snow here in Atlanta on Monday which makes mountain biking difficult, though obviously not impossible. The real problem, however, is the road conditions which meant my plans for riding outside

Sope Creek: Day 10, Trail #3 :(

It's day 10 of my 29 Trail challenge and I managed to ride just one more trail today. While the ice and snow have melted a good bit here in Georgia, a lot of it is sticking around, keeping the trails wet and slushy. I called the Gwinett County trail

Lucky 13: Three More Trails

Yesterday was day 13 of my 29 Day / 29 Trail challenge and I managed to bag three - count 'em - three mountain bike trails, including one that wasn't even listed on singletracks yet! Things are still drying out here in the Atlanta area and after driving nearly an

MTB Time Trial in the Dark, an IMBA Epic, and Blue Skies

This weekend I loaded up my bike and drove to Augusta, GA for days 14-16 of my 29 Trail challenge where I notched some of my best rides yet. Clear skies, tacky trails, and good company are the best you can ask for out of any mountain bike trip and

Day 17: Harbins Park and Tribble Mill

Here's a quick update on the 29 Trails project. It's raining here in Atlanta today which means I won't get to go on my regular Tuesday night ride for the third week in a row. I'm *hoping* I'll get to at least ride next Tuesday night since it's my last

Speeding the MTB Trails of Talladega National Forest

On day 20 of my 29 Trail challenge I struck out early with 3 trails on my to-do list. Destination: east-central Alabama and the Talladega National Forest. Sylaward The Sylaward trails are located near Sylacauga, AL along the shores of Lake Howard. The forecast for the day put the high in the

Trail 16: 1996 Olympic MTB Course

On Friday afternoon I drove to Conyers, GA and the Georgia International Horse Park, home of the 1996 Olympic mountain bike course. It's the only Olympic course on US soil which is pretty exciting, but for those of us who live in the area we sometimes take it for granted.

Trails 17 & 18: Turner Lake & Heritage Park

After riding at the 1996 Olympic MTB course in Conyers, I kept going east and hit the Turner Lake Complex Trails in Covington. The trails are located right off I-20 just behind the first shopping center you see on the south side of the highway but feel like they're hundreds

Trail 19: Dawson Forest

I didn't want to wake up for my ride this morning. As I closed my eyes in bed the night before, I saw flashes of singletrack - random trail features - that just wouldn't go away. It reminded me of my college days when I'd spend hours playing Goldeneye on

Trails 20 & 21: RAMBO Mountain Bike Trails

RAMBO is the Roswell Alpharetta Mountain Bike Organization and as far as bike club acronyms go, this is one of my favorites. The club is best known for the trails at Big Creek where there's miles of singletrack, a short downhill course, and even a new pump track. But RAMBO

Trails 22 & 23: Gainesville College and Chicopee Woods

After riding 6 trails in less than 24 hours on Friday and Saturday, I was actually glad to have a break Sunday morning before driving up to Gainesville, GA. Fortunately the weather was amazing with blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s for my afternoon rides. Gainesville College The mountain bike

Trail 24: Arabia Mountain PATH

I had hoped it wouldn't come to this. Before my 29 Trail experiment began I wrote out a list of all the trails I wanted to ride and the list definitely didn't include Arabia Mountain. Not that it isn't a great place to ride - it's just that I had

Gearing Up for 29 Trails in 29 Days

At this point I've ridden 240 miles in just under four weeks and the vast majority of those miles have been on singletrack. The conditions I've encountered along the way - ice, snow, mud, rocks, and rain - have been great for putting my gear to the test. Although I'm

Trails 25-27: Inside the Atlanta Perimeter

On most Tuesday nights I go for an in-town night ride on the east side of Atlanta and it's often the highlight of my week. Some Tuesdays there are more than a dozen mountain bikers, other nights it's just one or two of us. We ride all year long and

Trail 28: The Secret Trail

I can't tell you where I rode yesterday - it's a secret. No, it's not my own secret singletrack stash - plenty of people know about the trails - we're just not supposed to talk about them. Across the US there are easily hundreds of bike trails that are secret

29 Trails in 29 Days: Tools of the Trade

Scouting, locating, riding, and logging 29 mountain bike trails in 29 days has meant spending a lot of time on singletracks.com for me (even more than usual - shocking!). Before I talk about trail #29 (spoiler alert: I rode it yesterday) I want to highlight some of the tools I

Trail 29: The Trails at the Beach

Ahh - the beach - such a fitting place to end my 29 trail journey. But if visions of balmy breezes, fruity drinks with umbrellas, and bronzed bodies come to mind, I hate to disappoint you. My ride yesterday took place under cloudy skies and 30-degree temperatures in Clayton County,

Day 29: Snake Creek Gap TT #2

With rainy weather dogging me throughout my 29 Trail challenge, I was not-so-secretly hoping the rain would actually work to my advantage Saturday. Here in Atlanta we had more than an inch of rain and my hope was the course would be so water-logged the race would have to be