Does Ft. Yargo have the weakest, wimpiest trees on the planet or does the lake sit in some sort of mini isolated tornado alley?
I ride the loop once a week and almost every week there is another major tree down on the trail. I'm not talking a few branches or a sapling, I'm talking a full 18" diameter trunk tree.
I also ride Chicopee, Harbins, Tribble, and Blankets and Yargo has had more down trees this year than the rest of the places combined.
I ride at FATS on a very regular basis. Since the ice storm and control burns there has been a constant number of trees coming down. Also a lot of pines have been infected with disease and beetles that weaken them. It could be something similar at Yargo.
FATS has abut 37 miles of singletrack arranged in 6 loops designed and built for mt biking. On the weekends there will be about 200-400 riders per day riding. It is very common to see groups from FL, NC, VA, TN, etc. riding there. It tends to be my go to after work ride (10 minutes from my house) and even the weeknights you will see 20-40 cars in the lot. I did knock out two loops this morning
I do see many cars from the Atlanta area on the weekends, both for a day trip and over night trips. If you do an overnight trip and camp, I would suggest Petersburg Campground (Corp. of Engineers) on Lake Thurman. This is about a 10 minute drive from FATS and offers its own 18miles of mt biking on Bartram Trail.
The Augusta, GA area (CSRA) does have about 150 miles of singletrack. A good mix of modern or flowy trails like FATS to old school trails. More info on FATS or other local trails check out SORBA-CSRA: Home
How is the climbing? I like climbing and most of my loops (12-15 miles) have 1500 or so vertical feet. I do ride Bear Creek/P1/P2 with 4000' over 18 miles and that's a helluva workout!
FATS is well worth a 2 hour or more drive, especially if you stay overnight in the area. I've ridden in a lot of places and FATS has some of the most enjoyable trails I've ever ridden (I like flowy trails with a fair amount of rollers/whoop-de-doos, and that's what it consists of). It always amazes me how well the trails are designed and how they make the most of the land.
Shoot, drove 8 hrs to FATS first time and no disappointments…..actually we arrived and the trails were closed due to controlled burn, so we spent another 90 minutes trying to find an alternate trail which was only 30 min. away Then the next the weather forecast changed and rain predicted by 1 PM and the following days, so maxed it out and rode 35 FATS miles that morning, then 8 hr drive back…..still it was worth it. It's like you have some nice descending without punishing climbs + I like just getting on a trail and ripping. FATS is super-easy to follow and intersections are marked. Deep Step had the most climbing from what I recall.
Just moved to Cumming from Augusta and loved being 15 minutes from FATS. I like how well they flow but I enjoy climbing and descents that I now have access to in North Georgia.
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