Allatoona Creek

Working through the backlog...

It appears that I went to Allatoona Creek a few weeks back. Ah, yes. I remember it now.

It had been a long time since I'd ridden there, I was certain that Driftwood and Hocus Pocus would be finished, and I wanted to check them out in their finished form.

Driftwood was formally open, or at least the signage suggested so.

There were apples on the ground near the entrance too.

Apparently there was an apple tree in the area. I'd run into wild apples on the previous ride at Yonah too. A new trend, it seemed.

There was a couple at the trailhead there, and we had some discussion about something. Sadly, I can't remember now what it was about. Too much time in between, I guess.

Driftwood was more than twice as long as it had been, last I'd ridden it. I was pleased to discover that it ran all the way out past the end of the old roads, and along the lakeshore for a while, kind of like Yonah. Another new trend - providing actual views of interesting natural features.

About 2/3rds of the way around, I ran into one of the West Georgia Sorba guys working on the trail. They were having an event out there the next day, it turned out, and he wanted to clean up a few spots. We talked shop for a while, and it made me want to get in on a couple of their work parties. Sadly, again, it's been too long, and I don't remember the details.

I headed over to Hocus Pocus afterwards, which required riding all of Mumbo Jumbo and Voodoo.

Mumbo is built into the side of a decent hill, and you get a bit more elevation than on the rest of the trails in the system. It had, until recently, been a very natural trail though. You just kind-of experienced the terrain. Now there are banked turns and jumps and other obstacles all over it. Those are fun, but I think that's another trend that I'm not so sure I welcome. Here and there, sure, but not everywhere. I guess most of the rest of the system is still pretty natural though, so it's not actually everywhere. Eh.

Voodoo is loaded with obstacles. Nothing remotely natural about it. Hocus Pocus splits off about half way around Voodoo.

I expected it to be more difficult than Voodoo, but it was nothing like that at all. Of the three, it had the most natural feel. I really felt like I was experiencing the terrain as I rode it. I could see that it incorporated some really old trails and even older roadbeds too. Unfortunately, some of those sections weren't exactly IMBA-regulation, but being out past Voodoo, I imagine they won't get as many passes as the rest of the system either.

The trail ran way out before doubling back on itself lower down the hill. It crossed dozens and dozens of what appeared to be man-made channels, mainly running directly downhill, but some of them did sidehill, a lot like the channels I'd seen at Yonah. I'm not aware of any mining operations in North Cobb there, but it's not impossible that somebody had, at some point. On the way back, I noticed that Voodoo ran right up and around the head of a gnarly, artificial-looking gorge that could have been the cut.

Or maybe I was letting my imagination get the best of me. Who knows?

I have no memory of the rest of the day. It must not have been too exciting, or maybe my memory is failing with age.

I've got to quit going so long without writing.