The Arabia Mountain Trail

        As much as I would love to pack up the car and head out to Idaho in true Joad Family fashion and never look back, I am grateful to live in a state that has a little of everything. We get a little of each of the four seasons except summer and we get a double dose of that. We have beaches, no, not good Florida beaches, but enough to wet your whistle if you just need to smell the salt air and feel the sand between your toes. We have several big cities if that's your thing. No, not NYC of CHI, but enough traffic, commuter trains, impatient people, over-priced everything to satisfy that craving. I personally never have that specific one, but some do. And we have mountains. No, not the Rockies, but we do have the foothills and the beginnings of the Appalachians. And lastly, we have paved bike trails. No, not the seemingly endless miles of trail like Chicago and Boulder, but we do have several hundred miles of trails throughout the state. And we here at HTH love bike trails.

    Two weekends ago, I had Fall Break. It went by too quickly and we had a XC race jammed in between the two free days and Mel second shot a wedding while I watch Fordzilla, so there wasn't exactly the time or space for us to head to a vacation destination. My last day off, I woke up and got FH something to eat and the coffee going and hatched my plan to Mel. If you don't pray for Mel, you should. I am so bad about not mentioning my plans to Mel and then throwing them at her with no warning and then expecting her to get on board with a smile. And most of the time, she is highly accommodating. This time was no different. My original plan was to snatch FH up, load the truck with our chariot, drive north, hit the trail, tire out FH, and then head home. I knew Mel had piles of things to do with items to sew, emails to send out, and a baby shower to plan and a 17th month old and a cooped up husband never make those things easy. And FH and I were halfway out the door when Mel surprised us and said that she wanted to go with us. We both jumped for joy, loaded a second bike, and loaded the truck, moved the car seat over, Mel downloaded the directions to the trail, and we headed off. Our destination was the Arabia Mountain Recreational Trail.

Pumping up the tires with a snarky and suspicious FH.

      Arabia Mountain Recreational Trail is a part of the Path Foundation's 10 trail system that is composed of several rail to trail sections and several private and state trails. The longest of these is the Silver Comet Trail which is 61.5 miles and stretches to the state line where it connects to The Chief Ladiga Trail. Arabia Mountain Trail is not apart of the Rails to Trails system so the elevation changes are much more extreme. I chose the AMT because it was only a little over 70 miles from our home and offered over 20 miles of trail; while the other trails were much farther away, or were only a few miles long, or were a little of both. Arabia Mountain Trail is now at 15 miles or so with the possibility of connecting to other trails and offers some great views for runners, walkers, cyclists, hikers, and skaters.

Getting by with a little help from my friends. FH loves work. He could watch it all day. 

            We had a great trip up to AMT because FH loves riding in the front of the truck. I understand this. He is now part of the action. It was fairly easy to find, but I will say that the directions off the interstate were all good and fine, but if you relied on landmarks to find your way, it would be very hard to find your way back because everything begins looking the same. We relied on Mel's phone on the way there and it was spot on, but on the way back, we didn't catch a good signal and so we relied on those "landmarks" and made a lot of signature "Dark" turnarounds. We did make it back, but at times between the turnarounds, the people honking at us, a cranking, tired, and hungry baby and parents, we had our regrets as we attempted to find our way back to the interstate. 

        Our little family had a very fun part of the day getting to be out on the trail. We love family bike rides and getting some good outside time always seems to make everything a little better. I attribute it to the good clean oxygen. We rode a little over 10 miles and got to see a lot of great sights. We stopped for some snack time and even got to ride through a covered bridge. The trail elevation was a little harder than we expected, but at least the declines were fun. We climbed close to 1000 feet in less than 8 total miles, which may not sound like that much to you Tour de France riders, but for us that is a lot. The trail wasn't very busy, but that wasn't surprising to us. The free outdoor places are never crowded. I will never truly understand this, but then I do. Here are some pictures. Hope you enjoy. 

Gasing up our bodies before our trek.

The Arabia Mountain Trail runs through and is apart of the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve. You park here to officially begin the trail, but there are many other points of entrance. The nature preserve also has many other items of interest for visitors besides the recreational trail. 

One of the many helpful signs along the way. This was posted at the beginning and lets you see where the trail goes. 

A view of the summit of Arabia Mountain. We rode beside it on a boardwalk and then rode down to the entrance of the trail to the summit. We plan on hiking to the top on our next visit. 

My partners in crime stopping for a quick photo on one of the boardwalk sections of the side trail to the base of Arabia Mountain. 

About 5 miles into our ride, we got to pass through this neat covered wooden bridge. I can't explain it, but there is something very neat about passing through a wooden bridge. It makes you feel as if you were living so many years earlier. This portion of the trail heads to Panola Mountain State Park. 

FH and Mel taking a much deserved break from time in the saddle. Arabia Mountain Trail is a great little trail, but the inclines and declines make for tough cycling. The declines were fun and fast, but you always knew that it meant you would have to climb them on the way back! 

A pic of our trusty steeds beside the trail. They needed the break and we needed a snack! 

You can't hang out near a stream and not at least try to explore the rocks and the water. This was one of my favorite things to do when I was younger. No, strike that, it is one of my favorite things to do now! I brought FH along because I know it will be something he will love to do too! It took everything in me to keep him out of the way and the algae.

A shot of further up the stream. I/we could have stayed at the stream much longer. It was so peaceful and the weather was just right. It was a beautiful little stream. Next time, may we'll go when it is a little warmer and we will have to wade upstream and downstream. 

A miniature cascade. I love being next to streams. I read a quote a few weeks ago and it was something about how moving water always gave the author peace because it pointed to the fact that the world was moving, the world was working, the world was existing. I get that. 

Nothing beats snack time! Nothing! 

A shot of my copilot. I think in an airplane where the copilot sits behind you, he or she has a multitude of tasks; everything from navigating to stearing. My copilot on the other hand replicates animal noises, tries to tickle me, tries to lift my shirt up, points to things, sways to music he hears, and about 20 other things. 

A smile this time!

We rode about 5 miles one way and then rode the 5 miles back to the parking lot, but FH and I wanted to see a little of the trail in the direction we didn't ride, so we rode a little ways that way and came upon an old farm that had been made part of the nature preserve. I love open fields and old farms and this was a very picturesque one at that. And you can see the trail as it heads north towards the city of Lithonia. 

A pic of the trail heading south of the old farm.These trails really are nice. The paving is flat and about 12 feet wide with lines down the middle. It beats sidewalks and busy city streets sevens days a week. I wish every city had miles and miles of these trails. I feel like they would pay for themselves fairly quickly. Heck, I wouldn't mind paying a little each time I rode or ran on one. 

FH giving me the "Hey, Dad, we all love this trail and the bike riding thing as much as the next guy, but we've got to go home soon, or things are going to head south much faster than you want..." look. 

The old barn. Very cool. Next time, we will hike to it!  

A view south back to the parking lot through the old fields. 

A neat and very useful tool that each of these trails has are large mile markers. This may not sound useful, but it does help you gauge your ride, walk, run, etc. It also helps you know where about you are on the trail map. And they are also accurate as far as each mile being exactly that far away from the previous one and from the original one. In a day when it seems every race course and trail is either too long or too short, it is nice for these to be spot on. Which is weird because we live in the age of GPS and other scientific devices for measuring distances and yet they are incorrect. I will stop there. 

Never trust your key shot to a stranger who has to pause their cd player (yeah, you just read that) to take the key picture. It will be rushed. It will end up like this. You will say it is fine because in the time he took to hand back the camera and you to look at the blurry picture, he has already pressed play again and is headed off. No good, but if you squint really hard, we look cute! 

Get outside. Enjoy this Fall weather. Find a good bike. Find a trail. Head to it with your people.


Happy Riding,

    DAVID