Trails to the south for bikepacking

[vette-ss]

Looking for advice on trails to the south (southern Ohio/Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.....something in the 4-6 hour driving distance) that would be suitable for bikepacking. Would like to do a weekend outing with the fiancee a little earlier in the season than we might find here in MI. Most of the longer MI trails look to be up north. The concept is a long loop or out and back trail that might require an overnight along the way. Or a trail system with a bunch of loops using the car as a central camp base. In order to suit the other half it can't be something over challenging, especially if we are talking about 40 or 50 mile rides in a day, but not looking for rail trail either. Single track through the woods preferred. I did a google but didn't find sites with much traffic like MMBA for the other states. Anyone have any experiences they'd like to share? If nothing pops up, we may head north in the fall. In general we'd like to do more camp-biking this year, but with kid schedules we are pretty much limited to before Memorial Day or after mid-August.

[barrybs]

If you haven't already, check this site out: http://www.bikepacking.net/

Barry

[RMXByker]

Brown County State Park would be a good spot for this. Look into it. They have campsites and tons of fun trails. Nice thing is they have lots of loops in different difficulty so both of you can be happy.

Park Information
Trail Information

[jiml]

If you can tolerate chilly nights, I would say the North Country Trail should be good to go by early-mid April. In 2011, I did two s24o's- April 29 -> 30 and May 20 -> 21 and the trail was in awesome shape, albeit a few downed trees. I started from the 56th Street trailhead both times and headed north for an out and back. Singletrack galore... Very few people and cars. You can get info/gpx/etc. here: http://transmichigan.blogspot.com/

As far as routes down south, this one looks pretty interesting, but alas, there's lots of road and rail trail:

Main route page: http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/ ... ?pg=detail
Event page: http://alleghenymountainsloop.blogspot. ... -2012.html

Not that you're looking to do an 'event', but both links have good info. The AML you could probably pack light and two-day ride a shorter loop with an overnight in a town/motel. The same with the NCT as well.

If you need a waypoint file (water, food, camping, motels, etc.) for the NCT, let me know and I'll post one up.

There's' also the Trans-Georgia route, but I don't have any experience or knowledge of it, so you'll have to do your own homework. Cite: http://www.firstworks.com/tnga/

Jim

[bleve]

I don't have any specific trail suggestions but you might post the question on Spokejunkies. I've asked a couple questions there over the years and gotten several good suggestions. Plus they have good trail reviews in general of Ohio & Indiana among other states.

[vette-ss]

Thanks for the input. I've got a few more sources to do some digging now.

[irishpitbull]

Appalachian bike trail. You can go for days and not see a soul.

[SteveF]

FATS trail system on the Georgia/S.Carolina border. S'posed to be a real fun trail...

http://www.sctrails.net/Trails/alltrail ... /FATS.html

[kyle_vk]

Not to thread jack but does anyone have any pointers on any bikepacking routes here in MI that are "beginner friendly" to a certain extent? A friend and I have been looking into doing a 2-3 day trip (assuming this trip would be something a regular would do in 2 days). We've been looking into the High Country Pathway, but haven't heard much about any other bikepack friendly routes.

Any help to go in the right direction would be appreciated.

[WildWoody]

Not to thread jack but does anyone have any pointers on any bikepacking routes here in MI that are "beginner friendly" to a certain extent? A friend and I have been looking into doing a 2-3 day trip (assuming this trip would be something a regular would do in 2 days). We've been looking into the High Country Pathway, but haven't heard much about any other bikepack friendly routes.

Any help to go in the right direction would be appreciated.

Come to my house camp at the lake, I live on the lake. (Portage Lake) Ride to the poto, 15 min dirt road to the trail head. Ride the Poto. Camp at the Blind lake campground. Ride back to my place. Perfect weekend. If you get scared call me.. I can Pick ya up.
Best deal in town!
All this for FREE!!!!

[sisu]

check WildWoody's profile pic. Only person on this board that has that trophy, I'll wager. Arrowhead 135 finisher.