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The Silver Comet was a train that run through GA earlier in the 20th century - probably in the 30s or so. It has long vanished like so many other train lines in the South. What makes the old train line interesting is that trains don't cope well with steep terrain -- a 2% slope is pretty much the maximum slope a standard train can drive up... which makes such a train line an ideal area for building a recreational bicycle path. The PATH foundation is busy doing just that. The Silver Comet Trail is not entirely finished yet, but there are several pieces of the trail completed. On this sunny and warm Sunday, a group of us rode a 12mile piece of the trail (with a short interruption and then another 3.5 mile piece) from near Dallas, GA to Rockmart, GA.
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At the place where we entered the trail, we could see quite well, how much more needed to be done to turn this into a bike trail... This is what the untouched sections of the train line look like. Good for mountain biking, but there is no way you could ride a road bike through this. And then there are parts with bridges and tunnels etc. I guess these parts are not usable at all. |
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What a difference if you turn around! About 20-30 meters back and across the street, the trail suddenly looks like this... |
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This is part of the parking lot in between those photos. Two folks from our group. |
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And more bikers. One one of our group is missing (yes, me! Somebody has to take photos after all, right?) |
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Did I mention bridges? I'm not sure where this particular bridge leads, but it looks very much like a railroad bridge. Parts of the trail are on bridges of this kind. Or rather: they will be. See the path foundation's page on current construction activities for some photos.
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And there was one tunnel on the section we checked out. A typical railroad tunnel. Very tall. It was very likely built with a steam engine in mind (so that the smoke from the engine doesn't immediately get into every compartment of the train). Nice touch: the tunnel has lights, so you don't have to take lights with you when you want to ride the trail! (it also has a wonderful echo! :) ) |
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We went further along the trail... |
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...passed rest stops, like this one... |
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...till we reached Coot's lake. Then there is an interruption in the trail where it passes a major highway. There will be tunnel under that road at some time, but so far bikers can just dismount and try to get across that highway alive to ride the last 3.5 miles into Rockmart, and then turn around and ride back. When completed, the trail will run from Smyrna, GA to Cedartown, GA (57 miles). It is planned to connect it to the Chief Ladiga Trail (33 miles) so that there will be a continuous bike trail that's long enough to ride a century on it :) |
Well, that much for this adventure. We had to turn around in a hurry and race back because I needed to catch my plane out of Atlanta that afternoon. But it was a great trip, that's for sure.
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