Jacksonville, AL / Chief Ladiga Trail (3/15 - 3/20/23)

After moving on from Hattiesburg, we traveled east to Alabama and Georgia to ride more rail trails. Alabama hosts the Hall of Fame Chief Ladiga Trail. This trip we stayed at an RV park near Cave Spring, GA and not too far from Rome, GA named Cedar Creek RV Resort.

The trail starts at the Alabama-Georgia state line. It is connected to the Silver Comet trail that I will detail more in another post. The trail is about 33 miles and is fully paved asphalt. We were able to do the whole trail in an out and back in one day for our longest ride of the year so far.

Although these trails are connected at the state line, they are different and I will explain some differences in my next post.

This true rail trail was very scenic and usually nested in wooded forests. This part was in the Talladega National Forest. The trail is in good condition but did have some areas where heaving has caused some bumps that appeared to be mostly ground down by some asphalt grinder I assume to smooth them out. Since it was a rail trail, the expected gradual elevation changes were hardly noticeable and no sharp turns.

This is a view of Dugger Mountain from the trail. Reminds us of where we grew up in Maryland.

This cabin in the woods near the river looked like a nice place to relax. The river had crystal clear, fast-running water.

Jacksonville is the home of Jacksonville State University and was one of really only two towns that were along the trail. Jacksonville has some eating options and we stopped at a sports bar for some wings and beer and watched some Men's Basketball NCAA tourney action opening weekend.

As one would see makes sense, many of these trails have preserved train stations that are used for other purposes or as a trail amenity. This one served both purposes (public restrooms) plus offices.

The campground we stayed wasn't too special and a little tight for room in the pull throughs, but it did have a nice small river very close that gets use in summer for canoeing and kayaking excursions they host.