Patterson Gap Road? Where is it?

It's now a month late. What happened!? Well, I made another trip up to the area and collected more trail data. I completed the connection to Upper Hightower Creek Rd, though it does have a few difficult sections that are not suitable for low clearance automobiles. I have even more to clean up now, and it had to be sidelined to finish my latest downhill cart project. So, it's now likely to appear after the holidays. Let me know if you have any suggestions of future areas to visit.

Take it easy,
David

Coming Soon: Patterson Gap Road to Tate City

Last weekend I drove to Dillard, Georgia and headed west. Once on Patterson Gap Rd, the only pavement I encountered was a small section (approximately 2 miles) on Persimmon Rd and Tallulah River Rd. Overall, including the round trip (both directions) on Tallulah River Rd and a number of side trails, the trip was approximately 32 miles. I'm now working on cleaning up the data and should have it posted in another week or two. My intent was to include the section between Tallulah River Rd and Upper Hightower Creek Rd, but I ran out of time. I will collect this missing portion and add it soon.

Burrells Ford Road to Bald Mountain Road

Northeast Georgia. This trail begins (or ends, depending on where you start) on Burrells Ford Road in the Northwest corner of South Carolina. The trail is almost entirely in Georgia and is nearly all graded dirt and gravel road. Unless you are travelling in the winter, this trail should not pose any problems for a high-clearance vehicle. The section of road between the GA 28 / Burrells Ford Rd junction and the Warwoman Rd and FS 86 junction is pavement. The northern end of the trail is located at the border of Northeast Georgia and Southwest North Carolina. Note: There are numerous side-trails that I have yet to map. I have explored this area quite a bit over the last 10+ years. Not too far from this trail is one of our favorite spots to hike and camp, Rabun Bald. The second highest mountain in Georgia offers excellent views from the small, open lookout tower. Visit in the winter on a clear day to witness the amazing mountain views.
Download the Burrells Ford Road to Bald Mountain Road.kmz  file.

View the Burrells Ford Road to Bald Mountain Road.kmz file in Google Maps.

Coming Soon: Burrells Ford Rd to Bald Mountain Rd

With Road Rally and family obligations keeping me busy many weekends, I have neglected Georgia Overland. Captured in March, I have a nice trail running from the Georgia/South Carolina border to the Georgia/North Carolina border. I hope to have the processing and cleanup completed in the next week or two. Keep an eye out for it!

Reader Submission: Dunaway Gap Road

Today I received Georgia Overland's first reader-submitted trail! A big thank you goes to Blake Silvers of Rome, Georgia. Blake provided the location of Dunaway Gap Road, found in Northwest Georgia and midway between Calhoun and Summerville, straddling Floyd and Chattooga counties in the Chattahoochee National Forest. The Dunaway Gap Road .kmz file contains only one point that is used to approximate the location of the road. Read the description below to get a better understanding of how to access it. Also, I'm giving the Google Earth Plug-in a try with this post, so let me know what you think of it. I returned to the embedded Google Maps option as the Google Earth Plug-in was loading too slowly.

Blake sent the following description of Dunaway Gap Road (as well as a couple nice pics of him and his Jeep on the trail).

Dunaway Gap Road can be accessed easily from Floyd Springs Road via Hwy 156 (Hwy 156 can be accessed from the east near downtown Calhoun or from the west near Armuchee/Hwy 27 north of Rome). Take Floyd Springs road north and Dunaway Gap Road will be on your left after a few miles. There are a series of public and legal dirt roads/paths in the area. There is a nice scenic view back towards The Pocket to the East and towards Alabama to the West that can be found if you take the slight right at the fork at the top of Dunaway Gap. The 3 prong fork can be seen on Google Street View. The middle fork is the only one that makes an obvious ascent up the ridge and 4-low on any stock Wrangler/CJ type vehicle or lifted rig will get you through some light, but fun wheeling to the ridge cut.

Thank you, Blake! I'm certain many readers will enjoy your contribution.

If you would like to submit a trail to Georgia Overland, send me an email at gaoverland@gmail.com.

Download the Dunaway Gap Road.kmz  file.

View the Dunaway Gap Road.kmz file in Google Maps.

www.atltothearctic.com

Check out my friend Daniel's ride from Georgia to Alaska. Why is he making the ride? How can you help? Find out here:
www.atltothearctic.com
This is a great ride for a great cause. Check it out.

West Wolf Creek Road to Georgia Highway 60

This collection of roads is a small section we travelled during a multi-day trip in Summer 2009. At the time, we only collected a few key waypoints as we crossed North Georgia.  The route begins at the junction of West Wolf Creek Road and Highway 19 / State Route 180 / Gainesville Highway.  The route ends to the west, at the junction of Cooper Creek Road and Highway 60. We did not collect all of the road junctions and did not focus on potential campsites, trails, etc. as I have included in early posts. Using Bing Maps' imagery and NAVTEQ streetbase, I digitized the road network from waypoint to waypoint. As a result, my comparatively crude digitized linework does not line up perfectly with the typical (accurate) commercial streetbases.

Download the West Wolf Creek Road to Highway 60.kmz  file.

View the West Wolf Creek Road to Highway 60.kmz file in Google Maps.

Exploring Jones Creek Road

In Late 2009 and Early 2010, I explored portions of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Management Area (Dawson, Fannin and Lumpkin Counties).  The main focus of these trips was to camp with a few friends along Jones Creek Road.  The dirt and gravel road network in the area appears to be well maintained.  In dry weather most cars should not find it difficult.  There are a few sections that, when wet, may require AWD or high clearance.  There are two small stream crossings near the end of Jones Creek Road that, depending on runoff and stream flow, may be a bit too deep for the average car.

Please note that not all the roads in this area are mapped. I will release an updated file once I complete this area.  Overall, I enjoyed my time around the Blue Ridge WMA.  

Download the Jones Creek Road Exploration.kmz file.

View the Jones Creek Road Exploration.kmz file in Google Maps.

New Trails Soon!

I've been busy piecing together trail sections from previous trips, as well as planning a day trip (Saturday, 6th) to scout a few trails.  Stay tuned for another trail post later this month.

The Cohutta and Big Frog Wilderness Loop

The Cohutta and Big Frog Wilderness Loop is the result of a Fall 2009, 95-mile exploration of the dirt and gravel roads in and around the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area in Fannin, Gilmer and Murray Counties, Georgia, and the Big Frog Wilderness in Fannin County, Georgia and Polk County, Tennessee.

The Cohutta and Big Frog Wilderness Loop.kmz file contains one 95-mile track and 78 waypoints (with a few photos). This track is a loop. The track begins and ends at the intersection of Highway 2/52/Chatsworth Hwy and Gates Chapel Road. There are a number of roads you can use to access the loop, this just happened to be our access point for this particular visit.

In dry weather, stock 2WD vehicles should have very little difficulty driving this loop, though portions of the trail may require careful tire placement. A high(er) clearance AWD vehicle would be quite comfortable on this trail. In wet weather, the loop may be considerably more interesting and likely would require a high clearance AWD or 4WD vehicle.

Download The Cohutta and Big Frog Wilderness Loop.kmz  file.

View The Cohutta and Big Frog, Wilderness Loop.kmz  file in Google Maps.

MotionX-GPS

iPhone
Last summer I finally realized the joys of iPhone ownership. The iPhone 3GS I purchased has built-in GPS and a proper magnetic compass that appears to work well enough. Yes, the GPS is not the best. It would have been nice to see a WAAS-enabled SiRF StarIII (or StarIV) chip in there. Regardless, it works pretty darn well and has proven to be sensitive enough for offroad trail use with a significant tree canopy.

Accuracy
The positional accuracy of the iPhone GPS appears to be fairly good. Using the MotionX-GPS app (more about that in a moment) on my iPhone I captured a track and viewed it in Google Earth. I compared the captured track with a .kml overlay of GDOT roads, the NAVTEQ streetbase found in GE, and the GE (coarse) aerial imagery. In my unscientific eyeball and onscreen measurement test, the typical error I found for the captured track was in the 20-40ft range, based on the position relative to the road visible in the imagery. I'm not certain about the positional accuracy of the imagery. The NAVTEQ data appears to be quite close to the road centerline visible in the imagery, while the GDOT roads were generally worse, positionally speaking. The captured track had errors as great as 300ft in a couple areas, 50-100ft in others. For the most part, however, the MotionX-GPS captured track was well under 50ft compared to the street centerline viewed on the imagery.

MotionX-GPS
After testing a number of GPS apps, the one I finally settled on is the MotionX-GPS app by Fullpower. As of 1/17/10, it is only $2.99 on the App Store. I originally intended to purchase a newer, mid-grade GPS device to take on the trails. I was due for a modern, updated device with plenty of data storage after owning a couple older consumer GPS units. While the MotionX-GPS does not replace a new rugged handheld GPS for hiking or serious technical use, it does a fine job in a vehicle. The tracks and waypoints found on GeorgiaOverland are captured using MotionX-GPS and a 3GS iPhone. Read up on the app, see what you think. A couple highlights that I have found useful is the pre-caching of imagery/road tiles for use in the field and the ability to import .gpx files and export .kmz and .gpx files. In addition to an editable description (plus time, date, and more), the Tracks and Waypoints can include a photo, captured by the iPhone. The only drawback I see is that MotionX does not allow a full resolution photo to be attached to the location as it automatically saves the photo in a lower resolution.

Overall, MotionX-GPS is a capable app, and at only $2.99 it is a great value.

Unpaved Georgia DOT and Forest Service Roads

The basis for much of my exploration in Georgia, this subset of GDOT's road network contains Forest Service (I believe most are FS) roads with Gravel, Compacted Soil, Native or Other Material Surface Types and with an Operational Maintenance Level other than Closed. Meaning? Unpaved roads that are also open (or potentially open). There are many roads that I have found closed, but are likely not permanently closed. For instance, some may be closed seasonally only to reopen once conditions improve and the likelihood for damage due to weather and usage diminishes.  The GDOT and FS roads are symbolized in orange in order to differentiate between the basemap roads sourced through GDOT and those I have personally captured with GPS (in red, see Cohutta post).

Download The Unpaved Georgia DOT and Forest Service Roads.kmz  file.

View The Unpaved Georgia DOT and Forest Service Roads.kmz  file in Google Maps.