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    Chief Ladiga Trail

    4.9 (7 reviews)

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    Once a train station along this route.
    Richard R.

    To my surprise this trail had not yet been added to Yelp when I wanted to begin this review. HISTORY The Chief Ladiga Trail is named after a famed Indian Chief who relinquished his tribe's lands when he signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832. Half of his land (which would later become Jacksonville) sold for $2000. Kinda makes you wish you had two grand and a time machine huh? The Trail is approximately 33 miles long and stretches from the border of Alabama/Georgia to just north of Anniston, AL. It uses the same rail-to-trail corridor as the Silver Comet in Georgia creating 94.5 miles of non-motorized paved trail... currently the longest in the United States. THE EXPERIENCE This trail traverses beautiful landscapes, including the mountainous Pinhoti National Forest and through the farmlands of Northeast Alabama. We found the trail to be very flat with barely any noticeable inclines or declines. The Silver Comet, on the other hand, has some very extreme inclines especially east of Cedartown. However, unlike the Silver Comet trail, many areas of Chief Ladiga trail are in full sunlight. This is something you might want to keep in mind when traveling in the heat of summer. We had the luxury of my wonderful wife agreeing to meet us at certain points along the trail for encouragement and refreshments. She also drove my truck which allowed us to just pack up at the end of the trail and drive home. Solo bikers would have to travel the same distance back to wherever they started. If I'm being honest, this trail kicked my shizzle, forizzle. I was tired when I started and completely exhausted by the 15 mile marker. I felt pain in my legs the likes of which I'd never felt before... they were on fire. If it were not for the courage of my son, I would have thrown in the towel. We'd completed 76.5 miles of biking at this point, which probably equals all the miles that I've biked in the last 25 years COMBINED. Funny thing is... the Chief Ladiga trail was so much easier than the Silver Comet, but I had simply run out of gas. I struggled the next 9 miles to reach my wife waiting at Germania Springs Park (mile 24). Once we arrived, we loaded the bikes onto my truck and found food. I could barely walk and my legs were so uncomfortably sore that it was difficult to sit down. All the pain came RUSHING in once my body was no longer actively pedaling. I seriously thought there was no way I could finish, but with a little rest and nourishment I found just enough strength to continue the remaining 9 miles from Germania Springs Park to the end of the trail. The details of our journey are as follows: --------------- CHIEF LADIGA TRAIL LOGBOOK (Wednesday - April 10th, 2013) 7:50am - Started Silver Comet Trail in Smyrna, Georgia (mile marker 0.00) 2:48pm - Completed Silver Comet Trail 3:18pm - Start Chief Ladiga Trail (after 30 minute rest) 5:12pm - Mile Marker 20 5:33pm - Mile Marker 24/Germania Springs Park Loaded the bikes and headed to Burger King a few miles up the road. Thought I was done, my body just couldn't take any more. Revived from our meal and a little rest we decided to finish out the last 9 miles. 6:25pm - Restarted from Germania Springs Park 7:14pm - Finished Chief Ladiga trail (3 hours & 56 minutes including 1.25 hour rest) NOTES This trail is more narrow that the Silver Comet, but freshly paved nearly the entire 33 miles. It also has lots of informative plaques, beautiful river crossings and absolutely gorgeous countryside views. The PLUS side - it's very flat with little elevation change the enter trail. The NEGATIVE side - it's very straight and you can see for miles. It makes the end of the trail seem impossible to reach after pedaling for hours. Get's busy around Jacksonville. STATS Time to complete the entire Silver Comet/Chief Ladiga trail - 9 hours : 11 minutes Time with stops - 11 hours : 36 minutes Days to complete the entire trail - 1 Miles traveled - 94.5 Average speed when on the trail - 10.32 miles per hour --------------- THE VERDICT Outstanding trail! If you are starting in Georgia on the Silver Comet, I highly recommend completing this portion of the trail if for no other reason because of it's beautiful views. It will test your endurance, but I should note that I lost 6.5 pounds on the trail today. Completely erased all my gluttony from overeating while visiting Chicago the weekend prior. Yelp100[71]

    68 mile ride with my son Jackson

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    3 years ago

    Super nice for short walks. I used to go all the time in college to ride bikes and for runs.

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    Cheaha State Park - Spring on the Mountain

    Cheaha State Park

    3.7(52 reviews)
    18.0 mi

    DO NOT STAY IN THE CABINS!!…read more Last night my wife and I swept the walls and floors of lady beetles flushing them down the toilet, since they are invasive. Around two we got to sleep. A few times we got woke up by a bite of two but most were gone or so we thought. We woke up to find the windows covered with them. We called again to ask for help and they sent down a housekeeper. After talking to a few employees we found out this has been an ongoing problem and that many people have cut their stay short. As I understand from what was said to me the management here is fully aware and wants to ignore the problem hoping it goes away instead of addressing it. This is a bad look for Alabama. If I travelled all the way here to stay in these lovely cabins and paid what we paid only to be swarmed by Asian Lady Beetles I would not recommend this beautiful park to anyone. It's not the bugs that give this a two. It's the attitude and lack of action by the management that got them that. The only reason the got a two is the cabin and park are beautiful.

    It will take you a solid 30 minutes to drive from Oxford up to the highest point in Alabama, but it…read moreis well worth it. The walk to Bald Rock is extremely easy, but there are areas along the boardwalk where you can step down into the woods and rocks if you like. For us, the highlight of our visit to the area was a hike to Pulpit Rock. That hike is a bit more strenuous, but still very short. I have indicated with a red dot on the map photo where this hike begins. The views are phenomenal. We actually enjoyed this hike the most. Keep your children on a leash.

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    Cheaha State Park - Spring on the Mountain

    Spring on the Mountain

    Cheaha State Park - The red dot shows where the Pulpit Rock hike begins.

    The red dot shows where the Pulpit Rock hike begins.

    Cheaha State Park - Beautiful Park

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    Beautiful Park

    Horse Pens 40 - Fissure continues to the other sids

    Horse Pens 40

    4.0(6 reviews)
    30.9 mi

    I went climbing at Horse Pens 40 this past Friday and Saturday and had an absolutely incredible…read moreexperience. The guy at the front desk, Troy, was so friendly and kind -- we ended up talking about music for a while, and he helped us find the perfect rental gear to get started. The whole area was beautiful and easy to navigate thanks to the Kaya app, which made finding the boulders super straightforward. It was a little difficult to determine which were the start holds on some of the climbs but by following the chalky holds of previous climbers we were able to make sense of it for the most part. Between the great climbing, welcoming atmosphere, and amazing people, HP40 definitely became one of my favorite spots. Can't wait to come back!

    So, what is Horse Pens 40? Well, the simple breakdown, it is a privately owned outdoor nature park…read morelocated in near Steele, Alabama. The park is situated on top of Chandler Mountain (Chandler is a mountain .... Friends reverence for anyone keeping track), in the foothills of The Appalachian Mountains. The park is known among the rock climbing community as a premier bouldering site. The site is also home to a "Bluegrass Park" where it hosts festivals showcasing the genre several times per year. The biggest of these festivals occurs on the Fourth of July. The park features both RV and primitive camping. So, we were coming out to explore and play on the boulders, when a massive downpour hit. We were literally the only ones at the park (just driving in as the rain hit). We parked in the lot and sat there a few minutes. Now, here is where they get the 5 stars .... an employee came out in the downpour to make sure we were ok and didn't need anything. We felt so bad! Any place that treats customers like this is worthy of 5 stars. Thank you Horse Pens staff for caring about the people that come to visit and making sure they are safe and don't need anything. He even offered us a place to get out of the storm while it passed. Looking forward to a time we can return and properly explore this cool site.

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    Horse Pens 40
    Horse Pens 40 - "Merlin's Hat" rock

    "Merlin's Hat" rock

    Horse Pens 40 - Massive fissure between two boulders

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    Massive fissure between two boulders

    Chief Ladiga Trail - hiking - Updated May 2026

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