Long Cane Horse Trail

[seenvic]

This trail is awesome.

No doubt the best kept secret on the Long Cane Ranger District for riding.

Highly rollable primitive singletrack...old school as hell most of the way. Then a 10 mile section of 4-5 year old trail built by the same individuals that built the FATS. The combo makes for a hell of a loop.

We did a 22ish mile ride there today. The locals were talking about rides of 30 and 38 miles when all is right.

I can't heap enough praise onto this trail.

It has to be dry to ride it as it used by horses and is 50+ years old. It goes into low areas and crosses some creeks that can be big when wet. But the main thing is the horse use makes it really hard to ride when wet.

But it wasn't wet today. And it is awesome. Go ride it.

[Angela]

I'll second that - the Greenwood guys rolled out in numbers to share this trail today and we all had a great time. Definitely worth the trip!

[dabiggie]

I'm generally a road cyclist but I'm interested in riding this horse trail.
My off road experience is mostly along the Augusta Canal, atop the levees & towpath from Lock to Lock. I've done Lock to Lock in about 50 min. recently on a '98 Iguana like the one the cops use.
What's Long Cane like in terms of difficulty, roughness, etc? Is it well-marked?

Thanks

[seenvic]

It's pretty rough and poorly marked. It has some long, steeper (than around the southern end of the district) climbs.

But those are the things that make it great. Well maybe not the poorly marked part.

[dparrott]

I rode the entire trail Memorial Day weekend - started at Parsons Mtn Campground & rode ccw to the middle connector and took it West to Big Rock and then CW around to the middle connector, across it for the 2nd time and then looped back to the campground. Basically, a figure-eight pattern which does the middle section (best part!) twice. My odometer quit working at 19 miles but I guess the route is in the 33-35 mile range. Afterward, we rode over to the swim area of the lake where all came off except shorts in 2 nanoseconds for a nice swim. The entire Northern loop and extensions to Fell Hunt Camp on the SE corner and to the steel bridge over the creek on the SW corner are excellent and very fast. There are a couple of points on gravel road stretches which may be hard to find if you don't know where to look. A guide is handy for your first ride there.
The two sections connecting to Parsons Mtn Campground don't appear to ridden nearly as often. They would be good if more traffic kept the sometimes heavy duff off the tread. I had always wanted to see the whole thing and it was worth it.
Overall fun factor is fabulous - nearly that of FATS.
Not too strenuous except for a couple of short climbs.
Trail not terribly technical except there were a few trees that I didn't try (good number of trees down). One stream crossing (the one with rebar sticking out of concrete) is a little tricky but had a new tree down that made it a walker for me.
D.

[dabiggie]

Where do I get a decent guide for this trail?

[dabiggie]

How steep & long are these short climbs? Is there much loose debris, dirt, rocks, etc on these climbs? What about the "dips" ?

[seenvic]

dabiggie said:

Where do I get a decent guide for this trail?

DParrott. Or someone from Greenwood. I think they ride on Sundays up there pretty regular. Below is a website to contact.

www.greenwoodmtb.com/

[driftwood]

Where is this trail? I didn't see a description or map for it on the SORBA-CSRA page.

[seenvic]

drift,
B/n Greenwood and Abbeville. Hit the link two posts up and you'll know all about it.

[DMSC]

It's been a very long time since I've ridden over there. Doug King showed them to me what must have been close to 8-10 years ago(?).

I rode past there on my motorcycle on my way to east at Yoder's a few weeks ago. I guess I need to drag my lazy butt over there and give it a go...