Explore the best rated trails in Bowman, GA, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Patrick Square Lake Loop and Bubble Gum Rail Trail . With more than 16 trails covering 53 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
If you park at the Sandy Creek Nature center, you can ride this trail and then join the Firefly Trail, which has the new bridge in place, and ride all the way to Winterville. The Firefly portion of the trail passes a convenience/gas store if you need water/food/bathroom. At that juncture you can also turn right, cross Lexington Road and continue on a trail into UGA, or towards East Athens on the other fork. This you can get a good 2-3 hr ride using all spurs.
Parked by McCormick country club end. Road about .4 miles on the trail, until came to very large trees down from Hurricane Helene. Possibly could have lifted bikes through but wasn’t sure how many more were down. Many had been cut so I’m sure they will eventually be cut. Turned back and drove to SC7 parking. About 3 spaces there, road about 2 miles, roots, leaves, and pine straw covered, definitely need a mountain bike, beautiful trip in the woods. There is a small detour onto moss rd for about .5 miles, which is a country road not busy. Didn’t go all the way to Willington. Very nice day!
This trail was beautiful and fun, but the hills made it pretty challenging. I had to get off my bike and walk quite a bit more than I’d hoped. I parked at Doodle Park in Easley, and managed to make it to Pickens and back! The bathrooms at both end were clean, and the trail wasn’t crowded. I went on a weekday morning though ¿.
Enjoyed a great ride on the trail with friends. We parked at Sandy Creek Nature Center and road all the way till it ended at Carriage Lane. It’s completely paved, it was our 1st trip so we did get a little confused but had no problems navigating back to where we started. We ended up with 14+ miles round trip which made for a great ride. Lots of other cyclists, walkers, and runners. But not crowded on the day we went during the week. Highly recommend
This was my third ride on the Doodle trail. It is hillier than the Greenville Swamp Rabbit trail, and much less crowded. Good bathrooms at each end, and a nice store at the Pickens end that serves sandwiches and craft beers in cans and bottles.
Wanted to provide a more recent review. Rode most of the trail yesterday with my wife. It is well marked, well maintained and beautiful ride. The path is hard pack - not concrete or black top so it is not super smooth. There are several things to see and placards to read that explain the features of the old railroad. Also a cemetery from the 1700s and a fun tressel towards the end. The only negatives were that my wife thought there were too many roots. There are roots and I rode a mountain bike so I didn’t really notice them as ‘bad”. Also there is about a 2.5 mile section you have to ride on the road in the middle. It is a country road and traffic was lite and the cars were respectful of us and rode slowly around us. There were benches and picnic tables along the route if you wanted to stop and just sit for a while. We only saw 2 other people walking their dogs. It was a fun trail for novice riders not looking for single track. Enjoy -
Decently maintained. Gorgeous views. There’s a spot with some art work painted on the ground (near the cemetery). Both trailheads have bathrooms and a park. Few bumpy areas where ya definitely want two hands on the “wheel.”
A pretty straightforward rail trail that is paved, is kept up so there are no unpleasant bumps, and has parking at either end.
Much of it is well-shaded, and the scenery is nice.
It has more road crossings than some others, but there is likely no way to change that. Also 8 miles is not super long compared to some others.
I drove a little out of my way driving from Charlotte to Atlanta & may make the same stop in the future as I drive that regularly.
The trail now connects downtown Athens to Winterville road. It's a fun couple miles to bike or hike on smooth pavement the whole way. There are water fountains and benches as well. Lots of fun to connect the Firefly to the North Oconee Greenway and bike about 10 miles around Athens!
Great ride. Very well maintained trail. Beautiful scenery. There were a couple shady areas that I rode through and felt a little on edge. But could just be me!
I absolutely enjoyed every mile of this trail on my blades. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. There were plenty of bikers and walkers out on a Monday morning 8-9am. As an in-line skater this trail is not for beginners if you’re not comfortable with stopping & navigating debris. I’m no pro myself so it was convenient to have grassy areas to walk in when I wasn’t comfortable to skate.
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