Find the top rated cross country skiing trails in Albertville, whether you're looking for an easy short cross country skiing trail or a long cross country skiing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a cross country skiing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
I'm 68 years old and rode the 66 miles from Anniston and back. I enjoyed the entire trail but the last 10 miles or so through Talladega National Forest were beautiful. Very well-maintained trail. The old train depot in Jacksonville is nice and Piedmont struck me as a typical Alabama town. Very glad I did it though strong wind gusts made it difficult at times in open areas.
I just did the lower 13 miles from the Michael Tucker park in Anniston. Very nice mostly smooth trail mostly through woods and farmland, along some small streams. Lots of wildflowers this spring. Very little traffic on the few streets I had to cross, not many walkers and fewer cyclists on the trail. Just a caution if you are camping at the trailhead: flat field campground has many low spots holding water after yesterday’s rain. Watch where you put your tent. The restroom is only marginally maintained. Shower water is warm but only comes in brief bursts. Note to the town of Anniston: litter pick up along the trail is needed at your end. Rest of the trail was quite clean.
Great trail! Very soothing and scenic. Will definitely do again.
The Chief Ladiga trail, to me, is a great extension of the Comet (or the Comet is an extension of the Ladiga?) in my opinion, the trail is a very fun trail, but you need to understand it to ensure it is fun for you. Coming from the Georgia border, the trail is very picturesque but there are some rural sections that are a little bumpy for the high pressure 700c crowd, although the 2" tire MTB crowd wouldn't notice anything. In my opinion, Piedmont to the border trailhead is fantastic, and Piedmont to Jacksonville State University is equally awesome. The ride from Jacksonville State University to Anniston is pretty pointless unless you are riding it just so you can say you did the whole thing. The Anniston terminus is very underwhelming, kind of just ending in the middle of nowhere near a small park area.
At the time of this review, Ebikes are not legal on the Chief Ladiga trail, regardless of class. In reality, they are fine IMO since there is zero enforcement and from what I understand, zero plans to enforce. Currently there is no legal distinction between a class 1 Ebike and a full dress Harley. As far as I know, Alabama is simply behind in recognizing Ebikes. We rode half the trail on Ebikes and half on acoustics and even used the Police Station parking in Piedmont to load/unload our Ebikes and had no issues. Ebikes are fun and this trail makes them more fun!
Lastly, there is a time change at the border of the Comet and the Ladiga. The comet is in Eastern time and Ladiga is in Central time. Great place to do some time travelling, and if you want to go for a record, you can start just barely on the Comet then ride to Piedmont to collect your new record time (at least by the clocks)!
I found this to be an easy quick 2 mile walk. If you are just starting like me to work on getting healthy this is perfect. The history that you are walking around makes it interesting too.
My wife and I rode from Piedmont to the AL/GA state line. The asphalt pavement was pretty good and the areas where tree roots had pushed up the pavement have been ground down. The trail is a steady climb starting just east of Piedmont up to the state line. The bridge transitions are fairly smooth. Starting at 8.7 miles (state line is 0.0) to 4.8 miles, we encountered many "road apples" (aka horse poop) on the pavement. Fortunately, the trail was not busy and we were able to dodge them. Apart from that, the trail is a nice ride.
Nice and clean Well kept.Beware was designed to flood you may have to turnaround don’t drown.
Nice flat 2 mile trail connecting to short bike path to South parkway.
About half this pleasant short trail is in shade and half in sun. Watch for interesting wildlife, including herons, owls, turtles, snakes, beavers (if they haven’t been killed off ¿), and even alligators. Watched a large (5-6ft) one sunbathing back in May and a small (12-18in) one this week (Sept4). Nice trail. Stay out of the ponds. Looking forward to linking this trail to new ones in near future.
A decent trail
I rode this trail when it about 18 years ago and rode it last November 2020. For the most part, it is maintained. It would be nice if those maintaining the trail would give more attention to the roots. Don’t let the root comment stop you from riding this trail. CL was my first RT biking experience over 18 years ago. I look forward to riding it again soon, perhaps this year, 2021. It is a fully paved asphalt trail. There is plans to the extent it two more miles we were told in 2020 by another biker.
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