Snake 50 (Dry Creek Segment)

Race - Jan 4, 2020

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Unknown

From the horse parking lot at Dry Creek, get a nice 18.5 mile warm-up on the smooth and flowy trail before you connect to the Snake 34 Mile route and head toward Dalton.

This route takes you to Loblolly, Mount Joy, Dry Creek, parts of the Pinhoti, lower Wheat and then lower East Armuchee. Then head back to upper East Armuchee and upper Wheat before you connect back to the Snake 34 mile route.

From the horse parking lot at Dry Creek, get a nice 18.5 mile warm-up on the smooth and flowy trails at Dry Creek. Then begin your ascent to John's Mountain and ride the Pinhoti to Pine Needle Hill/Pocket Road. Next, you'll begin your climb to the top of Horn Mountain. After a few miles of riding along the ridge of Horn Mountain, you'll enjoy a fast winding downhill ride to HWY 136 at Snake Creek Gap. Be careful crossing the highway and grab some nutrition here at this SAG stop.

From Snake Creek Gap, you'll have 17 Miles left to complete the challenge. You start this final segment with a 1 mile climb to Mill Creek Mountain. Ride the ridge for 4 more miles before you descend to Swamp Creek. Photographers enjoy catching folks endo-ing this creek crossing, so be sure to disappoint them of this photo op!

The crossing at Swamp Creek is the start of the climb to Middle Mountain. You'll ride the forest service road to the top where you take a sharp left into some sweet singletrack. This is also the last SAG stop. There are 10 more miles to the finish, so grab some water.

Take a sharp left onto the singletrack, and ride the ridgeline of Middle Mountain, eventually crossing over a subtle peak followed by another sharp right. Next comes a technical, rocky descent to the Hurricane Mountain ridgeline. The Pinhoti continues along the Hurricane Mountain ridgeline another mile over some manageable rock gardens until hitting a steep descent known as Puke Hill into a saddle between Hurricane and Dug Gap Mountain. This area is known as The Saddle near the England Springs drop trail.

Just past the junction with the England Springs drop trail (which happens to be the last bail out point before the really hard stuff), you begin your climb of the Wall to the Fire Ring. You are now within 5 miles of reaching the Snake Pit. The only thing standing in your way are the infamous Rock Gardens of Dug Gap Mountain. Once you conquer the rock gardens, you'll reach the Towers where youll descend the gravel forest service road to Dug Gap Mountain Road (pavement!). Be careful merging into traffic and control your speed as you descend to the finish line at the Snake Pit (the gravel parking lot at the NWGA Trade and Convention Center).