Pinhoti - Strawberry Mountain

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Unknown

This is another section of the long-distance multi-use Georgia Pinhoti Trail, between West Armuchee Rd and Manning Mill Rd, which goes over Strawberry Mountain.

If starting from the north end, there is a moderate-sized parking area. There is immediately a crossing of West Armuchee Creek. If there has been any recent rain there is a good chance of getting your feet wet here. The trail then turns left off of the forest service road. Watch the blazes closely. After about 1/3 mile, the trail starts climbing, about 300 feet elevation over the next half mile, but no serious technical aspect to it.

The next mile or so consists of undulating doubletrack which can be a little grassy in summer, but has great views southward into the farm country of the valley and at times one is looking straight at the neighboring Dry Creek trail system.

At about 1.9 miles, one crosses a gravel forest service road back onto singletrack and continues northwestward. The next half mile is almost straight uphill it seems, with at least 5 big switchbacks. Once reaching the ridgetop of the mountain, the trail becomes rockier, but consists of relatively low-lying flat rocks, that are really the highlight of this entire section. This is really a great section of singletrack on the mountaintop. After this the trail joins a forest service road that then descends the remaining 1.3 or so miles to West Armuchee Road. While not a parking lot per se, there is room to park at West Armuchee Rd and ride from that end if desired.

At this point the options are to turn around and make it an out-and-back back to the Manning Mill Rd trailhead or continue on to The Narrows and Taylor Ridge North. If you continue on to the Taylor Ridge North section, aka The Narrows, you'll need to turn left onto West Armuchee Rd and then a right onto The Narrows Rd. This is a total of about 2 miles of pavement that passes perhaps 5 driveways before becoming a gravel road, so there is almost no traffic. Shortly after the road turns to gravel there is a small parking area on the right and the beginning of the next section.