Photo tour: Nearby Athens emerges as grade-A biking destination

Atlanta has its budding BeltLine, Columbus the lovely Chattahoochee Riverwalk, and Savannah innumerable flat streets, bike lanes, and leafy parks. But when it comes to Peach State biking destinations, don’t sleep on the Classic City.

Sixty miles miles from downtown Atlanta, Athens is close enough for diehard ATL bicyclists to, well, bike there. For the rest of us, we’ve made the trek to the Clarke County seat (Georgia’s smallest county, in fact) to provide the photo essay and how-to primer below.

Athens is famous for deep musical roots, big-time college football, a raucous party atmosphere, and a downtown with European-grade walkability that’s bursting with great food (hello, Trapeze and Last Resort Grill) and drink (could Creature Comforts be Georgia’s best brewery?). Not to mention that classic campus.

Now, thanks to infrastructure upgrades in recent years, the downtown area is chockfull of well-connected biking routes with one Insta-worthy moment after the next that you won’t find in Atlanta. Plus, there’s legit mountain biking—basically in the shadow of Sanford Stadium.

Like finding your way around Athens in the first place, locating these biking options can be tricky. Come along for a quick guided ride, as led by a tireless 10-year-old on a glorious spring day, beneath blue Southern skies in one of America’s great college towns... 

A biking adventure in Athens can certainly be a there-and-back day trip from anywhere in metro Atlanta. But if you prefer to lodge overnight, crashing after a long ride in the painless way, the retro-cool Graduate Athens on the northern rim of downtown near the Oconee River is a solid option.

Unlike downtown hotels with more limited space, the Graduate offers complimentary bike rentals and racks within view of the lobby for locking up. Hotel officials tell Urbanize Atlanta the property has no instances of stolen bikes over the past decade.

When biking around downtown Athens, the best bet for getting started is to head toward the Broad Street Trailhead of the Firefly Trail. This interactive bike map can help guide the way.

Or if online biking maps make your eyes go crossed, just do this: Get to main-drag Broad Street and head east, so that University of Georgia’s campus is on your right and the bulk of downtown on your left.

Catch the bike lanes and head down a large hill. The Firefly’s trailhead will be on your right.

Now you’re on a multi-use trail that—following an extension two years ago—shoots about three miles east of downtown to Winterville Road.

In between is a great variety of relatively flat terrain and scenery ranging from forests and new residential areas to industrial patches that wash out into the suburbs. It’s a leisurely ride of maybe 20 minutes, one way, with kids. Every bit of it feels brand-new.

One show-stopping highlight along the way is the Georgia Railroad Trestle, part of a historic 1800s railway now remade as a soaring multi-use pathway in and out of downtown.

The trestle was immortalized on the back cover of Athens-born R.E.M.’s debut full-length album, Murmur, in 1983. Preservationists fought to save the abandoned structure—and won—two decades ago.

If you reach the end of the Firefly Trail and start heading back to downtown, a word to the wise: About halfway back, branch off onto the Oconee River Greenway’s (clearly marked) East Campus Connector Trail.

This trails and parks system currently counts eight miles of paved multi-use pathways, with the newest section opening just this month.

It’s chockfull of moments, especially near the rushing Oconee, that feel far removed from any sort of traffic or urban scenario.

After looping back to downtown’s Broad Street, if you’re game for a little off-road riding, 113-acre Walker Park is just a few blocks away—with pro-grade mountain biking. 

Formerly known as Trail Creek Park, this quiet, rolling greenspace is a little more than a mile and ½ from Sanford Stadium but could pass for North Georgia in places. It includes more than five miles of hiking and professionally built mountain biking trails for all skill levels. The wilder, tougher trails have Athens-centric names like “Drive-By Truckers,” “Panic,” and “Widespread.”

To get there by bike, keep taking East Broad Street east, away from downtown, for a couple of blocks until it turns into First Street; hoof up the steep hill, take the first right on Vine Street, and the park’s multi-use trail entrance will be up on the left.

Be careful to not end up on the park’s gravity-fueled expert trails by accident (speaking from experience, without the right equipment at the time) and absorb the serenity alongside Trail Creek.

Once you’ve sufficiently worked up a sweat, pedal back a few blocks to downtown.

To pack on a couple more Strava miles and stray off the beaten path, round out a great day of riding with a trip to Normaltown Brewing Co. It’s a cozy spot set amid Cabbagetown-style industrial ruins, located about a mile and ½ from the heart of downtown in the eclectic, historic neighborhood of the same name.

Hoist the cold beverage, because you’ve earned it.

In the gallery up top, find more photos depicting all that's described above. 

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• Athens news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)