Review Date
August 12, 2009

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Every few months

Reviewed by: SkepticCycles ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
As everyone has said, great trail. Nice back woods feel and excellent downhills.

Recommended Route:
Thought I'd offer an alternative way to ride these trails. Head up Bull Mtn. Trail and take a right at the T. Enjoy the whoop-de-doos all the way down to the stream crossing. Just past the stream take a left onto Lance Creek trail. Instead of climbing Bare Hare, stay straight and you'll enjoy a pretty steady climb until the last little bit which is a nice challenge. Turn right when you get to the top go head down Bare Hare. Take a right again on Lance Creek and climb it again, this time try to do the whole climb without dabbing. Take a left at the top and enjoy the Bull Mtn. downhill. Keep right at the 1E junction and head back to the car.

This gives you two quick climbs and two longer downhills. I've actually done it Lance to Bull to Lance to Bare Hare to Lance to Bull and had a great time. I actually made the entire climb with no dabs the third time because I didn't think it was possible by that point.

Review Date
January 29, 2009

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 4 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Once a month

Reviewed by: adamfancher ,  Racer

Summary:
This is one of the best trails in GA. It has everything: beautiful mountain views, creek crossings, long fire road climbs, baby head filled downhills, technical/rocky climbs, and a few fast sections. This is definitely not a beginner's trail. You'll need this map http://www.mindspring.com/~keithmc/rides/maps/bulljake3.pdf and a buddy for your first ride.

You can combine Jake Mountain with Bull Mountain for as epic a day as you can get in north GA.

Bull Mountain sucks in the rain. The clay will stick to your tires and rust your drive train. Give the trail a drying period of at least 12 hours for a light rain and 24 hours for a heavy rain.

This trail shares its use with equestrians, so please be mindful of horse riders. Parts of the Bull Mountain trail have segregated horse and bike trails. Pay attention to the brown signs and make sure to follow the bike trail as it's more fun and less horse poo-ridden.

Recommended Route:
If you go counter clockwise you get to climb fire roads and descend single track. From the parking lot, follow signs to the bike/horse trail. You will climb a fire road for about a mile. When you get to the junction marked 1C on the map, take a hard left up some clay single track. This is the Bull Mountain trail. Follow Bull Mountain up to 1D and take a right onto Whoop-De-Dos. Take Whoop-De-Dos down to an unmarked junction and keep left. Continue to another junction and keep left again. Cross the 50ft stream and take a left past the gate. Keep right at the fork marked 1D. This will put you on Bare Hare Trail. Bare Hare is a long forest road followed by some single track, nearly all of which is uphill. When you get to the 1E junction, keep right onto Bull Mountain. Bomb down Bull Mountain until you get back to the 1D intersection. Keep right at 1D and continue down hill on the clay single track. This will take you back to the fire road you came in on. Take a right at the fire road and you will be back to your car.

Other recommended trails in the same area:
Chicopee Woods, Unicoi State Park, Jake Mountain

Review Date
July 9, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 4 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by: lroog ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
I wanted to get a fresh review on here since the last one is over a year old. This was my first time riding Bull Mountain.



My cousin and I went to Bull Mountain on the Saturday after July 4th and we had quite an adventure. We rode the whole trail counter clockwise (to this map: http://www.mindspring.com/~keithmc/rides/maps/bulljake3.pdf)
which except for the Bare Hare portion of the trail is the proper way to ride. We decided to include Bare Hare so our loop was 14 miles. The first 6 to 8 miles was mostly climbing. However, most of the climbing took place on a fire road and it was easy to get into a rhythm and pedal hard. Once we made the turn onto Bare Hare we were in for a challenging trail. Because we were going counter clockwise we had to ride up most of the way and it was painful. There was very little downhill grade on Bare Hare in the counter clockwise direction. Later on we learned that most of the riders ride the trail counter clockwise except for Bare Hare.
Most riders take Whoop-De-Dose to Lance Creek and then take a right up to Bare Hare then back down to Lace Creek to finish with the down hill at Bull Mountain.

Once we finished Bare Hare we rested for about 10 minuets and some riders came up and told us we were about to ride some of the greatest downhill in all of Georgia. This proved to be correct. The down hill of Bull Mountain was ridiculous! There is no doubt in my mind that we were cruising at 40 to 50 mph down the mountain. The single track was brilliant and smooth with great rhythm and perfectly placed kickers.

Overall, the trail is well maintained and marked. We were way out in the forest but never felt like we were in the wrong place or had taken a wrong turn. I will ride this trial over and over again now that I know what is out there. Trust me on this: the map that I was provided has you ride clockwise and this would be a HUGE mistake. All of the amazing single track downhill would have been up hill riding and the fire road would have been the long downhill at the end. Except for Bare Hare, ride the trail counter clockwise.

Recommended Route:
Counter clockwise from 1C to 1D then Whoop De Dos to Lance Creek. Turn right up to Bare Hare then back down and ride Lance Creek again and then enjoy the ride down! You don't have to ride Bare Hare the way I'm suggesting but this is the route that I will take next time.

From using the map this will be my ride: 1C to 1D, 1D to 1F, 1F to 1E, 1E to 1D, 1D to 1C.

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Review Date
May 12, 2007

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 5 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by: hyneso ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
First time on Bull Mountain. A riding buddy and I played hookey from work and rode last Thursday. From the parking area to the top of Bull Mountain was closer to 6 miles, not the 3 mentioned in the description. Very rooty, with a few rocks on the ascent. We had to stop about every mile to recoop. The wild rhodedendreims were in full bloom and the mountain was gorgeous. The trail itself seemed to be in good shape. Quite a bit of horse print traffic and pooh, although we saw no one all morning. We found the best map by searching through the forums here on MTBR and I would advise taking one if unfamiliar with the mountain. 2 very fun and passable creek crossings, one not so easy. The descent was fun but we missed Bare Hare as the signage was gone at the crossing and we ended up taking the Cross Mountian FR. Great speed on the way down with lots of rock gardens. One FR had a dozen or so water tables that provided some great negative G's at speed.

Recommended Route:
Bull Mountian to Bare Hare.

Other recommended trails in the same area:
None, first time in Dahlonega.

Review Date
August 28, 2006

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 4 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 3 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Ridden Once

Reviewed by: rpb-bham ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
Rode on Sat 8/26/06. An earlier review describes it pretty well as having a variety of features - technical climbing over roots and few rocks, some fast road connectors, and a long screaming fire road descent in the last third of the ride. There are no sustained flat sections. Most of the singletrack appears to be on old logging roads so it's not tight or twisty. Taking the Bare Hare trail will make this about 12 miles.

After a break we reversed our route to the big creek crossing and then turned right to Jones Creek Ridge trail and rode it back to the parking lot. This loop is about 8 miles. You could also take Jones Creek Ridge trail to connect to Turner Creek and No-Tell trails.

Both trails were in good repair despite evidence of rain earlier in the week. It wasn't busy - we saw about 7 other riders in the parking lot.

A good reference is Alex Nutt's "Mountain Biking Georgia".

Recommended Route:
Definitely go clockwise and take the Bare Hare trail when you get to it.