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paris mtn firetower trail
22 reviews
4.05 of 5
singletrack, hard hard climb up mountian but fast downhill ride down.
Summary: I put aerobic and technical difficulty at 3 each, but you can bump aerobic as high as 5 (though technical probably still as 3) by riding hard. The trail line is generous and smooth enough to allow high speeds and serious effort without interference from the terrain and flora.
This was the first mountain bike trail in the park. They just opened a dirt road that used to lead up to the (since dismantled) firetower. A couple years ago they substantially rerouted, recut, and refined to improve the trail for mountain bike use. It now has pretty good flow and is wide enough in spots for optional jumps.
Once at the top end of the trail, an option is to turn right and loop most of the way back via the Sulphur Springs Loop. It's worth a try for a little variety, but be aware that the SSL was cut before mountain bikes were a factor. Parts of it warrant a "5" for technical difficulty - short of freeriding or trials classification but tricky for a typical cross-country jaunt.
Bottom line: Good solid trail experience, though not IMO the best one in the park any more. Rides that are both longer and more interesting have been added since.
Recommended Route: It's best to refer to the park map. I put a copy in my images here:
The trail description on this site is a bit off. The Firetower Trail is 1.6 miles long. You can ride it out & back for 3.2 or go right on the Sulpher Springs Loop where Firetower ends to make the ride a "P" shape instead. Check my notes regarding the Sulpher Spring portion above.
Other recommended trails in the same area: Firetower is only 1.6 of about 16 bikable trail miles in Paris Mountain State Park. Late in 2006 they opened a short Campground Connector that is not on the map yet. Sometime in 2007 they will complete a 3 - 4 mile route from the Firetower down to Reservoir 3. Everything done since about 2003 is specifically designed to be entertaining for mountain bikers. These newer trails have excellent flow. Put the various trails together correctly and you have a ride that is way better than you would expect for Upstate SC. Hang around a while!
Summary: They recently changed the stupid trail rules so that now mountain bikes are allowed on all the trails every day except Saturday. Portions of Sulfur Springs and Brissy Ridge are still hiking only, but these trails are so steep anyway that hiking them requires you to pull yourself up with trees. They're no fun on a bike at all. Plus the new trail called Pippesewa or something like that is sweet. I've put together a loop for myself that covers about 13 miles on almost all the trails, has 1900 feet of climbing, and takes about 1:45 minutes. It's brutal, but fun.
Recommended Route: First parking lot, trail over bridge, by the lake to Mountain Creek trail, take this to until you cross a bridge. Take the small trail to the left to bring you to road, take road up to Buckhorn gate. (Cat 2 climb). Take firetower trail up to Sulfur Springs trail on right. Take Sulfur Springs to top, come back down Firetower to near parking lot. Take Brissey Ridge by the sign to the new Pippesewa trail, take that down, do the loop around the lake. Take Pippesewa back up, then left on Brissey Ridge to road. Take left on road, steep climb back to Buckhorn. Take left past gate to the steep dirt hill. Take this trail (Sulfur Springs) down to Mountain Creek, back to car. 14 miles in all, pretty tough.
Other recommended trails in the same area: Issequeena, Dupont Forest.
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Summary: Climbers will love this. The climb wiped me out, but I think that had to do more with the heat, it was first day this year where it topped 90 degrees.
Not very technical (at least what I have rode so far)pretty much smooth sailing, biggest thing to watch out for is there were a lot of hikers. Downhill was fun.
Also you can only bike on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun.
Recommended Route: What Ty laid out sounds good, I rode from the trail head at the Camp Buckhorn gate.
Other recommended trails in the same area: Issaqueena, Doyle Bottom.
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Summary: There are 3 trails in the park Firetower, Sulphur Springs and Mountain Creek. In addition there are the paved roads which integrate well into the ride. The paved roads provide the opportunity either a good warm up or cool down depending how you select your trail routes. Automobile traffic is generally minimal and typically moving at a slow pace as they should. The combination of the paved roads and good diversity of trails make for great riding. The Firetower trail is an easy non technical climb that can be done as an out and back or you can loop back into it using Sulphur Springs. Sulphur Springs offers a good mix of some speedy single track minimally technical climbing and I think fairly technical descent. Mountain Creek is easy fast single track. Everytime I ride these trails I like them better. I highly recommend Paris Mtn.
Recommended Route: I prefer to park at either of the lots near the entrance. I then cross the lake on the footbridge and take a left onto Mtn. Creek Trail. I ride Mtn Creek 2 miles and at the intersection with Sulphur Springs go left and up tp connect with the paved road. Ride the pavement to the Firetower trail head then proceed up Firetower take the loop via Sulphur Springs back onto FT back to the trailhead. I then loop back to the left onto Brissey Ridge. Follow this trail until you reach pavement, take a left and follow paved road back to trailhead. Again loop left and up to Sulphur Springs lower your saddle, check your brakes and proceed to the intersection with Mtn. Creek then back to the parking lot. If you choose this route as you descend SS beware of those that areascending it's a little discouraging. Maybe some day I'll attempt reversing the order.
Other recommended trails in the same area: Issaqueena, Pisgah, Dupont
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Summary: This trail system has improved dramatically with the recent additions. Paris Mountain has now become the "mini Pisgah" of Greenville (thank Goodness!). The route that Ty outlined on the previous post is a very challenging, fun 12 mile lariat. I've ridden it twice, and it takes about 85 minutes or so. The new Mountain Creek is a very smooth, flowing, twisty, well-designed trail. There are two very strenuous paved climbs and one strenuous singletrack climb (up Firetower). Approximately 10 of the 12 miles are singletrack. Brissy Ridge and Sulphur Springs both have rough, technical, but very ridable descents. The connecting trail between the upper parking lot and Mountain Creek is super tough, with 1-2 foot waterbars, big rocks, and rivals the toughest descents in Pisgah. The pitch and obstacles in this section are rough enough to make it unridable unless you lower you seat and have alot of confidence and skill. (I walked it). If this section is too tough, you can descend on the road and hook back up to Mountain Creek. All in all, this is a great loop and a wonderful addition to the mountain biking opportunities in Greenville. Ty tells me they're cutting new trails, so hopefully there will be even more trails soon!
Recommended Route: I think the route Ty outlined in the previous post is the best route. I haven't tried to climb Brissy Ridge or Sulphur Springs counterclockwise yet, but I'm sure that would be a very challenging, technical climb (not sure if it's ridable that way...). Trails are open to bikers Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday--make sure to stay off the hiker only trails and be nice to hikers! All the hikers I've met have been very friendly and more than willing to share the trails with us.
Other recommended trails in the same area: There is nothing else in Greenville that I'm aware of. Isaqueena is OK, Dupont is OK (way too many horses), but you can't touch Pisgah. Both the Bent Creek and North Mills River (Trace Ridge) trailheads are less than an hour from Greenville and each has over 40 miles of pure Pisgah singletrack.
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