We’re thinking about taking some Bike Trips around Madison GA and here is the first one, the trip between the Firefly, pretty Bed and Breakfast, to downtown Madison. Why would we take a bike, rather than some motor vehicle? Well, we have our reasons.
Bike Trips around Madison GA: Why?
At the Firefly, we don’t usually need a reason for doing something interesting because that is what we do. But, in this particular case, we have at least four reasons: 1. Need to burn off a few calories harmlessly. 2. Need to check out the condition of our fleet of bikes, and riding is the best way to do this. 3. Need to put guests onto one or more possible nice bike trips, since a number of our past guests are into the bike thing. 4. Test for ourselves just what this is like just in case we need to for some reason.
This is a Human Scale Living Project of the type that we like.
Madison GA Bike Friendliness
This is a bit of a thing. The people in the community have embraced a few bikers, for good reason. The place is flat, out in the country, and it practically never snows here. So if you wanted to take a day trip, and ride down the streets of the town or out in the country a little, this is the perfect place. The Madison County Conservancy has evening group bike rides occasionally to celebrate this.
The Morgan County Bike Initiative
This is a thing that really exists, and here’s the web page:
Morgan County Bike and Pedestrian Plan
The local Northeast Georgia Regional Development people have hatched this plan, to have bike and pedestrian trails all the way through Morgan County. We like this idea a lot, because one of the trails literally runs through our front yard. Note: If any of the powers that be see this, we will help share the cost of this if you build it.
There is already a bike trail near us, in the town of Mansfield, which is down the road in Newton County. The Cricket Frog Trail is an old railroad track bed, paved over and turned into a lovely, straight, flat bike path. We were down there awhile back and they had not quite made it to Mansfield yet but it was imminent. Here’s a link.
https://www.newtontrails.org/cricketfrogtrail
The BRAG Spring Tune Up
We like this too, and a lot of them like us. The Bicycle Ride Across Georgia is an annual ride that goes through the state at some level. It is a big group ride that favors PB&J during the day, and there is overnight camping along the route.
They have a “Spring Tune Up” every year that starts and finishes in Rutledge, and on the Saturday of this ride, they use part of the route between Madison and Rutledge as part of the trek. This is a nice, festive event, full of healthy fun people and they sort of take over the town at one point.
We have a few of these bikers stay with us sometimes. In 2022 this bike ride is scheduled for April 21-24.
Hey, since our space is limited, it might make sense to make your reservation early if you plan to ride one or more days of this. There is live music, adult beverages, and a healthy, good looking population that participates in this stuff.
Bike Trips around Madison GA: The Bike
Okay, so here is our project: Using one of the bikes we have laying around at the Firefly, take the trip to Madison. Here’s the bike of the day, which is a pretty respectable hybrid. The tires are a little rough, and it could use a good hose down, but the brakes are good, and the shifters are also good.
Actually if you are a hard core enough biker to know the difference, you might want to bring your own. One of our projects is to gradually get a few bikes in working order in case the guests want to do this.
Part 1: The Driveway
We don’t expect everyone to get the literary reference, but we look at the bump in the driveway as the “Threshhold into the Supernatural Realm” a la Joseph Campbell. Speaking of which, did you know we were published authors? We’re just about to publish the third of the Southern Firefly Series, and we will have an announcement in due time. Give us some traffic.
Anyway, here’s the view from the bike:
Part 2: Up the Hill on 278
This is the thing that worried us the most. How to navigate the uphill ride to Wilson Road. As it turned out, from a Biker’s point of view it was fine, there is enough of a strip on the other side of the line to ride out of the main lane on 278. Also, the drivers, like this one, were very respectful and gave us plenty of room.
There is a new law in Georgia on biker safety that says that a car passing you has to give you at least 3 feet of clearance, beyond your maximum point, or face getting a ticket. We usually don’t like too many rules but we approve of this one.
https://www.wrdw.com/2021/06/30/georgia-enforcing-new-bike-law-this-week-with-250-fines/
The minimum fine for this is $250, and we all know that there are plenty of county mounties on 278, so we approve. Actually the article says that the average trip to the emergency room for a biker that is smacked by a pickup truck is $540,000, so this seems like a fair thing to the bikers.
Part 3: Wilson Road and the Trip into Town
Actually once we got off of 278 we encountered zero traffic, at noon on a Friday. This was a pleasant ride, a little uphill on Wilson, and dead flat along the railroad tracks on Dixie Highway. The day that day was about 80 degrees and it had just rained, but this was a pleasant, safe ride.
Part 4: Entering Town
There are trees the whole way but this is a pleasant stretch, past the Stagecoach house, and down Dixie Avenue toward downtown. There is one set of railroad tracks that we spared you, the crossing is a little rough but a competent biker can make it without crashing.
Part 5: Friendly Dogs and People
Bikers hate mean dogs, and it is not unheard of for some OCD dogs to chase anything that rotates, like the reflector on a bike wheel. We saw a grand total of one dog, which didn’t look worried about us.
Part 6: The Home Stretch
We had some business at Archambault Interiors, and so after winding through the town, that was the final stop. Actually the final, final stop was the fountain in the middle of the town park. Total riding time was a bit under 20 minutes, and it was incident-free.
Part 7: Decadent Lunch at Amici
Could there be guilt-free bar food at the end of the line? It is not mandatory but recommended. Feast of the day is the Bleu Cheese burger and a nice salad with ice tea and water. That day, there was a friendly buzz in Amici as there sometimes is. Since mental health is a form of health, calories consumed while biking are not usually counted toward any sort of daily total.
Part 8: The Trek Back
The first of our Bike Trips around Madison GA featured the trek back, which was the same 20 minutes, and it was also incident-free. Also, it’s downhill from about the middle of Wilson Road all the way back to the driveway. There’s a video on that, and if you insist we will show it to you.
Part 9: Bike Trips around Madison GA: The Learning
Since we’re a learning organization, here is what we learned:
First of all, the Bike Trip from the Firefly to downtown Madison can be done. After you get off of 278 it is relatively flat and safe, and the whole trip will take you about 20 minutes, or 40 minutes round trip.
Secondly, one of the feral bikes at the Firefly is capable of making the trip without complication, although this particular one could use some upgraded wheels and tires more suited for road travel. We’ll try one of the beach bikes next.
Thirdly, we estimate at 10 mph that this trek is about 3.5 miles, which is actually running distance, and also, very similar to the distance to Rutledge. We did not track “climb” but we would say that it is less than 300 feet of climb for this trip which is very flat.
Fourthly, we found out that it is much better than trying to do this in Alpharetta. The walkers and dogs waved at us, the trucks gave us plenty of room, there was no problem with parking the bike on a sleepy Friday, and the wait at Amici was tolerable.
Bike Trips around Madison GA: Weekend Plan?
So, we’re ready to say that if you were a biker, and wanted to, you could arrive here on a Friday evening after work. You could, if you wanted to, start out early on Saturday. take a long bike ride down one of the BRAG routes, end up in Madison. Lunch would be served, and maybe the BBQ place would be open.
In fact, we had a couple of people a year ago that rode here from Dalton, but that is pretty hard core and we don’t expect everyone to do that.
If you wanted to come out here without your bike, use a couple of ours, and repeat this trip on Saturday morning, you could do that too.
Adventure and exercise can be had. Click the “book now” button.
