Bull and Jake Trail-Georgia
 

Hello,

I found this route on bikepacking.com, and want to ride it on a gravel bike. My goal would be an average of 10 mph, is that doable? I see 2 significant climbs on the route, and have heard there are 2 knarly rock gardens. For clarification, I plan to just ride it, and not bikepack. Also, would NF-42 to FS-77 to the Jake Mountain trailhead be a good bailout route?

Here's the link:
https://bikepacking.com/routes/bull-jake/

Dave

Based on pics from the link, I would say a gravel bike with wide tires would work.
But I'm sure there are parts of the route not shown that would make for underbiking if you use a gravel bike.
Thsts a lot of climb!

Yeah, it is a very hilly area. I have done almost 6,000 ft climbing in a ride, 7,000 is going to be a stretch. Not sure i will get to riding this in 2021, hunting season is coming up quickly and a good portion is on hunting land. It is also almost 2 hours from home, will be a stretch to drive there. Would pretty much have to leave before it's light, get there and start riding as quickly as possible, and then hope to average 10 mph or so to complete the route before it gets dark. Hence the question about a bailout route. There's not a whole lot of anything out there, mostly forest and mountains. There's also a good chance of running into a bear or boar.

Dave

Wow! When I was in the States at the end of May, I rode a ~75km route in this area. I started from the Jake parking lot (south end of the loop). The route had some single track, some decent gravel roads, some washed out gravel roads, and a few places (all of it on the steepest sections) of big rocks comprising the road surface. I kept an average somewhere just north of 17km/h. If you have decent bike handling skills and your bike is fitted with 38s or bigger, there is no reason it cannot be done on a "gravel" bike. Fore reference, I was on my '21 Diverge with 38mm Pathfinder Pro tires, set up tubeless.

Thanks for sharing, sounds like I should just try it. 17 km/h sounds about right. I like to climb a lot, so that's a good place for me. Have done some riding in that area, just not that route specifically. Currently running 40 mm Maxxis Rambers on a 2019 Salsa Warbird.

Dave

I don't have any specific experience with that tire, but I even a little wider (as measured) and a little lower (pressure) would have been welcome. There are definitely some rough spots in the "roads" there, but, that tire looks like it'd be fine on everything you could find on those mountains.