Route: Jake Mountain Loop (GA)

Location
Georgia, US
Distance
16 km
Vertical Gain
350 m
Description

This route navigates the 10-mile Jake Mountain Loop in Dahlonega, GA. This loop is primarily used for horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, and running. The 10-mile loop has approximately 1200ft of vertical gain over the duration of the route, as well as three stream crossing, with two of them being fairly substantial for foot traffic.
 

GPS Track

Comments

I went for the FKT on this route on 6/1/21. There is a Strava segment for the loop if you run it CW so I wanted the KOM as well as FKT to submit and I missed it by 28 seconds. This route starts and stops at the trail head at the parking lot. Strava may give you credit for running the segment but make sure to push it all the way back into the trail head. This was a fun route. I was in town on vacation so I knew nothing about the trail. The only downside I would say about the trail if you are not familiar with it is that its trail markers are orange and there is another trail that it intersects with in multiple places that are marked red. Over time the red has faded almost to orange and it can be tricky in some spots. I had to stop or back track using Alltrails a few times to make sure I stayed on course. According to my notes I thought when I got to the top of Jake Mountain I had a 2min cushion on the current Strava KOM but my GPS track ended up reading .5 mi further by the time I had finished than the current KOM. The trails are used heavily for mountain biking but being an easily accessible 10 mile loop it would be cool to see this thing get some competition. If at all possible I do suggest doing a scouting run before attempting the FKT if you are not familiar with it. With the closely colored trail markers it is easy to get off track! Or I am dumb and color blind. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/5223291162