Double Oak (Bike) Trail (Red Blazes, 17 Miles)

The red bike trial is a long loop, it could start at any number of places. Watch out for the bikes flying down this trail. I have hiked the trail from the Peavine Falls Road terminus to the North Trailhead and then back to the parking lot at the office and don't recommend it. From the Peavine Falls Road the trail basically follows a roadbed, climbing somewhat to the ridge of the mountain, and the descending alongside a stream to the North Trailhead. It intersects with a lot of other trails, but has not much to offer that is of interest to hikers. I'm surprised it is of interest to bikers either, but they seem to like it, as there are a lot of them there. It gets a rating of one star and is easy to moderate depending on which section you do. The section that heads down the mountain to intersect with the dirt road and end at the picnic area trailhead appears to be a little more interesting. There might be some other areas that are nice, but I don't feel like braving the bikes and large number of people to try it. Let me know.

The section from the North Trailhead back to the park office isn't too bad at least in appearance. Rather than following a roadbed it winds around the hills (I do mean winds, this trail goes back and forth more than any other trail in Alabama) and finally up to the road right near the park office. For the most part the trail follows the main road through the park, often you will see cars going by. The trail also goes through a picnic ground and scrubby area before crossing dry brook which is actually fairly wet at this point. After it crosses the brook it follows a road bed for a short distance, crossing the yellow trail twice and the eastern terminus for the orange trail. Here they are building another trailhead. The trail leaves the road and again winds back and forth until it gets to the paved road a short distance from the main park office (the picture of the lake above taken from the walk by the lake which you can take as an alternative to walking the road). It is fairly easy. From the parking lot to the intersection with the middle of the orange trail (at Peavine Falls Road) is also kind of nice. This sections winds a lot around spurs of oak mountain. These two sections get a rating of two to three stars, but you still have to watch out for the bikers flying around the corners. Trail maintenance and marking is good. I have not yet updated my map of this trail, the current map does not reflect all the winding.

Last Hiked: January 2000, Summer 1999

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Last Updated: April 2003

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