The trip across the Chattahoochee to Whitesburg was relatively painless and despite the rather late hour I barely got passed at all while the other lane going to Newnan had 10x the traffic. Quickly knocked out a few dead ends in Whitesburg which went without issue or dog bark. It was kinda scary riding on Highway 5 in the dark as it's curvy and high speed but I managed to get over to McIntosh Cir. I did a bit of digging before leaving and noticed that there was no heatmap signature whatsoever here although both OSM and Google agree that both roads connect. So I figured i'd encounter a gate eventually. After a steep descent on rather chunky gravel I was met with a gate for some private timber company. If it were summer I might have continued on but since it is late October I decided discretion is the better part of valor. I wore my trusty orange jersey for hunting season visibility. So I headed down highway 5 again and to the other side of McIntosh Cir. Don't know what I was thinking as it was still dark but I road there anyway. Was met with a closed gate at the park entrance. Open 8am to 8pm it said. It was 7:05 and I considered riding through anyway. But I decided to save it for another day. The road paralelling highway 5 near here turned out to not exist so I had to do more of the highway but by this time of the morning the traffic was even lighter. Then I turned off onto the first of many miles of gravel for the day. First dead end gravel road was long and the end was slightly obscure, it curved around but to a chicken house farm, and the other way was gated with scary signs so I turned around there and called that the end. Some dogs near the entrance of this road which I feared would be the experience of the whole day but thankfully this was not the case. I definitely had dogs chase me and some bark quite aggressively but for the most part it wasn't too much of a nuisance. I zig zagged around on the roads north and south and came to what I thought would be a simple out and back gravel dead end on S Cox road. But there was a beaten down ATV ride around the closed sign to the creek crossing. The crossing was over a beautiful rock that jutted out diagonally over the creek making it a bit of a difficult ford. I could perhaps have ridden it but for a large pool of water in the middle that prevented me from trying it so I walked around the edge to keep my chain dry. It was surrounded with mountain laurel along the sides and the way after the creek went steeply up an old rutted out and very rocky steep narrow roadbed. It was no place for a car or even a regular stock 4x4 truck and even an atv might have trouble. But once I got back going I managed to ride this very technical little climb without stopping and I arrived back at a paved road end and never even had to go around a gate. So I instead diverted around to get back on route and was in good spirits. That little creek ford made me feel like I was in appalachia for a brief moment. Soon I got quite hot climbing a hill and so removed my warm clothing. It was a very warm day and I had dressed for the night to dip down into the lower fifties but it stayed above 55 the whole time and so I was a bit overdressed. The day was very warm in the mid eighties which is quite unusual for late October. But thankfully the sun is so low it wasn't too much of a bother. I rode on and discovered a litle gravel path on Owensby Cemetery road(a dead end gravel road) that probably led to the adjacent subdivision I was heading to next. I decided not to take it but I was proved correct once I got around to the other side in the subdivision. Made my first stop of the day soon after at a brand new Dollar General. Took my time here and ate and drank something while sitting for a brief moment and applied sunscreen. Had to be on HWY 166 directly for a few miles after this and it wasn't too bad due to a fairly large(3-4 feet shoulder with rumble strips far enough away to ride). After this was a lot of long remote sections of gravel that were really fun to ride. I climbed up to a very high elevation for the area at near 1500 feet and was treated to some decent views of the distant Talladega mountains that were barely visible. Did a very long dead end road that led to a remote corner of Haralson county that was cut off from the rest of Georgia by the Alabama state line and interstate 20. This was a weird subdivision that was all gravel and by the looks of things, barely maintained. It was a sprawling complex of roads that only featured sporatic small houses breaking the dense forest. Pretty scenic although the rutted, loose and washboarded steep gravel made it very difficult. I was really tired by the end of this and very ready for a long downhill which I finally got after a few more miles. The day was getting hot and I was ready for another store stop and break. I rolled into Jonesville and stopped at a Shell station for snacks and a coke. Continued on and tried to replenish on the bike while riding since there wasn't much shade beside the store to sit by. I wound my way east and north to Carrollton and rode by all the stores and restaurants and had no trouble crossing the bypass on a pretty busy intersection. I did pass a little Chevron station in the neighborhood portion and I popped in for another coke, a powerade and some chips to get me to the end of the ride. The rest of Carrollton was pretty chill and soon I was back on quiet back roads and then gravel. I sped down Horsely Mill road trying to outrun two small golf cart like hunting vehicles. I managed to keep them behind me and rode on to cross the river just after sunset. I decided to take Garretts Ferry road and see the new bridge which was quite nice. Took Upper Wooten and was able to see without a light for about half of it and it was just barely dusk when I got to the park and rolled away on Cochran Mill road. For whatever reason I felt pretty good and rode kinda hard on the way home, especially in Tyrone as I passed a Uhaul truck that was going really slow on Crestwood road. I did slightly more than planned to bump myself up past 206 and rolled in a little before my estimated arrival time. Fantastic ride. I really wish that all my exploratory rides could be on gravel mostly. So much fun. And it's just so much less stressful without cars.