‍I've been trying to complete Coweta county for at least 3 years now after having ridden a bunch there over the past 14 years. Hours of editing Open Street Maps as I go out there and explore, making the map reflect what's actually on the ground. I am very near to 99% and the last place that I had yet to fully explore was Chattahoochee Bend State park. It's a pretty new park, enormous and a lot of it is undeveloped. Rolling hills, almost entirely mature forest, and the bits that are being used for the park are mostly confined to just on either side of the main road in the park. Open Street Maps had lots of old tracks from the Tiger census data that was left over from the old imports 18 or so years ago into the database. I pre edited lots of the obvious wrong stuff, specifically the stuff that was outside the park boundary. I left the old tracks that were in the park boundary to be ground truthed on some day when I had the time, it was cold and not the height of deer hunting season. Saturday was that day. It was a cold morning but only upper twenties with light winds and clear skies. The day warmed up really fast. The first track was off of Payton road where the park boundaries come in in a sliver. There was a short gate that simply said no hunter access. Since i'm not a hunter I figure this doesn't apply to me. It climbed steeply on a barely used track through tall pines. After only a quarter mile or so I arrived at a clearing created by a wind gust or tornado resulting in a big blowdown of pine trees strewn across the track like a game of pixy sticks. It was early on so I was undeterred. And in any case I needed to get by because this was my shortcut entrance into the park to connect to the paved path on the other side of a rocky ridge at the powerline. So I lifted the bike over several large trees, meandered down the path a few dozen more feet, to the junction with another track that was a dead end that I was going to check out. This presented me with an even larger and longer blowdown of trees so I left the bike and took my devices and self to clamber over the logs and eventually found some unmolested woods where the track ended unceremoniously. Retraced my steps mostly and got back on the bike and headed in the direction of the powerline. The track was mostly open and bare rock and flat to the woods across the powerline, which was pretty open oak forest and a short little bushwack ride to a strange circular ending to a paved path in the woods. Quite an interesting sight after an off trail excursion. Explored an alternate track that led to the gate at the front of the park, and then rode down Flat Rock road to check out those dead ends heading north. The main one that headed to the camping areas on the bend of the river was a glorious gravel road. I think technically only open to park vehicles it didn't really ever say so explicity and in any case I didn't see anyone at all. There were gates that just had stop signs on them. There was a barn that wasn't too far away from a small square of private property near the road but I believe it was inside the park boundaries. The road to it wasn't being used at all. The structure of the barn was very sound and someone had stacked a lot of good firewood inside. Looking at old USGS maps there appeared to be several houses out around this area in the recent past. All dense woods now. Most of the tracks from here were rideable with no more crazy blowdowns thankfully. Some overgrown and some beaten down by deer traffic. I followed another powerline cut that led to a useful but fairly faint track that led deeper into the park and connected to an existing track I had already explored at two points. I jumped on the main park road and did the campground roads and did a lap around the boat ramp parking lot. There were only a half dozen cars or so there. Next I went down a powerline track that was pretty beaten down singletrack running between and around gully washouts down the hill. I got to the river and discovered that it connects to some campsites that lead back towards the boat ramp area. I decided to explore that another day and headed back up the hill to do another dead end track. This one existed but was super overgrown by pines at the beginning although I pressed on and eventually it opened up. I rolled across a culvert where a small creek passed under and took this occasion to stop for a little snack and to drink the soda I had brought with me from home. Refreshed I hacked my sideways over to the powerline to avoid the dense pines and headed back to the park road. Next I started riding the mountain bike trails. I had a very hazy idea of where they were and where they went. The park maps on the website are really out of date. Years and years ago I rode here to help out on the first trail work day. Sadly that trail was poorly thought out and badly designed and has now been completely bypassed with professional machine built trails. I don't have a problem with the newly built stuff but it is always sad to see one's work go to waste. The new stuff looped the campgrounds and then went south along the border with private property, zig zagging across an old track that I also explored. By the time I had ridden everything, some of it twice, I had done 15 miles more than planned and eaten up several hours of time. I figured i'd be home mid afternoon and here I was leaving the park at 2pm with still around 50 miles to go. I filled up my bottles at the visitor's center and pressed on feeling good and with still plenty of food for the end. I was glad to be rolling at road speeds again and made great time to Serenbe. I had been thinking mayby i'd bypass my little exploration here but decided in the end to do it anyways since I was feeling pretty good and it was around sunset and the place was mostly deserted. I had to put back on the layers I had taken off mid morning for the rapidly cooling air. Enjoyed the ride home as the sun sank down over the horizon. 14.76 new miles 🏘 Completed 90% of Chattahoochee Bend State Park -- From Wandrer