Bitty - Day 1A - Squirrel! route

Bitty Trip Day 1 - Group A

Ride out from camp onto I-26, which sucks, but it's wide open and has a big shoulder, just be safe. Cruise for ~6 miles on road then take a left on Turkey Pen Rd, which is a ragged dirt road that spits you into South Mills River for just a sec, cross over the creek bridge, then take your first right on Mullinax and climb some easy grade but chunky single track. This will get you to Squirrel, the main attraction, where you'll turn left. Squirrel is an up-and-down classic Pisgah singletrack, lots of roots and rocks, but some semblance of flow too, fun to ride both directions. You'll enjoy this for ~7 miles before you hit "the wheelchair ramp" of South Mills River (other end of that trail), turn right and make an easy 1.5-track pedal up to tee into Buckhorn Gap, where you'll turn left and continue the easy climb up to the Black Mtn intersection. Remember this intersection, you'll see it multiple times as it leads to a lot of great trails, but today you're going up and over to the "full pull" Black Mtn DH. Turn left and get ready to hike, as it will be a good 15-minute hike (pedal it as long as you can) up some ledges and nasty roots, finishing with some big rock ledges to a great overview of the whole Pisgah forest. Good place to stop for a beer. From here get ready for some gnarly DH, it's rooty, rocky, fast, with some ledges and ruts, highly recommend you go straight down the gut for maximum enjoyment, but there are some easier rolling lines if you swoop around to make it more manageable. You'll spit out in an opening to Maxwell Cove where you'll go straight into a rooty, techy climb of ~200ft or so up to Middle Black where the climbing ends and it's truly all DH from there. Middle black is a good ~700ft drop of fast trail with some awkward roots, a ledgy run into a tight switchback, a nice chunky rock staircase, and some fast smooth sections (smooth for Pisgah at least). The last turn of Middle takes you directly into Lower Black which is the Ranger District's "Flow Trail". Swooping turns, mostly smooth singletrack with a few rock piles and roots tossed in for good measure. At the bottom, spit out to the right to the parking area and 276 (road) that you can cross over into Davidson River Campground and take the flat Estatoe Trail (gravel greenway) back to camp.