Upstate SC Gravel Roads

Original Thread: Anyone have maps of dual sport routes/gravel roads in the upstate SC?

Update 12/24/2012:

I will update occasionally and summarize contributions to the thread. We are a loosely organized group of dual sport adventurers who share a similar enjoyment of riding off pavement.

An excellent collection of dual sport routes all over the country, including downloadable maps in GPX format is DualSportmaps.com

The Upstate SC has fewer and fewer gravel roads. Those that we do have are often shared with NC and Ga. So, upstate refers to upstate SC, Ga, and NC.

The major areas include:

A. Sumter National Forest in Oconee and Pickens County, SC
- Jim Timmerman Wilderness Area. Webpage --->https://www.dnr.sc.gov/mlands/managedland?p_id=53
---- Area East of Lake Jocassee in and around the Horsepasture River
---- Area West of Lake Jocassee in the Bad Creek Access area. These roads are open seasonally and frequented by hunters.

B. Around Saluda NC
- Pearsons Falls road
- Bell Mountain
- Pace Mountain
- Lake Summit

C. Around Dupont Forest, NC
Official webpage --->http://ncforestservice.gov/Contacts/dsf.htm
Unofficial webpage --->http://www.dupontforest.com/
The area inside DuPont forest is closed to motor vehicles, however, there are gravel roads around the perimeter of the forest that are open.
- Pinnacle Mountain
- Sky Valley
- Cascade lakes
- Green River Road



Upstate Gravel road areas by Ridingmanone, on Flickr

how far are you willing to go and how difficult? I have a few tracks from NC and one from N GA. I haven't done a whole lot staying in SC.

I could trim some of my tracks up for ya if you let me know.

No limit on distance. Difficulty should be rideable on a dual sport bike: gravel roads and double track. Nothing on private property or specifically off limits to motorcycles. In my experience, SC does not have the number or mileage of gravel roads that Ga and NC do, hence the interest.

Any NC dirt track trails logged? I'm in Fort Mill SC but would love a good track you've used, even if I run to NC to enjoy it.

I'm in the same boat. I bought my first dualsport (DR650) and don't know where to ride it around here (GSP area).

The following 200 mile loop starts and ends from Highway 176 and I-26 exit Exit 15. GPX file link is below.
The gravel sectors are maintained - no sand and a few puddles here and there. I rode my R1150GS with Conti TCX's and my friend road his GS with Metzler Tourances with no problem. We started with full tanks of gas.
The cue sheet below is a guide - not detailed driving directions. If you are not familiar with these areas, download the GPX and study it before hand.

In summary:
Highway 176 to Highway 11
Left on Highway 11 through Gowansville
Right on at signs to Camp Old Indian Boys Scout camp to Dividing Waters road
Pass Callahan Mtn road on right and continue straight
Right turn onto Dividing Waters road
Dividing water road up Greenville Watershed to Bob's Creek
Left onto Bob's creek
At stop sign, right onto Green River road. (Church across the road)
First gravel sector into DuPont Forest
Road name changes from Green River road to Reasonover Road
Right onto Cascade Lakes road
Second gravel sector on Cascade lakes
At end of Cascade lakes, left towards Brevard and Pisgah Forrest. (look at the map, follow the GPS track)
Pit stop at Pisgah Ranger station
Continue on Highway 276
Third gravel road Right onto FS road at Avery Creek/Horse stable road. NOTE: Take the hairpin turns on the outside.
Left at junction with Highway 276, then right onto
Forth gravel sector at FS 475B
At end of FS 475B make hard right and continue to
Fifth gravel sector FS 475 (bear left)
At end of FS 475, turn right at stop sign
Right at stop sign onto Parkway Road and begin ascent to Blue ridge Parkway on good pavement
At junction with Parkway, get on Parkway headed North
Side trip and pit stop at Black Balsam parking are on left (optional)
Continue on BRP towards Pisgah Inn.
Lunch break at Pisgah Inn with everyone else on the Parkway
Continue North on Parkway
After descending and going through several tunnels take right at Bent Creek Gap onto
Gravel sector six. Descend to Mills River Recreation area
At Mills River, go left towards Highway 280. (Option is to go right onto Gravel sector seven which brings you out back on highway 276 at the Cradle of Forestry - not on GPX track)
At junction with Highway 280, go right back towards Brevard.
At Brevard, go left on Old Greenville highway up the back side of Caesar's Head and down Caesar's Head to Highway 11
At junction with Highway 11, go left and continue on 11.
Fuel stop at Gowensville
Continue on Highway 11 to Campobello,
Bear right onto Highway 176 back through Inman to the start at I-26 Exit 15.

Link to GPX below:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_JRKbtpM51ZUlVsSEloSVI3bjQ

or

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1129000

Glad to see someone else beginning to log the roads and rides in SC. We're doing the same in lower part of the state. So far, "the HoCat" is our favorite, but we've got a group going again this weekend to add to the Francis Marion tracks I've put up. Go to www.duapsportmaps.com, and zoom in on the area just north east of Charleston, SC. You'll see the tracks, and photos added so far. The original HoCat hasn'[t been confirmed in the dualsportmap site, but most of it is shown in three legs (approx 150 mi) loop around Walterboro.

Our group would like to make a short weekend camp up to the NC/GA/SC mountains for some riding. Could anyone in this group hook us up with guidance or more suggested tracks?

Clint

There is a pretty large group of dirt riders who hang out on klrworld.com. Most of these are just into NC which is also where the DuPont forest referred to above is.

Some buddies of mine ride in the state areas where you pay (I think $10/day?). We've 2 in upstate SC. There are good areas in the Jocassee gorge which are open to dual sport bikes some of the year. You'll get information on that from the klrworld site, too.

I was out testing new stuff that I got for my birthday and I stumbled on a pretty nice ride out of the North Greenville SC area.
It totaled 110 Miles, three dirt sections, nice twisties and some Hwy. It took me about 3:30 today in light rain. Check the link for the track.

http://dualsportmaps.com/?link=105143

Awesome first post! Sharing a route, in the right forum, not sitting in front of a PC asking what boots or bike to buy, just a guy out checking out his gear on a ride in the rain. Welcome!

First I wanted to thank Laura for her nice words regarding my first post. I guess it encouraged to to try again...

I had been out last fall and a section I wanted to ride was closed for the season. I tried again today, again closed. I did have fun though and did get off road about four times. The route is like:


Start around Hwy 25 and Foothill Blvd, NW of Furman Univ.
FootHill west thru a country club community to White Horse RD.
White Horse N to 276, then West.
Take 288 off 276 in Marietta.
Right at end to 288, then immediate left on 11
Right off 11 on Roy Jones Rd.
Cleo Chapman Hwy back to 178, then left.
Right to Sassafras Mtn (Highest point in SC) WOW.
Back down the road to the "Y", take right fork
Right at "East Fork RD. Follow track log to dirt (Happy Acres RD)
On return to East Fork, continue N to 276, left on 276
Right on Becky MTN, then Immediate L on Rich Mtn.
We get some gravel on Rich Mtn and it returns to 276.
Left on 276, back to SC, past Caesars Head Park
Down the hill to Persimmon Road (Dirt), Left on it.
A few miles of dirt and back at Hwy 11, left there.
11 to 276, past Cleveland, and you are back in Travelers Rest (TR) in about 15 minutes.

I wish I could find more complete routes on dirt in the Upstate, but I haven't been very lucky so far.

In any case a fun ride with lots of good scenery. I think you will enjoy it even though it is not challenging.

Give it a try

Link to view route: http://dualsportmaps.com/?link=105207

Well, thanks to all of you guys leaving the .gpx files and maps to be accessed. New guy here with a newly acquired 2007 Wee Strom with stock tires. I just came back from an awesome ride around Saluda and Dupont Forest with two friends, Steve (BMW 1150GS Metzeler) and Robert (KLR 650 Conti). We left Taylors, SC at about 7:30 AM and got back into town at about 3 PM, with a nice lunch at Grammy's that hit the spot!!

The ride included pavement and gravel, valleys and mountains. I don't have a GPS so I built a map on google based on the .gpx files on this thread and some others. I saved it into my maps and accessed it from my android phone all along and that was my GPS. I'm planning though to order a handlebar mount for my phone and a marine grade cigarette lighter to keep it charged all along. Oh and because of the chilly ride this morning I'm ordering handguards as well. My knuckles were freezing!

Anyway, no much into farkles or technical questions for now. Just want to ride!!

If you can see a link to my map, it means I succeeded linking the url. If not, message my with your email address and I'll email it to you.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211404955134261516379.0004ce6b05bc6a6e927a6&msa=0

Glad you are finding this beneficial! The links work fine. Maybe I will meet up with you all sometimes.

New ride today on green river rd to pinnacle rd to sky valley rd (gravel) and around Pisgah kn National Forest Rd (475B) This time I went with Mark (BMW 650GS -Annakees) and once again my Wee with stock BW kept up all along. Granted, that is hardly considered off-road-riding but I will run with it. Open to new rides and as long as the weather is this nice I need to be out there riding. Happy thanksgiving everyone

Great roads! Have you ridden Cascade Lake road? It has a nice waterfall at the dam to Cascade lake.

On another note, I found a leak around my final drive during my ride today and need to finish diagnosing it. I hope my simple fix is all that is needed to correct it.

The linked route starts and finishes in Gowansville, SC
Stats and major route features:

132 miles, 4.5 hour elapsed time

Gravel Roads:
Pearsons Falls
Pace Mountain
Lake Summit
Pinnacle Mountain
Sky Valley
Cascade lakes
FS 475 in Pisgah
Green River Road

Link to Map view: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1039911/full.png
Link to ride file with downloadable GPX: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1039911#

Left Gowansville at 10:00 AM
Lunch stop in Brevard
Started with full tank and did not need to refuel.
I am using Michelin Anakee 2's and did not have any problems.
All road surfaces are maintained gravel - some surfaces were freshly scraped.

I haven't ridden on that road yet but waterfall sounds nice. I went on a ride to musterground mountain in the jocassee area. Hwy 11 southwest, right on Hwy 130, enter Bad Creek Area on right, go downhill, make first left. The trail starts past the parking lot. Here's the link to google maps.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=must...0.154324&t=h&hnear=Musterground+Mountain&z=14

It is a seasonal road (all roads will continue to be open seasonally beginning September 15 through January 2 and during the month of April). Here's a link to the DNR site
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/managed/wild/jocassee/management8.htm


There's a point where it gets beyond gravel and becomes double track with a couple rough spots. I am a 5'8", 170 lbs guy wrestling with a 475 lbs Wee with battle wings, with no previous experience off road but I made it all the way to the top where it splits in four single track trails, not sure if they're authorized for OHV.

I know this is a GPS thread and everyone wants to see GPX files but I hope this helps.

I have heard about these roads, and would like to check them out. Put it on the list!

Robert (KLickeR) and I went yesterday on a ride and explored the horse pasture rd. There are spots where the gravel is too big, too much but other than that a very pleasant ride with beautiful scenery. Here's a link to the road

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=...tVLhRTWyBWQ&dirflg=b&mra=ls&t=m&z=13&lci=bike

There's a little creek to cross (Creek crossing 101) to add to the fun. A word of caution: plenty of blind spots. We encountered many four wheel drive vehicles including a black F-150 driven by a teenager who just kept going as fast a he could, leaving just enough room for the bike to squeeze in going downhill with the cliff on our right.

Definitely worth bringing in your camera on this trip. Just say when Ridingman1

Check out the ride report at this link -->http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20251668#post20251668