Georgia routing

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accordionman

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Joined
Mar 25, 2017
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42
Location
Saint Augustine, Florida
We're heading from Northeaster FL to Blairsville GA the first wk of October. Planning on 75 north to Macon, 129 no to 441 past Athens. From there it looks like 441 into Demorest, then 115 NW to 129 north into Blairsville. To those who have traveled those roads before what d'ya think. Any better ways to get there. How are the roads that I've chosen. I see no need to get involved with the Atlanta chaos to get there.
 
I go up thru Folkston to US1. US1 to Wrens. 17 to Toccoa then US23/129. I hate I-75 and most interstates and will avoid them whenever possible. Also I try to avoid anywhere near Atlanta and also Athens.


 
The route is doable but don't expect it to be a nice scenic drive from Macon thru Athens. Parts of this route can really get slow with both commercial, farming and local traffic, depending on time of day.

I've lived in Lawrenceville, GA for 35 years and we've traveled the roads on your planned route pulling our 5th wheel, etc. camping around Oconee and Lake Sinclair. Not the worst, not the best as far as condition.

If I'm heading south of Macon, I always choose to route around Atlanta on I285E/I675 rather than use the back highways and try and avoid the usual peak traffic times of 7AM-10AM and 3PM-6PM. I usually hang with the Semi's thru the I285 loop and try and keep my cool with the idiot aggressive commuters.

My suggestion would be continue I75N to I675 to I285E to I85N to I985 and Hwy 129N to Hwy 19N into Blairsville.
Safe travels....

Reggie
 
Reggie,
There are those who advocate using 23 N to 76 west to get to Blairsville; saying that the 129/19 route is difficult on the way up and even worse on the downgrade. The 129/19 route is 20-25 miles shorter than using 76, but I don't want to put myself in a position where I regret one over the other. I wouldn't imagine the 129/19 route as being too much of a problem with a 6.7 diesel pulling a 30' classic, at least on the way up. Never having been up there, my only concern is overheating the brakes on the way down.
Ed
 
Ed,
I agree that the 129/19 route is "wiggly', especially around Blood mountain and the grade can be a challenge. Scenery is great (for the passengers :) ).
For some reason I thought you were looking for a direct route, but my preference for ease of travel is up thru Clayton on Hwy 23 and turn west on Hwy 76. Both are great roads and Hwy 76 is 4 lanes without any grade challenges.
The I85N/I985/Hwy 23 to Hwy 76 and North on Hwy 441 is the route I take when camping in or around Cherokee, NC.

I used to pull a smaller TT (30ft total length, 6000 lb) all around N. Georgia and N.C. with my 2500HD and didn't think too much about the grades but with my 5vr I've become more "selective" of the routes.
Anyway, safe travels..

Reggie
 
Well the trip is done. This is how it went.
First day: Out of FL on I 75 to route 26, Elko in GA to Twin Oaks RV Park. NIce day, uneventful. Twin Oaks is a nice park, spotless, nice people, accommodating. Made the mistake of sleeping with the window open. Unfortunately, 75 produces a lot of noise in the early morning and the park is lose to the interstate.

Second day: 75, to 23/441 north to Clayton then 76 west to Blairsville. Decent roads. The early part of 76 was windy, but doable. Straightened out around Hiawassee. Stayed at Cross Creeks RV park. The best we ever stayed at. Amenities were as good or better than any high priced resorts we've stayed at.

We checked out route 17 while we were there to see if it would be an acceptable route to go back as it was considerably shorter, but the number of cut backs were many and we chose to stay with 76.

There is a train from Blue Ridge that goes up to McCaysville, TN. You know sighseeing, etc. then it stops for a couple of hours at McCaysville. Save your money and drive the route. We drove Blairsville to Hiawassee up to N. Car to Tenn to Blue Ridge. Enjoyed the ride more . The train was $ 100.00. We instead used 4 gals of diesel.

Coming home we reversed the route, but we kept the windows closed, and the A/c on at Twin Oaks. Nice night. . If we were to do this trip again we would do the same route and stay at the same RV parks. It was an excellent trip.

Ed
 

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