Georgia’s Gold Coast
What is Georgia’s Gold Coast?
It is the eastern shore of Georgia, nestled midway between Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida. Home to 
Georgia’s four beautiful Golden Isles — St. Simons, Little St. Simons, Sea Island and Jekyll Island, listed in order from north to south. There are other barrier islands in the area, that are not officially part of the “Golden” bunch, most famous is Cumberland Island. This area has long been a low key vacation destination, families have gravitated towards St. Simons Island while the rich and famous could be found on Jekyll Island as far back as the 1880’s. Jekyll Island, was once a private club that hosted the likes of the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Morgans, Pulitzers and Goulds, is now state owned and part of it is a Historic District.
White sand beaches, luscious green landscape and a relaxed rhythm of life are the uniting themes of this region. The folks that have lived here for generations welcome us in to their communities and are happy to chat over the fence with us. Those who are recent transplants from the north east, will grin knowingly at you, “you will be back, you just might move here.”
So why Spring biking in Georgia?
We head to Georgia to get the biking season kicked off for a number of reasons.
1) Weather– With an average day time temperature of 76 degrees, what’s not to love. The ocean temperature is even quite friendly, at 67 degrees. Check out Savannah’s weather overview
2) Terrain– Fairly flat terrain, allows us to start the process of waking up those bicycling muscles without over doing it. Our maximum elevation is 49, and the daily “climb” is limited to 270 feet. Below is a daily ride profile, note that the top elevation on this day is 46 feet, each day is quite similar.
Other than great biking…
On Day 1, we start off with a guided ride through downtown Savannah, the largest National Historic Landmark District
in the United States, Savannah contains more than twenty city squares filled with museums, churches, mansions, monuments and famous forts of the Revolutionary & Civil War eras.
Eagles, Egrets and Alligators, OH MY
One of the challenges of your tour will be keeping your eyes on the road while you are scanning the trees and sky for Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles and many many other birds. The good news is that your tour leader Josh is an avid and experienced birder, ( Gary and Bill are pretty darned good at it also) and he is really stoked to share bird sightings. These are a few of his bird pictures.
A visit to the region would not be complete without an alligator sighting, your in luck, Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge, rarely fails to deliver this treat.
What is a vist to the ocean with out visiting a cool light house, well we would say not really a visit to the ocean. Good 
thing we have one of those tucked into the tour as well. St. Simons Lighthouse built in 1872, towers 104 feet over the surrounding area and is still an aid to navigation in the area. Josh and Gary, swear by its navigation help, they say they start counting on it, just south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Break out of the winter funk by getting on your bike and joining us on a Biking tour of Georgia’s Coast. Tours are offered at the end of March through mid-April, then again in late October and early November.
Parting shot…. Gorgeous gold tones, on Georgia’s Gold Coast, at the end of a great day of bicycling.
Wilderness Voyageurs, operates Inn to Inn biking tours throughout the United States. Choose from Rails-to-Trails bike tours, or road biking tours.
A couple tips for spring biking.
Wilderness Voyageurs, 103 Garrett Street, Ohiopyle, PA 15470 800-272-4141
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