May is National Bicycle Month in the USA. Considering that this is a blog about geography, this segment on bicycles is going to take a geographic perspective.

Bicycle trails make good places to have leisurely ride without having to deal with the concerns of traffic. Human geography aspect. They are good places for walking around, socializing. There is something more that can be said.

Bicycle trails also make good places to study the local physical geography. While many people aren’t thinking of the physical or human geography aspects of bicycle trails, this is actually very easy to study if one knows what to look for.

Look at the video about. That was filmed from the Silver Comet Trail, going through the Atlanta suburb of Mableton. There are so many aspects of physical geography to explore. The lush, green flora. The deep greens of ferns, kudzu, the pine trees, other species of trees. This indicates the flora native to the Atlanta area. It also indicates the climate , being humid subtropical. Also consider the kind of soils that some of these plants thrive in. Kudzu in particular can thrive in the acidic red clay ubiquitous to Georgia.

This was just through one portion of the Silver Comet Trail. There is so much more. Geography can be explored from a bicycle ride. It’s a matter of knowing what to look for and how to look for it.

And the Silver Comet Trail is an example of geography itself. The trail was once a railroad. It was named after a passenger train. The Silver Comet train operated between 1947 and 1969. It ran from New York City,NY to Birmingham,AL. After it was discontinued, parts of the railroad were converted into the Silver Comet bicycle trail in Georgia, and the Chief Ladiga trail in Alabama. A conversion of a discontinued railway into a recreation trail.