Reply to safest parking

where is the safest trailhead parking?

I park at the Cedartown Welcome Center\Train depot.

It's right along the silver comet just off of main street.

Has cameras(have no idea if they are on\monitored) and just in general it seems to be a busy spot.

It's really really noisy, cars with very loud exhausts\music, constant fireworks...I don't enjoy that at all, but it feels safe since it always seems busy and not isolated like many of the other Silver Comet Parking spots. Pretty good taco truck just on the other side of main street.

A big part of the reason I park there is I like to do 100 miles, and to me, Cedartown is pretty much right in the middle of the best(and worst trash hill) of the trail(IMHO).

It's 24 miles west to Piedmont AL, and it's a great section, especially around the AL|GA line where the trail passes through the northern section of the Talladega National Forest near Drugger Mountain.

To the East, around 25 miles through the Brushey Mountain Tunnel section. Beautiful on railroad grade section of the trail, 7 mile run with no road crossings, cutting across the piedmont forests. It's really nice. Also, some of the sections east of Cedartown are my least favorite..ticky tacky off grade sections with steep hills and some sharp blind corners...but well worth it to get to the Brushey Mountain Section.

Trail surface is rough, on the GA side it's rough buzzy concrete, on the AL side it's asphalt, but some really rough sections due to tree root damage. I'm running 28mm tires on my road bike around 65 psi and that takes the edge off, but I wish they would re-pave the whole thing with some fresh smooth asphalt.