Donna Marathon 2023 Route

I have done many routes in this area over the years. Being that this is my primary route through Central East District it was fun to do this one that included a little hike in the bogs of the woods along road 903.

The map on Donna Marathon 2023 looks good because all these roads start and end in Birmingham City Centre
Location of Donna Marathon route 2023 Birmingham
This is the location and start of the route

The road is about 2.5 miles down at a reasonable walking pace of 5-7 minutes to reach the trailhead. From the parking area on Route 3912 you take a right into a clearing and within about 200 yards you can see another road is available and you can park there if you wish for the route to look like it does in the Donna Marathon.

The elevation gain on the back route is about 534ft so you will reach the start of the trail in about 26 minutes. The elevation gain is about 151ft so you can expect a long hike up.

The trail begins at a point about 500-800 yards out from the parking area. That would be a point at the end of the woods which is a good spot for a tree. From there you can start down and start with a good climb in just about 0.5 mile (equivalent to the one hour that you would have walked up from the parking area).

That elevation gain at the end of the woods also proves to be great. In this case it's about 300 feet.
The whole pathway you walk down is about 2.0 miles giving a total hike of about 4.0 miles or just under five miles.
However you can take it over again to the parking lot as far as you like after this first big climb.
The trail ends at the parking lot at 1750 feet.
The park, well it's no secret that there is none in the Birmingham region

It's kind of hidden but they do really have in Greenfield so there may be signs that lead you to the main trailhead where you park. However, the full trailhead is surrounded by fences so even if you get out and through that fence you can't get back in. The one or two places in particular that you see are the forest area in Greenfield and the bus stop area in Bessemer.