The ride I led in September started at Nimblewell Church, north to Windingstair Gap, the Fish Hatchery, Hawk Mountain, and lunch at the Swinging Bridge. The return route we took was Doublehead Gap road down to FS58, then over to Windingstair with a detour to Hickory Flats churchyard, then back down to Nimblewell Church. This route is mostly dirt roads except for about 5 miles on the pavement on Doublegap.
After the bridge, the alternates are:
1) Those who've had enough can get on GA 60 and head back towards Dahlonega or north.
2) We can go back down to FS42 and FS55 to Black Mountain Road, a few miles from Dahlonega.
With option 2, the route could be reversed ending at Nimblewell Church. Here the rendezvous would be the Walmart in Dahlonega. I would probably lean towards this option; if we got back to Nimblewell early the ride could be extended by going up FS28 to Nimblewill Gap and then back down to Amicalola. People who wanted to could then eat dinner at the lodge.
I don't like leading large groups on paved highways. Start time would be meet at 9:00 and roll no later than 9:15. All these roads are well maintained by the FS and 4WD is almost never needed. The roads are all in the forest and climb along the sides of the mountains with a lot of turns. There's room to pass oncoming vehicles, but with blind curves the average speed is around 15 mph.
Note to the ladies: there is only one bathroom facility on the route. It's at the Frank Gross campground just before the hatchery. There is also a convenience store on 60 that we passed if going back on Doublegap.