A Guide to Playing Pokemon Go in "Sixes"/Bridgemill in Canton, Georgia

The problem:

It's hard to play Pokemon Go in the suburbs, especially in a place as deeply sub-sub-sub-urban as Bridgemill. You'd think there'd be an advantage to the topography, there's hardly any Pokemon in the woods or by the lake. There's basically no pokestops except for the churches because there's practically nothing of any historical, architectural or artistic significance and everything is 20, 25 or 30 minutes away. I've heard several times with all those different numbers that that's an Atlanta joke. It's not funny. However, it is true here considering how long it can take just to get out of Bridgemill (10 or more minutes depending on where you live).

pokemon: Pokeballs are scarce in Sixes, real scarce. More scarce than pokemon. After your first few quick levels you won't be getting any balls inside Bridgemill unless you pay for them or use a lucky egg and a few dozen evolves to level up. The exceptions on the extreme edge of the neighborhood: the entrance signs and the playground by the pool. So you can make your own choices but I won't go after bats, rats or spearows after I see the last Pokestop on the way into the neighborhood; what if I end up seeing something I really want? I still go for pidgeys coz the minimal number of candies makes them good experience, but mostly I wait for the odd ones or I end up running out of balls before I leave the neighborhood again. If you do choose to go after all the things be aware that Spearows aren't as bad as deal as the Internet says coz their evolve is 1000XP instead of 500XP.

There are some creeks and ponds within Bridgemill where you'll find more interesting things than the usual birds, bugs and rodents. Along the creeks or ponds you'll find psyducks and magikarp and goldeens and staryu and other things you won't usually see on the neighborhood streets.

noonday creek
little river, which you can walk at olde rope mill park
toonigh creek
blankets creek
downing creek, accessible easily from the nature trail at Barnett Park
all the waterways

Even if you stay on the streets, if you hold out, you'll get some slightly less common pokemon: bulbasaurs, venonats, pikachus, evees, jigglypuffs, staryu, horsea, oddish ,nidoran, krabby, gastly, paras, poliwags, growlithes, clefairys, and probably more (I'm not sure where I got them because they took the cool i-found-it-here map feature away a few days after the game went live).

Gyms: There's actually a fair number of gyms in the area. Maybe as many as there are Pokestops, which is not the usual. Within a couple minutes drive of the entrance to Bridgemill, there's at least 4 Gyms you can capture and/or train at.

The red ones are gyms

Pokestops:

The blue ones are Pokestops.

Of course, I mentioned the Bridgemill entrance signs and the pool. And specifically there's one at the New Hope Baptist Church and two at the Sixes United Methodist Church, and one at the Xtreme Life churchy thing, then up at  the River Church and Blankets Creek but these are the exceptions that prove the rule: there are no Pokeballs in this place. There is really no place in Sixes to replenish your balls; one pokestop every 5 minutes isn't enough to keep you in balls.

Places that were almost awesome: There are two places in the area that were almost perfect places to hang out and replenish your balls: Sixes United Methodist Church, and the Lebanon Cemetery across from the post office. At both places you can just barely not reach 2 Pokestops from one place, by maybe a car length.

The elusive double Pokestop:

I haven't found it,  not around here. Maybe there isn't one nearby, but wouldn't it be awesome if there were a place you could sit in your car and drink your Starbucks and spin two pokestop coins every 5 minutes instead of just one? Please let me know in the comments below if you find one before I do (short of driving to downtown Canton).

Update 8/15/16: I found it! Check the link below.

Places with a Pokestop to eat breakfast:

J Christopher's in Woodstock (only the side of the restaurant that can reach the Century House)

Places with a Pokestop to eat lunch:

Century House in Woodstock (not open until 11)

Places with a Pokestop to eat dinner:

There's that pizza place with the brick oven, also in Woodstock.

The Krystal Burger for reals. Double Pokestop

Places to hang out in your car when it's too hot (or you're just chilling):

The Bridgemill pool parking lot
Etowah river park, there are parking spots that can reach the picnic pavillion pokestop
Virtually any church parking lot
"The Outlet Shops at Atlanta" one exit up has only has one Pokestop, however you can reach it from at least one table inside the air conditioned food court

Once in Sixes, you'll probably lose more balls catching rats and bats and pigeons than they are worth. Ultimately you want to walk in a 5 minute loop of Pokestops so you can spin coins nonstop and the first is reset by the time you are done with the last. Downtown Canton is best for that but Woodstock is nearly as good.

Random Local Tips:

You can get 2 Magikarp every time you go past the gate at the end of the road of J Biello park. There's also 3 pokestops you can hit on the way in and out as well, so you  can come out ahead on balls.

If you sit at the Etowah river park for 2 hours in the evening you are almost certain to get an Eggsecute though during the day you may just see weedles and junk.

Let me know in the comments if you think you have a local tip to share that I didn't cover. I'll edit the post with any new information I get.

Others in this series:
A link to the followup post on a great park to cruise through for Magikarp.
A link to the second update on a great park to eat lunch at.
The third update on a place to lunch and gym a bit out of the way in Kennesaw.