Cohutta Mountains Gravel Ride - Northwest Georgia - 45 miles - Saturday 3/24

Cohutta Mountains Gravel Ride - Northwest Georgia - 45 miles - Sat 3/24

This ride is being postponed to April 7. See post number 8 below.

What: 45 miles of gravel in the Cohutta Mountains
Where: Ride starts at the Emery Creek trailhead, Old CCC Capmp Rd, approximately 10 miles east of Chatsworth GA.
When: Saturday 3/24 @ 9:00 AM.

The Cohutta Mountains are as beautiful as the are rugged and this ride will feature mountain streams, waterfalls, vistas, wildlife and lots of climbing.

The route is 45 miles with 5100 ft elevation beginning at the Emery Creek trailhead at the base of the mountains. The first eight miles are flat and include a very scenic six mile paved sector before beginning the extended climb to Lake Conasauga and on to the fire tower at the summit of Grassy Mountain. The return features gorgeous double and singletrack sections of the Pinhotti trail and passes the 400 year old Ganett Poplar tree before returning to the trailhead. Omitting the out and back climb from Lake Conasauga to the fire tower will shorten the route to 38 miles and 4400 ft climbing.

MTB or gravel bikes are required and bring your climbing gears. I hope to ride at 11+ MPH pace but everyone is welcome. Faster riders should be self sufficient and no one will be dropped or left behind.

Lake Conasauga has bathrooms about half way through the ride but they close for winter and may not yet be open. There are no other services on the route so come prepared. Large bottles or a hydration pack are recommended. Creeks are flowing I will bring a Sawyer water filter and extra NUUN tabs to make sports drink should the need arise.

Keep in mind that this is a social ride, completely without outside support.

The route is at https://ridewithgps.com/routes/23628382

From Northwest Atlanta take I75 north to Hwy 411. Travel north on Hwy 411 to the City of Chattsworth. At the Kangaroo gas station in the center of town turn right onto East Fort St for approximately 1 mile. Turn left onto Holly Creek Cool Springs Rd for approximately 6.5 miles. Turn right onto Old CCC Camp road which will turn to gravel after approximately 2 miles. Follow the gravel road for another 1.5 miles to the trailhead parking lot. The drive is about 1 hr 15 min from Cartersville.

Heavy rain or severe weather cancels the ride. As of 3/16 The Weather Channel is predicting partly sunny skies with a 20% chance of showers, 34° at 9:00 AM rising to 52° in the afternoon. Check this thread if weather is questionable. 

Send a PM if you are interested in attending and I'll reply with my cell number for text/voice.


-Tim-

Some photos of the route from last summer...



 
 
 

-Tim-

Sounds awesome, I love that route, but Sunday (3/25) is the Rodeo Labs Duncan Ridge Gravel Rally / Shindig over in Suches. Not sure I can talk the boss into driving from Chattanooga to GA 2x in the weekend .

Not sure what side of ATL you are on, but if you are interested, I'm riding out of Reliance, TN tomorrow. There is a roughly 47 mi loop and 24 mile loop, and burgers and beer at the restaurant across the river. As long as the rain has rolled out by 9:00, it will be wheels down at 9:00.

I'd post the Facebook event link, but I created it as private, so the link won't work if I post it. If interested, PM a phone # or email and I can send the FB invite that way.

47 mile:https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27025476?privacy_code=MEizOzcYIT2mvhNr

24 mile: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/20003956?privacy_code=GCmyitPpTMa5sum3

After ride refreshments: https://www.flipflopburgers.com/



Also -Tim-

Hi Tim. 😉

OK, now we're talking!

I have wanted to ride both Cooper Creek and North of the Ocoee river.

Unfortunately I can't make either of the rides you mention but both routes are bookmarked for future reference.

 I'm in Northwest Atlanta and Reliance is only a little further than the Cohutta. Keep posting rides!


-Tim-

Will do. I normally set them up as FB invites, but I'll start posting them here too. The loops from Reliance are great. Very little traffic, beautiful scenery and Cherokee NF has not decided to cover the roads with that tire killing railroad ballast gravel that Chattahoochee-Ocoee NF decided to spread around Conasauga area / Cowpen Rd.

Oh man, some of that 4" aggregate was used to fill pot holes on the Southern Cross route and flatted one of my Gravelking SK tires at the end of the race. The sealant did its job but still.

Really looking forward to getting up there. I've seen photos. Please do post.

Yep, saw that gravel at Southern Cross, but luckily didn't flat. When that stuff was fresh on Potato Patch and Cowpen / FSR17 I did roughly your loop above but opposite direction and without Pinhoti and got 4 flats and ended up walking and hitching a ride after sealant wouldn't plug and running out of spare tubes (mine and my ride partners) and finding out that my patch kit had dried out. :-( Was a great day! Lots of lessons learned!

This ride is postponed to April 7.

Weather Underground has been forecasting 40° F at 9:00 AM and rain most of the day.

https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/ga/epworth/KGAEPWOR2

A cold mud-fest is not my intent and next week is Easter so the ride is being moved ahead two weeks. Hopefully the trees will be leafed out by then and we can enjoy some spring greenery in the mountains.


-Tim-