Hiking/Horse Trails of the Cohutta Wilderness
"When all the dangerous cliffs are fenced off, all of the trees that might fall on people are cut down, all of the insects that bite are poisoned....and all of the grizzlies are dead because they are occasionally dangerous, the wilderness will not be made safe. Rather the safety will have destroyed the wilderness." - R. Yorke Edwards
Riding/hiking in a wilderness area requires planning, caution, and proper preparation due to the remoteness of these areas and the difficulty of summoning help in an emergency. Watch weather forecasts carefully. Recent rains can cause the river crossings to be deep, fast, and dangerous. A trip may get extended in bad weather, so be prepared for this possibility with extra food, extra water, and dry warm clothing. Getting caught after dark in the mountains can be life threatening for the unprepared. Take trips here very seriously. Make sure someone at home knows the route you are taking and your expected time of return. Even on good days, plan on getting wet. Trail markers are not maintained once you leave the trailheads. A good map and/or a GPS is recommended. Cell phone service is sporadic at best and then only from the ridge line trails. Poisonous snakes are common and will sometimes sun themselves in a trail.
Refer to the Cohutta Wilderness ROD for rules and regulations regarding hikers and horses and where you can camp.
http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/sopa/cohutta/lac/cohutta-wilderness-lac-dm.htm
Fires are permitted using dead and down wood only. No permits are required. Please obey all wilderness regulations posted at trail heads. Horses are prohibited on certain trails. The many dedicated volunteers of "Team Conasauga" spend countless hours maintaining the trails. Please respect our wilderness areas to preserve them for generations to come. Be "Gentle on the Land". Pack out what you bring in and any trash you encounter. Practice "Leave No Trace" ethics.
Please do not poach the plants and animals that live here. It is a balanced ecosystem that depends on our protection.
More information and Wilderness maps are available from the U.S. Forest Service Armuchee-Cohutta District Office in Chatsworth.
Some roads are closed depending on weather conditions. Call the Cohutta-Armuchee Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service in advance of a trip to check road conditions. (706) 695-3134
Beech Bottom Trail Hiking/Horse
4 miles. Easy to moderately difficult, heavily used, access trail to Jacks River and Jacks River Falls. (Horses are not allowed to ride all the way to the Falls)
Chestnut Lead Trail Hiking Only
1.4 miles. An easy to moderately difficult trail which provides a good look at skeletons of giant chestnut trees that thrived in this forest before the chestnut blight.
Conasauga River Trail Hiking Only
13.1 miles. Moderately difficult trail that fords the river 38 times. Large Eastern Hemlock trees are a feature of this trail, which is the roadbed of an old railroad.
East Cowpens Trail Hiking/Horse
6.2 miles from Dally Gap to Licklog Trail in Tennessee. Moderately difficult to strenuous lesser-used trail that continues into the Big Frog Wilderness in Tennessee. Part of it is also the Benton Mckaye Trail. At the Georgia-Tennessee line, the trail enters the Big Frog Wilderness and climbs up Big Frog Mountain where it intersects with Licklog Trail. Licklog Trail to the East is a hiker trail only. Licklog Trail to the West connects to Wolf Ridge Trail, which connects with Chestnut Ridge Trail which leads to a parking lot/trail head on Big Frog Road. Only this section of these trails is open to horses in the Big Frog Wilderness..
8.6 miles. Easy to moderately difficult access to the Conasauga River, which can be reached from either trail head. From the western trail head, the Conasauga is a little more than 1.5 miles.
Hickory Ridge Trail Hiking/Horse
3.6 miles. Moderately difficult to strenuous interior trail starting on East Cowpens Trail and ending at Jacks River Trail between Beach Bottom Trail and Penitentiary Branch Trail.
Jacks River Trail Hiking only except for the section from Dally Gap to Jacks River and from Penitentiary Branch Trail intersection to the Beech Bottom Trail and Hickory Ridge Trail intersection.
16.7 miles. Moderately difficult roadbed of an old railroad. It is the longest and wettest trail in the Cohutta Wilderness, crossing the river 42 times. It is often crowded at the falls. The least-used portion of the trail is the northernmost section from Alaculsy to Jacks River Falls. The short inner section of this trail open to horses allows riders to go North on Beech Bottom Trail to Big Frog Road or to cross the Cohutta Wilderness from East to West by using Hickory Ridge Trail, which goes West and intersects with East Cowpens Trail on the Eastern edge of the Wilderness. (See Penitentiary Branch Trail below)
Rice Camp Trail Hiking/Horse
3.9 miles. Easy to moderately difficult access trail to Jacks River with several stream crossings.
Rough Ridge Trail Hiking/Horse only for the first 5 miles to a "Horses Prohibited Beyond this Point" sign where the old road bed ends.
7 miles. Moderately difficult to strenuous, providing access to Jacks River. A ridge trail that descends gradually down an old road bed to a hardwood cove and then becomes a very steep and sometimes rocky footpath as it continues to descend to the river.
Tearbritches Trail - Hiking Only
3.2 miles. Moderately difficult to strenuous. Climbs Bald Mountain (over 4,000 feet elevation) and then descends steeply to Bray Fieldthe junction of the Conasauga River and Hickory Creek trails and nearby Panther Creek Trail.
