Written by Coach Emily Cox
Bikepacking can be fast and light for big miles or packed heavy for a slower, immersive ride. The Cohutta Cat, a 290-mile loop with 33,000 feet of climbing, started as a relaxed journey but turned intense when freezing temps set in. Through every challenge—cold mornings, tired legs, and fleeting doubts—bikepacking is about embracing the unknown, adapting to the ride, and finding joy in the journey. Coach Emily shares her bikepacking adventure below.
There are 2 types of bikepacking… Well definitely more, but what I’m learning is that if you want to do epic miles with lots of single track, elevation, and gnarly conditions (ie. rain or freezing temps), it might be best to plan accordingly by packing lighter and finding motels along the route where you can shower, eat a big meal, and get good sleep to recover for the next days of coving epic ground. Or if you want to camp, shorten the days, pack all the things, let the route provide you with a beautiful campsite, go swimming in the river, make a fire, eat some weird combination of tuna and whatever else seemed to make sense in your packing plan, get out the speaker for some campsite tunes, and just relax!
So about this past weekend. We set out to do the Cohutta Cat Bikepacking route. It’s a 290-mile figure eight loop with 33,000ft of elevation gain around Northwest Georgia. The route has a great mix of gravel roads and single track as well as some paved roads to connect the sections.
We started the route in Dahlonga, flowing through the Jake and Bull mountain singletrack and winding around the gravel roads to the Green Mountain trails ending at Lake Blue Ridge where we set up camp for the evening. It was a nice, chill 50-mile day and we embraced the 2nd type of bikepacking mentioned above. It was nice. The group that I was with normally opts for the gnarly/ epic side of things so we were all excited to see the “fun/ relaxing” side of bikepacking. And it was a great time at the campsite… until the next morning when we woke up and it was 21 degrees. We got up quick and packed up as fast as we could. We made it to downtown Blue Ridge for breakfast where we sat and thawed out with hot coffee and biscuits.
Day 2, we headed out towards the Cohuttas on some scenic roads eventually entering the Pinhoti Trail, ripping the singletrack to Fort Mountain State Park. We reached the top right at sunset! We discussed the route and reevaluated our plan of the relaxing bikepacking (maybe try again in the summer), but with the below freezing nights we decided we would get a little more epic on the days. The next place to stop with a motel would be Chatsworth, only a couple miles off course, rounding out 70 miles and 10k of elevation on the day.
Day 3, century day! It was 100 miles to Blue Ridge which would be the next option for a motel. It was going to be a push but it would make day 4 only 50 miles back to the car so we all agreed it would be worth it. We got on the bikes at 6am and ventured out into the cold, dark morning. This day started with long gravel climbs through the Cohutta mountains, towards Tennessee into the Big Frog Wilderness where we got on the singletrack of the Ocoee Whitewater Center. This is where they hosted the MTB races for the 1996 Olympics. The trails were really fun, tight, rooty, fast, punchy singletrack! I had never ridden the trails there before but definitely want to go back (maybe less weight on the bike). The low point of the trail system is along the Ocoee River so it's just really a pretty spot! When we got to the river, we were all stoked but completely cracked. I think we all wanted to stop and take a long break but we still had 40 or so miles to go. So we sat by the river for a bit and tried to live off of the stoke of the trails but were fighting the exhaustion.
After eating as much as we could and sitting in the somewhat chilly sunbeam, we got back on the bikes with a strong internal pep talk. After an hour or so we passed a store stop and went to town. They say, with enough food you can come back from the worst of bonks… so that was the goal. I wanted to quit, I wasn't hurt, I had enough food and water, I wanted to convince myself that I wasn’t able to ride another pedal stroke, I had the number of the local bikeshop owner in Blue Ridge, I could call him and get a ride back… but I was fine, I could pedal, I've experienced worse… I’m not afraid to quit, but this wasn't the moment to do it. I needed to shake it off and keep going… So after a long food stop and realizing that we were all feeling it, we decided to get back on and cruise the last 35 miles to Blue Ridge.
Day 4, only 50 miles and very little single track. We got out the door around 7am and rode to a breakfast spot. We were all feeling like it was day 4 and 200+ miles in. But there was a calmness to the morning. Knowing that we just needed to cruise rolling gravel roads and we should be back to the cars by 4pm. The legs were smoked but the vibes were high and we made it back.
We decided that there’s 2 ways to do bikepacking, go epic and pack light or pack for camping and take your time.. Bikepacking is cool because it's unpredictable; the conditions, the route, the people, the stores, the water availability, the food, the mechanicals, the vibes, the legs, it's all constantly changing and there is a flow in the unknowing. The only thing constant is the pedaling from one point to the next, you have to keep moving forward to get there. You have to want to do it and you can keep going as long as you eat enough, drink enough and stay positive.
