I’ve never blogged, and I’m new to bikepacking, so keeping
with all things new this is my first bikepacking post about how my mate and I
discovered that ‘cycle trails’ don’t necessarily mean ‘bicycle trails’ in the
North Georgia mountains...
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| A quick pose in front of Mulberry Gap's outhouse outback dunny (outhouse) |
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| Aaron's Kit |
Aaron and I had started planning this trip a few weeks prior
to the date. We bought the rack-less bags, got some schmicko single wall tents,
and kitted ourselves with lightweight stoves and dehydrated food; you could say
that we had all the gear with no idea! Aaron spent quite a few nights after
work studying the route and coming up with contingency plans if we had to cut
the trip short. We planned to park the truck at Mulberry Gap Mountain Bike
Getaway (20 minutes from Ellijay, GA) on Friday, and leave by 2pm to get to
Conasauga Lake. Day two would bring us back to Mulberry Gap via some sweet
singletrack on Mountaintown trail, Bear Creek, and Pinhoti 1&2 trails.
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| Leaving Mulberry Gap |
The basic plan was
to get to Lake Conasauga by sundown. In the planning stage we chose a ‘cycle
trail’ to get up to the Cohutta Mountain Range... What we didn’t realise until
we got up there was that this ‘cycle trail’ was in fact a trail for motorised
cycles like ATVs and motorbikes. Needless to say we found ourselves a little
out of our depth when it came to heaving 55lb bicycles up an average 7% grade
rock pile with human power alone!
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| Altitude graph for the planned route |
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| Still early days... |
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| The smile is about to disappear... |
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| Things just got real! |
After 3 hours of
slogging up hills, and more hills, we finally made it to Conasauga Lake
Campground. It was about 6pm by the time we rolled in, and we had just enough
hours of light to have a quick dip in the fresh lake, and cook up a nice meal
before crashing from exhaustion.
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| Tucking into a hearty feast |
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| Reflection time |
Day 2 (Rewards)
We woke up just
before sunlight and were grateful for the cool, light breeze overnight which
kept the mozzies away, and dried all of our riding gear from the day before. We took
our time eating breakfast in the morning because it was such a nice campground.
Oatmeal and coffee was on the menu, and of course, a little Vegemite to get
the muscles dialled, then it was time to get our stiff bodies moving again.
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| A few spots of rain; is this a sign of what's to come? |
A steady 8 miles or
so of forest service road was on our first agenda, but we had some good views
along the way.
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| Soaking up the view |
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| Mountaintown Overlook |
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| The View |
We reached the top
of our forest road climb and we both just started grinning ear to ear when we
saw what was ahead of us; this is the reward for climbing all of yesterday and
most of the morning. Mountaintown trail was just begging to be ridden, and we
were more than happy to oblige!
A quick stop to
snack and tighten all of our bags, then it was time to see what it was like to
throw a 55lb bike down a hill!
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Mountaintown Creek Trail Hoot |
The descent was 2
miles of smooth rolling singletrack. It took a couple of minutes to get used to
the weight of the bikes, but surprisingly, they handled pretty well apart from
having to stop every now and then to re-tighten the seat bag and handlebar
harness; I don’t think it was really the straps loosening off too much, but
more our poor packing methods had created space with all the bumps. I had
oodles of traction on the fatty, and I could have afforded to let out a couple
more psi out of the tyres to soften the ride. Aaron’s dual suspension bike was
solid in the descents, though his seat bag was touching the back tyre at the
bottom of jumps; nothing a little extra psi in the shock wouldn’t fix.
The remainder of
the trail tapered off and followed the creekline in the valley. Beautiful
waterfalls and river crossings had us meander fairly slowly, but we weren’t in
a rush as it was a stunning view.
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| Wet shoes |
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| A gamble not worth taking on a bike |
By the time we
reached the bottom of Mountaintown Creek Trail it was time for lunch. It was
about this time of our trip that I realised how important it is to eat small
amounts all the time! Aaron had been snacking all morning and felt
great, but I didn’t feel hungry so just kept the fluids up. Needless to say I
ate the weight of a small child at lunch, and then suffered for quite a few
miles afterwards.
Flour tortillas
filled with tuna and mayo, then another with our new super food invented by
Aaron – the PBHV - peanut butter, honey, and you guessed it (or maybe not),
Vegemite... Yes there’s a fair bit going on in your mouth, but don’t knock it
‘til you’ve tried it!
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| PBHV |
We now found
ourselves in familiar territory – Bear Creek and Pinhoti Trails. What we
weren’t familiar with was riding these trails in the pouring rain. We later
found out that Mulberry Gap (a few miles away) was completely dry and missed
all the rain; I guess the Gods wanted to put us to the test for the finishing
lap, and my word they did! We were riding singletrack that had turned into
rivers, and we were completely soaked to the core. I’m glad I wore my Road Holland long
sleeve jersey, not just for the vine thorn protection but for the cold that set
in with the rain; their cycling apparel is made of high quality materials, and fits really well.
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Single track river! |
We were getting pretty cold standing around in the rain, so we decided to get moving. The shower was
only overhead for about 20 minutes so we luckily had nice weather for the final
run on Pinhoti 2 back home.
Aaron and I rode
into Mulberry Gap with a sense of achievement. Although it was only an
overnight bikepacking trip, we experienced many firsts and learned a lot of
things through trial and error. We probably bit off a little more than we could
chew by planning an ATV cycle trail as part of our route, but where would all
the fun be if things went as planned?
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| Glamping |
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| Still soaked, but happy to be back at the dunny! |
