COHUTTA INFORMATION
Cohutta 100 Couse Description
The start is on the highway for nearly 3 miles. Good climb to spread it out. First trail section is Brush Creek which is the only true beginner trail in area. Flat, fast and fun. Small climb to Boyd Gap. Here is a nice view of the valley with the Ocoee river and a look at what is to come on the other side of the valley. Exit the overlook down a fairly technical down hill to a small stretch of pavement to Old Copper Road. This is a flat wide trail next to the river that is punctuated with some technical sections from washout (see photos). Back to the WWC.
Crossing the bridge over the river starts a nice climb up Bear Paw. There are a few sections of Bear Paw that take some effort to ride clean. Exiting Bear Paw to River View. Fast and fun, roller coaster
like. Exiting River View, the trail opens up and climbs to the start of the large forest service road loop of the Cohutta Wilderness at aid station 1.
The first section of these roads are the roughest and are a continuous up/down exercise. Climbs are short and sometimes steep. Some nice views can be seen on some of the ridges. As you approach Tumbling Creek camp ground, the road decends to the creek. After passing the camp ground on your left, the road becomes relatively flat for several miles. As you enter GA, the road follows Tumbling creek for several miles with some very nice scenic views of the creek and lush flora.
The road starts to roll as you leave the creek, and begins one of the major climbs of the Cohutta loop up to Dally Gap (aid station 2) then Watson's Gap. Ultimately, this will take you up to the eastern ridge of the Cohuttas. You will ride the ridge for what seem like forever with non-stop ups and downs. Aid station 3 is about 2/3rds of the way thru these climbs before the long decent. These climbs are longer and more grueling that those before.
Eventually you will get to the last climb and highest point of the race at Bald Mountain and will get a long descent starting just before FS17. The descent is long and some of it quite fast. But there are some scattered small sprinter climbs that get annoying.
At aid station 5 the road continues down gradually with a few undulations then turns flat as you get back into Tennessee on FS221. Just before Sylco campground, the climbing starts again, getting
back up to the northern ridge of what is now Big Frog Wilderness. This take you back to the WWC and a fast down hill to the West fork trail head at aid station 6. West fork is a long gradual climb back up to the ridge where you will do the Quartz loop and Bypass trails. Some of these sections are fast and fun with a few technical areas to keep you awake. Out of Bypass to Chestnut. This is a great trail with some technical sections. Not too hilly. Chestnut leads into the perhaps the most fun trail of the WWC, the aptly named Thunder Rock Express, (as in express down). Last 5k or so are fast and
somewhat technical. Technical in the sense that there are several hard turns that have long drop offs on the outside. Miss the turn and we may find you by next year's race. Exiting the trail, will take you by the power house and onto the last 1+ miles is on flat pavement next to the highway.
In general, the WWC trails are not overly technical but are good solid mountain bike trails that are just plain fun. The loop has a variety of terrain and just plain hurts you with all the climbing. The course is very ridable and a expert level rider should be able to do the whole course without using the small (22) ring. One should be able to get into a good rhythm and some sections are quite fast and fun. Enjoy!
