Cohutta Wilderness Loop Question

[OwenM]

With Sugar Cove open you could easily leave Dally Gap and get on the upper Jacks River trail near Bear Branch Creek and follow Jacks downstream to the Sugar Cove jct (good luck in finding it across the Jacks)

I guess this just popped into my memory from when I asked about the Jacks River Trail back in June. This week, I did an overnight of the "Penitentiary Branch Loop" for the second time since then, and didn't remember any details, context, or the fact that this post was from 2016.
Anyway, I don't know if it's even of interest to anyone, now, but the quoted part is what stuck with me, so I was looking. Was already past the junction on the map, but was looking across the river where the Jacks River Trail and Sugar Cove Trail parallel each other.
There's a campsite across the river that's easy to see, and at a spot that would be easy to cross.
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I got the best spot this time, with its own little waterfall, private beach, and swimming hole

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[solobip]

[Dan Roper]

Hickory Ridge Trail, leading from Jacks River up to East Cowpen Trail, is in atrocious shape following the 2016 fire and the big storms of 2017 and 2018. Rice Camp Trail, which climbs from the river to the East Cowpen trailhead was nearly as bad but has been worked on by crews, so it's passible now, though pretty tight and brushy. Sugar Cove was right at the heart of the 2016 Rough Ridge Fire and in close vicinity to those storms, so it's probably just as bad or worse than the Hickory Ridge Trail (and, as noted above, Sugar Cove Trail was abandoned a decade ago).

Yesterday, I did a 10-mile loop in the Cohutta Wilderness including two bushwhacks. Started at Beech Bottom Trailhead, road walk to the Chestnut Mountain Trailhead, bushwhack down Van Arthur Lead to Beech Bottom; down Jacks River Trail about four miles (to a point below Horseshoe Ben) and then very difficult bushwhack up Simmons Branch gorge back to the road at a point just below the Beech Bottom Trailhead. Water levels are higher than ordinary for this time of year. Cardinal flower was magnificent, in spots. Water was great for swimming.