Cohutta wilderness drought conditions and closures?

[Tarpcamper75]

Does anyone know the conditions in the Cohutta wilderness area right now? Penitentiary branch/ Jacks river area. Have these trails been closed because of the drought?

[N.Hicks]

The USFS has some really good updates regarding the Cohutta on their Facebook page. The rough ridge fire is likely to impact you more than the drought.
https://www.facebook.com/ChattOconeeNF/?fref=ts

[TNhiker]

Fwiw---some trails got closed down this weekend due to fires.....

ill try to clip over the info when I get on a real computer and not this phone..

[Rain Man]

JUST saw another thread this morning about Cohutta drought conditions by someone who hiked there yesterday. If you can't find it with a Search, post a reply here and I'll find it for you.

[blackwater slim]

So...is there water available for a southbound trek from Reliance,TN down to Blue Ridge, GA on the BMT? Thru Big Frog and Cohutta Wilderness? Any specific reliable spots would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Rain Man]

So...is there water available for a southbound trek from Reliance,TN down to Blue Ridge, GA on the BMT? Thru Big Frog and Cohutta Wilderness? Any specific reliable spots would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I hiked in the Big Frog this weekend. On the BMT for a few miles where it coincided with loop we were doing. Most water sources were dry, but we did stop for lunch on the Rough Creek Trail at Rough Creek and there was water there.

If you'd like to see my photos, here's a link. The first "photo" is from the NatGeo map, showing the route we followed --
Big Frog Wilderness hike photo album.

[Tarpcamper75]

Thanks, we decided to cancel, try again in december. Hopefully well get some rain.

[blackwater slim]

Thanks Rain Man. We may postpone as well. Moving to a different area may not be much better. Carrying extra water might work but if wind is blowing smoke in our area that's a no win deal. Hoping for rain that is not predicted.

[illabelle]

It seems to me that we have the right person to fix this drought. Come on, "Rain Main", do your thing! Don't you have a rain dance or something you could use to conjure up a line of thunderstorms?
Just kidding, of course!

On another note:
I often wonder about how wildlife fares during long droughts. I can imagine large mobile creatures like deer or bear or coyotes traveling as needed to get water. But what about the chipmunks, mice, squirrels? Don't they have a pretty limited home territory? When the rain stops, do they just die, or do they migrate to new territory?

[Rain Man]

It seems to me that we have the right person to fix this drought. Come on, "Rain Main", do your thing!

If only! My thing is closely attuned to getting rained on. LOL I am right now looking at a Cohutta map wondering about a hike later this month.

I often wonder about how wildlife fares during long droughts. I can imagine large mobile creatures like deer or bear or coyotes traveling as needed to get water. But what about the chipmunks, mice, squirrels? Don't they have a pretty limited home territory? When the rain stops, do they just die, or do they migrate to new territory?

We occasionally capture and relocate squirrels, due to problems (minor) with them at our home. Research says you must take them at least 5-10 miles away to avoid them coming right back.

[Rain Man]

Just got this from the Benton MacKaye Trail Association:

From: Larsen, Karen A -FS
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2016 4:52 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: More Closures due to wildfire

Hi Bob, due to the red flag warnings and increased fire behavior, we are closing the entire Cohutta Wilderness Area to the public. This includes all the trails within the wilderness –even the Hemptop Trail where it is concurrent with the BMT. The only alternate route for the BMT in that area will be to hike the forest roads that border both the Cohutta and Big Frog Wilderness Forest Road 22 (GA), 65(TN) and 221 (TN). For now, the Big Frog is not closed, however, that may not remain the case - depending of course on what the fire does over the next couple of days. ....

(emphasis added)

[illabelle]

If only! My thing is closely attuned to getting rained on. LOL I am right now looking at a Cohutta map wondering about a hike later this month.

I think we need to send you to take some classes in making rain. You could travel the world selling your services.

[/QUOTE]We occasionally capture and relocate squirrels, due to problems (minor) with them at our home. Research says you must take them at least 5-10 miles away to avoid them coming right back.[/QUOTE]

I'm just back from a 'lil weekend trip to Roaring Fork, just north of Max Patch. We saw not one squirrel. We heard an owl overnight, and yes there were a few small birds about, and a dozen or more woolly worms (all on the top of Max Patch, no idea what they were up to...). But no other creatures. No bugs, no squirrels, no chipmunks, no rabbits, no mice even. Really sad to see the woods empty like that.

[Dan Roper]

Here is the link to the Chattahoochee Forest web page with daily updates on the Cohutta Wilderness Area fire and the closure of the Wilderness Area (scroll to bottom): http://www.fs.usda.gov/conf

As of the 10 a.m. report, the fire had burned 3,923 acres, a bit more than 10% of the CWA (36,977 acres). The fire has mostly been confined to the area between Rough Ridge Trail to the west, Jacks River to the north, and the wilderness boundary to the east and south. From the daily reports it does not appear that the fires has been burning unusually hot or "topping out." IE, to this point it appear that the fire has been beneficial in the sense of naturally occurring and addressing accumulated fuel on the forest floor. If that's true, forest should recover quickly and be at less risk over the next few years.

I hiked a 14-mile loop in the CWA last Monday (Oct. 31). We could smell the fire as low and distant as Hickory Creek Trail. We could see the smoke billowing up from Rough Ridge as we hiked East Cowpen Trail late in the day. The USFS closed East Cowpen and Panther Creek Trails, two of the trails we hiked (along with several others we didn't hike) the following day and then the entire CWA the day after that.

[TNhiker]

Here's something that was posted by the forest service on their facebook page about 8pm est...


The Rough Ridge Fire is now an estimated 4,319 acres. Even with poor humidity recovery forecast for tonight, minimal fire growth is expected in the overnight hours. Visit http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5078/ for more information.

[blackwater slim]

Hate to do it but we are bailing out of our trip on BMT next week. Looked seriously at the Foothills trail but decided to hit up the Black Creek trail close to home in Mississippi. Planning on a reschedule for March. Thanks for all the above info and happy and safe hiking to all.

[Dogwood]

Limping around Amicalola Falls SP area yesterday the water volume was one of the lowest I've ever seen and visibility from the Cohutta Wilderness fire definitely affected visibility.