Wild Lands Awareness Base Camp and Hiking Cohutta Wilderness Register

*Please note we only have space for ten hikers and you may be notified that you have been placed on the wait list.

Join Sierra Club Georgia Outings and the Wild Lands Committee for a great weekend of hiking, car camping, and public lands education. Dani Purvis, chair of the Wild Lands Committee, will join us to bring us up to date on current policy trends and challenges to our pristine wild areas in Georgia. You have the option to come along for a day hike and then drive back home, or you can stay the night with us at Lake Conasauga Campground.

This is car camping, so pack accordingly. Each campsite has a gravel parking spur, a tent pad, picnic table, lantern post, and a fire ring with a grill. Restrooms with flush toilets and potable water are available in camp. There are no showers or electricity at the sites, so plan for a true nature experience. The campground sits at 3,150 feet elevation, making it the highest elevation lake in Georgia, so expect temperatures to be 10–15 degrees cooler than the surrounding valleys — bring layers even in summer. A swimming area with a dock is located across the lake from the campground, and the lake is excellent for fishing, particularly for bass and bream. Note that alcohol is prohibited in the entire Lake Conasauga Recreation Area. Also be aware that GPS is not recommended for navigating to this area, as satellite service is regularly interrupted by mountains and trees.

Hikers will need to provide for themselves for snacks and lunch.  If you'd like, we will offer a delicious dinner and breakfast in camp for Saturday night and Sunday morning.  We have vegan options available as well.  We will have wildlands and conservation talks throughout the weekend, on the trail and after dinner. Our first hike will take us down the Chestnut Lead Trail deep into the Cohutta Wilderness. We will stop at Poplar Camp Creek and turn back. Here's the hiking profile for this trek. This hike will have multiple water crossings of various depths but not above the knee.  the next day we will do a pre-dawn hike from Lake Conasauga Camp to Grassy Mountain Tower click for profile.

Potential Itenerary
Saturday:
0800   depart from Busby Park n Ride
1030   start hiking down Chestnut Lead Trail. Stop for lunch. Return to the trailhead around 1500.
1600   set up camp at Lake Conasauga
1800   dinner, dessert, discussion
2200   quiet time
Sunday:
0500   hot water available for coffee, have a light breakfast of oatmeal or bring a snack on the hike
0600   start pre-dawn hike to Grassy Mountain Tower - 4 mile roundtrip 
0830   strike the camp and pack up, stop at waterfall on the way out, stop for quick lunch on the way home