Coosa Backcountry Trail

First backcountry backpacking trip with friends and teenage kids. We took our time and did it over a weekend. Strenuous in spots but excellent trail!

This is a strenuous hike but easily doable in a day for an experienced hiker that starts early in the day. We added the Duncan Trail to the Blood Mountain shelter and it took just over 8 hours with a stop for lunch. The trail is well marked with good signage.

Great trail. Counter clockwise, its pretty easy, it gets much harder once you begin to the second section. I recommend to do it in two days unless you are in good physical condition. I did it in one day but would suggest doing in 2.
Enjoy the hike.
Bill.

nice, long and strenuous trail. perfect for a good long day hike or overnight backpacking. unfortunately you can hear the nearby highway along the trail a lot. not as remote as I hoped it to be.

This trail has some rather difficult aspects to it, it really is a formation of ups and downs for the entire duration before reaching an intersecting trail heading up to the Blood Mt Shelter. A definite all day hike starting in the Vogel State Park winding to slaughter and eventually Blood Mt peak.

The trail was incredibly difficult. It took two days in total with around 12 hours hiking in total taking the counter-clockwise route. My daughter and I can typically grind out 12 miles or so in a single day, but not on this trail. It reminded me of the AT. There were lots of ups, and then a few more ups after that. We had to stop several times on the last stretch of trail up to Coosa to rest our legs. The second day was pretty intense, too, especially the hike up to Slaughter Mountain. The last few miles of the loop after Slaughter Gap were much, much easier.

We parked at Vogel State Park, picked up a backcountry pass from the visitor center and set off from the state park around 10 a.m. Saturday morning. We made it to Coosa Bald from the Coosa Backcountry Trail around 4. There were a few places where forest roads crossed the trail, and there seemed to be a few people taking advantage of closer parking. I imagine that you still need to get a backcountry pass, even if you don't park at Vogel itself.

The trail is located in the Blood Mountain Wilderness of the Chattahoochee National Forest, but I'm not sure who is ultimately responsible for maintenance. It was well maintained. Only one or two times during the 13 miles did we see a fallen tree or trees blocking the trail.

I recommend it, for sure, but I'd suggest making it an overnight trek and stopping close to where we did 7 or so miles in. There were campsites every mile or so. It's officially 12.9 miles, but with the approach trail and the half mile or so up to Coosa Bald along Duncan Ridge added up to around 15-16 or so.

good trail in preparation for our Appalachian trail thru hike

Great trail. I hiked counter clockwise. give yourself plenty of time. I did in one hike, about 7 hrs, but, is probably, more enjoyable as an overnight hike. not much water on the tops. more long range views in winter,