Pinhoti Section 31 Buddy Cove Gap to Benton MacKaye Trail
Three miles to the point where the Pinhoti ends at the Benton MacKaye.
ThumbnailThis is a reference photo, not this trail. Have a photo of it? Post it in the Cohutta Wilderness Facebook group and it may end up here.
- Distance
- 3.1 mi one way
- Elevation gain
- Not recorded
- Trail type
- Point to Point
- Difficulty
- Easy to Moderate
- Crossings
- No crossings recorded
- Best season
- Year round.
Wilderness status
Outside the wilderness
Bicycles
Bicycles are permitted. This trail lies outside the designated wilderness boundary. Yield to hikers and expect two-way traffic on blind corners.
The trail
Three and a tenth miles, and the shortest of the Pinhoti sections here, ending where the Pinhoti meets the Benton MacKaye. That junction is the northern terminus of the Pinhoti and the reason this short section carries more weight than its mileage suggests.
Anyone walking the whole Pinhoti from Alabama finishes here. Elevation gain is missing from the source data.
Marquee feature
The junction where the Pinhoti meets the Benton MacKaye
Getting there
Forest Service roads to the Cohutta trailheads are gravel, seasonally gated, and often without cell service. Download directions before you leave pavement.
Access roads and winter closures
Open trailhead in Google Maps
Stay near the trailheads
Sherpa Camp — a cabin at the edge of the wilderness.
The drive in from Atlanta or Chattanooga is long enough that most people are better off sleeping near the gate than starting at 4 a.m. Sherpa Camp is a small cabin on Holly Creek, on the western edge of the Cohutta Wilderness, about 25 minutes from Ellijay. It sleeps five, with a covered porch, a firepit, and a creek. Cell service ends before you get there.
See Sherpa Camp