Conasauga River Campground

This review is about the Conasauga River Trail intersection with Panther Creek. There is only one campsite at the intersection. It has a great fire pit and is flat, spacious, and next to the river. Definitely ideal. If it’s taken, there may be some other sites further down the trail. My loop started at Betty’s gap and then down the Conasauga River Trail. 5 miles is fine - BUT bring shoes that will get wet, water shoes if possible. You have the cross the river like 30 times in 5 miles. There are also many fallen trees, so be prepared. The next day I headed up towards panther creek. NEVER trust yourself. As of May 2024: As you go UP the canyon, there are green blazers on the trees. Follow these (about 1 mile ip, the wagon road will curve left and many people have gone down it. STAY RIGHT.) When you reach the top of the falls, the land is flat and wide, and it will be hard to find the trail. Follow any path here, and you will find that the trail is down about 7 minutes, towards the LEFT and the trees had orange tape around them. The trees then are marked with white blazers. Follow this trail up and you hit East Cowpen. I used this to loop back to my car which was at Betty’s Gap on Three Forks Road (FS 64). Not for the faint of heart. Much easier to do a long hard arduous day trip than to backpack over all the fallen trees! Be prepared for dense foliage after April. Certainly easier in the fall/winter!

I am all about some waterside camping spots, especially when the river is touted for having some unique wildlife sighting opportunities! I was disappointed in the camping situation when we visited though. I wanted to scope out the sights since we live nearby. All the sights are along the clay forest service road leading to the swimming hole and pretty close to one another. It was wet when we visited so the sights were very muddy. Looked like a lot of locals hole up there on the weekends. Toilet at parking area was very dirty neglected. Road is rough. Swimming is great though! A little more shallow than I expected for a snorkeling destination but felt great on a summer day.

Campground Review:

This was my first time checking out the Cohutta Wilderness and I was really excited to do some backpacking since it was only 3.5 hours from Birmingham, had several 20-30 mile loop options, and had great reviews online. We started at the Rice Camp parking lot which is about 15 min down a gravel road that you get to after turning off another gravel road. Right away you feel you have reached a wilderness area and aren’t gonna run into anyone who isn’t backpacking or hunting. Leaving the parking area we headed down the Hickory Creek Trail which starts as a wide horse trail but starts to narrow significantly after a mile or so. You pass along and over many small creeks that are probably rainfall fed so they were all nice and full since it had rained for several days before we got on the trail. As you go along the trail you see many small and large campground options that I have reviewed separately. While hiking in we noticed that there were a lot of burnt trees and dead bushes along the trail but overall things were pretty cleared up. However, after 3 miles we came across a group of people with tools and learned that they were the reason the trail was so clear up to that point. Back in October 2016 there was a fire in the area followed by several storms that took down a bunch of trees and blocked the trail. After passing their work area we became very aware of how valuable their work was. Our pace slowed significantly and we found ourselves constantly climbing over and under branches and even losing the trail several times. 

Eventually we made it to the intersection with the Conasauga River and rolled up our pants to cross the river (it came up to around our knees). There are several large group campsites at this point that I review here. Our plan was to hop onto the Consauga River trail for the short connection to the Panther Creek trail and hike for about 2-3 miles before setting up camp. The next day we were going to hike up East Cowpen then Hickory Ridge to reach Jack’s River and spend our second night there when hike out on Rice Camp Trail our last day. If you can’t tell from my wording this did not actually happen. While going up Panther Creek we lost the trail several times and it started getting dark so we made a decision to not risk it and head back to a nice campground we had seen earlier. This put us for the night at Conasauga River Campground which was a great decision!

This campground is right on the river which means easy access for water and washing up after a long day of hiking. It is also a more secluded and private spot then some of the other campgrounds that you pass earlier on the trail. We really enjoyed hearing the babbling of the water as we fell asleep. There is also a nice fire pit setup with a flat stone placed for sitting or cooking on. Finally, one of the most important things is that the tent spot is very flat and there are no rocks underneath so you will be sure to get a good nights sleep. 

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Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products. At this campground, I tested the Klymit Static V2 Sleeping Pad. We do a lot of backpacking and have been focusing on cutting our weight down recently so trying out this pad out on our recent trip was a perfect fit. Some of the things my wife and I really loved about the Klymit pad are:

1. Weight/Size: There are a lot of sleeping pads out on the market from self inflating models to basic foam pads. This pad though is designed for backpacking and provides significant comfort while still remaining very lightweight. The 1 lb small packed pad fit easily inside our packs and was a significant improvement from our previous several pound self inflating pads. Another comment about the size is that the bag provided is large enough that you wont struggle to reroll the pad and get it back in the bag. 
2. Comfort: When you get used to sleeping on super padded self inflating pads its hard to imagine a thin blow up pad like the Static V2 will be nearly as comfortable but Klymit proved me very wrong. This was one of the most comfortable pads I have ever slept on. You can honestly lie on the pad on either your back or side without worrying about feeling the ground beneath you and the cushioning provided by the thick ridges was more than enough. The pad is designed in such a way to cradle your body in the center of the pad and spread out the pressure points.
3. Quick Inflation: One issue I have had with previous blow up camping pads is that they take FOREVER to inflate and I am exhausted after just blowing up a single pad up. It was a totally different story with the Klymit pad. It only took around 10-15 breaths to inflate the whole pad and the design makes the air you put in it much more efficient. 

The only downside to the pad is that it has a lower R value and doesn’t provide as much insulation as other camping pads. However, this is not an issue at all for me since I do most of my camping in the southeastern US where it is never really cold enough to need a well insulated pad. My main concern is comfort on rocky or rooty terrain and this pad definitely fills that need.