Mountain Biking at Unicoi: A Complete Trail Guide

Unicoi State Park is best known for its lake and its lodge, but it also has something riders keep quiet about: mountain bike trails built for bikes only, ten minutes from a town where you can eat schnitzel afterward. It's a tidy ride, not a big-mileage destination, and that's part of the charm.

Riding at Unicoi

The park's bike trails are rated strenuous to moderate by Unicoi, and rider listings put the loop riding at roughly 7 to 8 miles with about 700 feet of climbing. The park doesn't publish an official mileage on its activities page, so ask for a trail map at the visitor center before you head out. Our Unicoi mountain bike trail guide has the longer breakdown.

A few things shape a ride here. The trails are bike-only, but hikers on the foot-traffic-only Unicoi/Helen Trail cross them, so slow down at crossings and call out on blind turns. The red clay turns slick after rain, so check conditions before you drive up on a wet week. And the park has no bike wash, so bring a jug of water and a rag if you'd like to keep the drivetrain clean on the way home.

If you've got non-riders along, the 2.5-mile Lake Trail around the 53-acre Unicoi Lake is an easy loop on foot, covered in our Lake Loop Trail page. The 4.8-mile Smith Creek Trail leads from the park toward Anna Ruby Falls (FIND Outdoors lists it at 4.6), and Anna Ruby Falls has its own entrance fee and rules, so check their page before you plan a loop that ends there.

Fees, hours and parking

Stay overnight and you only pay the daily fee once per stay. If you'd like to wake up next to the trail, the Unicoi Lodge and the park's Barrel Cabins are the closest beds.

Where to rent

Helen doesn't have a dedicated mountain bike rental shop that's widely listed, and the cruisers around town are the wrong tool for a root-and-clay trail. The nearest real option is Cartecay Bike Shop Brewery at 493 North Main Street in Ellijay (706-635-2453), which lists bike rentals, including e-bikes, along with a full-service shop. It's about an hour west, so call ahead for rates and availability. Its posted hours:

Also near Ellijay, Mulberry Gap Adventure Basecamp (706-698-2865) is a mountain bike lodging destination with 11 creekside cabins, 11 campsites, a bookable shuttle and direct access to the Pinhoti, Bear Creek, Windy Gap and Mountaintown Creek routes. It asks for a two-night minimum on weekends and holidays, and the site doesn't list rental details, so ask when you call.

Bigger networks within a drive

If Unicoi is your basecamp for a long weekend, save a day for a bigger system. Our North Georgia mountain biking overview covers them, and the Helen mountain biking directory lists more. The ones riders mention most:

• Aska Trails, near Blue Ridge. Purpose-built singletrack in the national forest, about 80 minutes from Helen. See our Blue Ridge day trip guide.
• Jake and Bull Mountain, near Dahlonega. A large network of interconnected trails south of Helen.
• The Ellijay area. Bear Creek and the Pinhoti Trail segments, with the Cartecay shop and Mulberry Gap as bases.

Mileages, difficulty and trailhead details vary by source, so check the Forest Service and a current trail app before you go. Treat any lap time or distance you read as approximate.

When to ride

Fall is the favorite. The air is cooler, the leaves are changing, and the trails are usually drier, though the Georgia Forestry Commission expects peak color in northeast Georgia around the end of October and the first of November this year (see our fall color guide). Spring is the second window. Summer riding is real but humid, so start early and carry more water than you think you need. Winter opens the views through bare trees.

Hunting season matters for any trail on national forest land, which includes the bigger networks above. State parks like Unicoi are generally off-limits to hunting, but national forest trails are not. Wear blaze orange in fall and winter and check the Georgia DNR hunting calendar. Black bears live in these mountains, so make noise on blind corners, and watch for copperheads on warm, rocky stretches in the warmer months. Keep in mind that cell service can drop out on remote trails.

After the ride

Helen is the payoff. Old Heidelberg (8660 N. Main St.), Hofbrauhaus (9001 N. Main St.), Bodensee (64 Munich Strasse) and Troll Tavern (8590 N. Main St.) are all in town, and you'll find schnitzel, sausage plates and pretzels at most of them. Our German restaurants guide has more detail. Hours change by season, so call ahead on weekdays.

After that, a soak in the Chattahoochee at the edge of downtown is a free way to rest your legs, if the water's not running high. Tubing season is over for most of the fall (outfitters may open on warm weekends), but the river is still there.