So… Think You’re Ready for the TNGA?

Note: this story is still under development… needs a few pictures, details on resupply, a few more links, etc.

The TNGA is a 360-ish mile bikepacking route across the mountains of North Georgia. This isn’t an article about the TNGA route itself. That is documented elsewhere (see references). Instead, this is my experience and observations about what it takes to be ready — physically and mentally — to ride the route.

This what I wish I knew before attempting the route. This article will apply not only to the TNGA, but to many similar efforts as well.

I was fortunate that Mulberry Gap Adventure Basecamp offered shuttles to pre-ride of the entire 360-ish mile route over three weekends. Each ride was about 1/3 of the total route — from Russell Bridge to Unicoi SP (95 miles), Unicoi to Mulberry Gap (115 miles), and Mulberry Gap to the finish line (140 miles). This allowed me recover, restock, and repair my gear between sections.

I rode the route before I was ready, and wished I had waited another year before attempting it. Without riding the shorter segments, I would not have finished.

The Environment

A vast majority of the route is remote. You’re unlikely to encounter many people, though those who you do encounter will (mostly!) be very friendly and supportive. You will be among the trees and the beasts, mostly alone. If you don’t like talking to yourself or don’t have a very dedicated riding partner, this is probably not for you.

North Georgia in August is hot, even in the mountains. Temperatures will likely be at or above 90 degrees F, and humidity will be high.

You will be wet. There are the obligatory creek crossings, none of which are deep, but they are sufficient to keep your shoes wet for the duration of your ride. The heat and humidity will ensure that your cycling clothes are soaked before you get off of Russell Bridge. You will get rained on during the day, and the humidity overnight will approach 100% so your clothing and gear will not dry.

There is simply no opportunity to dry out. Being wet for a long period of time causes all sorts of interesting problems.

I am one who is unable to function without a few hours of sleep, so I took to the habit of washing my riding clothes with clean (filtered) water each evening and letting them dry as best I could overnight. This helps to remove the salt and grit which accumulates during the day, and your clothes will be no wetter in the morning when you have to put them back on. Of course, this assumes that you have a second set of clothes to wear while your riding clothes are being cleaned.

Composition of the Route

Road composition varies considerably. Most of the route is gravel, but “gravel” has a number of incarnations. It can vary from smooth (almost paved), to loose pea-sized gravel, to riding on an inch or two of railroad rocks. You will lose traction on the gravel surfaces during climbs, and the loose rock will slow your descents.

There is a lot of pavement, especially in the section between Unicoi SP and Cherry Log. This is fortunate, because two of the longest climbs (Hog Pen and Wolf Pen) are both paved.

There is a lesser amount of singletrack, but what is included can border on sadistic. You can expect to experience overgrown, slick, rooty, rocky, steep, and a variety of other adjectives used to describe technical trails. These adjectives will often occur in combination. Aside from the recently renovated Bear Creek, these are not “flow” trails.

The USFS standards specify a 10% max grade for gravel roads, but short sections and sections where no alternative exist can approach 15%. There are a lot of 10–12% gravel grades on the TNGA route. This brings us to our next topic…

Watts — how much is enough?

If you don’t ride 10+ percent gravel grades on a regular basis (like a few times a week!), use a cycling power calculator, like the one at https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/cycling-wattage. When I started, I weighed 192 lbs, my bike plus gear (including a full load of food and water) was between 46 and 48 lbs. The calculator tells me that to move up a 10% grade at 5 miles per hour would require that I produce between 240 (smooth gravel) and 280 (rougher surfaces) watts.

TNGA climbs are long, and it seems that the 10% standard is liberally applied — most of them exceed 10% more often than not. Increasing the grade from 10% to 12% increases the power required to sustain the same speed by 20%. Let that sink in for a moment.

Road cyclists use the “Functional Threshold Power” (FTP) measure as the amount of power they can produce over an extended period of time. Riding at 80% of your FTP seems a comfortable spot for most cyclists, and allows some opportunity for recovery. My FTP when I started was a hair south of 250 watts.

To ride at 80% of my FTP would require that I had an FTP in the range of 300–350 watts. Whoa! Needless to say, I did a fair amount of walking up most of the climbs. My rule of thumb was that when I was unable to maintain 4 mph, I would walk. This did a lot to spread the work across different muscles in my legs, and only imposed a minor penalty in time.

Gear

Gear selection will be critical to your success. Too much gear will increase weight (increasing power requirements) and the time it takes to complete (environmental exposure). Too little gear will likely result in a DNF.

I had the benefit of having backpacked for 25 years prior to my attempt, so I already owned quality gear and had an idea of what I needed.

Backpackers discuss their gear weight using either dry or wet. Dry weight does not include food or water. My wet weight on the first of the three segments was almost 29 lbs. I was able to decrease this by 8 lbs on the second and third segments, and I cannot stress what a difference this made enough. If an item is not critical to survival or safety, leave it at home. The items which are critical need to be multi-functional and/or as lightweight as possible.

For my sleep system, I carried a hammock with rainfly. For insulation, I wrapped a mylar emergency blanket around the outside. While the rainfly was not strictly necessary, I watched a companion get rained on for more than two hours one night, and my rainfly was only 9 oz. This also allowed me to keep much of my gear dry, which ultimately saved weight. Some people prefer to carry an emergency bivy and sleep under a tree or on a picnic table. To each their own!

On my first segment, I had planned to do hot breakfasts (oatmeal, coffee) and dinners (dehydrated chili). After being on the bike for 12 hours a day, I found that I had little interest in cooking. In the mornings, I simply wanted to be packed and on the move again. I left the stove home on the second and third segments (a major source of weight savings!) and adapted my menu for uncooked food (meal bars, etc). This wasn’t pleasant, but I was able to pick up fresh food at a few of the resupply points to compensate.

I kept my electronics to a minimum: the bike computer, my cell phone, a satellite communicator, required bike lights (front and rear), and a small headlamp. These were each rechargeable, so I carried a medium-sized charging block and short (6-inch) USB cables.

The only “luxury” items I carried were a dry change of clothes and a dry pair of sandals. These were kept in my dry bag, and I would put them on each evening so that I could dry out for a few hours. These went a long way in preventing problems like severe blisters and provided a massive morale boost.

There were a few miscellaneous items in my bag as well: a water filter, cord for bear bagging my food, a trowel and toilet paper, first aid kit, bike tools, an emergency tube, and a pump. I carried my water and rations for the current day in a medium-sized (2L) CamelBak.

Resupply

There are a few spots to resupply along the route, so I’ll list them here with approximate mileage and options available:

• Dillard. This is about 20 miles in and just slightly off route, so most riders skip it. Hotels and grocery stores are available.
• near Helen, just past Unicoi State Park, you will find Woody’s Bike Shop, a small restaurant, and a grocery. Riding into Helen, less than a mile off route, opens more options.
• Cooper’s Creek Store. A grocery store and (small) restaurant/deli. Offers camping staples and fresh food.
• Iron Bridge Cafe. A restaurant and camp store.
• Mulberry Gap. Offers showers, a place to sleep, a camp store for resupply, and options for a hot meal.
• Dalton. This is a medium-sized town, and you’ll ride right through it. Lots of options.
• Cave Spring. A small town, but offers gas and grocery stores. Very near the finish, but it’s an option!

Keep in mind that many of these locations are not available 24 hours a day. Some have special hours during the TNGA, so it is best to call ahead.

Navigation.

A quality cycling computer with GPS is almost a requirement. While you can get the cue cards online with turn-by-turn directions, there are nearly 300 turns along the route. Many are not obvious.

I used a Whaoo Bolt, but used Komoot to enhance the GPX route so that I would get notifications about 200 yards ahead of each turn.

It is not uncommon for a GPS to run out of battery or otherwise fail when you’re using it 12+ hours per day. As a backup, Ride With GPS installed on a cellphone or a small handheld GPS unit (such as Garmin eTrex) are popular options. I decided to go old-school and carried paper maps (National Geographic #777 and #778) and a compass. These came in very handy when planning where to stop for water.

Resources

I’ll list some resources I found valuable below.

• The TNGA Facebook Group. Access to others who have experienced the route, cue cards, related events, near real-time trail status updates, etc.
• The TNGA Route page on bikepacking.com. You can get the GPX file, view a gallery of pictures, and work with an interactive map. Bikepacking.com also has tons of gear reviews.
• Mulberry Gap Adventure Basecamp. The friendly folks at Mulberry Gap support the riding community and serve as a neutral support site a short distance off route. They provided shuttle service allowing the route to be ridden in segments in 2022.
• Ride to Extraordinary, a documentary recorded during the 2018 TNGA event. I’ve watched this several times now…
• Sites such as VeloViewer, Track Profiler, and GPS Visualizer were helpful in editing and analyzing sections of the route. I was able to produce elevation profiles and other useful graphics.