Ellijay Mountain Bike Trails: What the Cartecay Rebuild Means

If you rode the Red and White Loop at Rich Mountain WMA this summer, you probably noticed the trail status flip to caution in late July. Trailforks logged it on July 27, 2026, the same kind of alert that usually means a downed tree or a washed-out crossing. This one means something different. It means crews are already on the ground, and the oldest mountain bike trail system in Georgia is in the middle of the biggest rebuild it has seen in ten years.

Most people who ride Cartecay Tract regularly will read a headline about "new trail funding" and assume it means a ribbon-cutting somewhere they haven't been yet. That's not what's happening. The money landed on the loops locals already know by name, and it arrived from outside the county entirely.

Why the Trails Started Showing Their Age

Gilmer County has carried the "Mountain Bike Capital of Georgia" label for years, and it earned it honestly. The River Loop along the Cartecay River is often cited as the oldest built mountain bike trail in the state, and Bear Creek and the Pinhoti segments have drawn riders from across the Southeast for decades. But Singletracks, a mountain bike industry outlet, reported earlier this year that Ellijay has long been renowned as one of the best MTB destinations in Georgia, but very few modern trails have been built in the area in recent years.

That's a difference regular riders can feel on the bike. The Red and White Loop at the Cartecay Tract, sometimes called the Boy Scout Loop, is largely old forest road that has reverted to singletrack over time. It works. It's also not what a newly built flow trail or backcountry loop looks like anywhere else in the region right now. The trail system that put Ellijay on the map hadn't been meaningfully rebuilt in years, even as other North Georgia destinations kept adding modern mileage.

The Grant Came From an Atlanta Foundation

The fix didn't come from a Gilmer County parks budget or a local tourism grant. It came from the Chestnut Family Foundation, funded by proceeds from the sale of Mailchimp, and it's being built by MTB Atlanta, a trail organization based in the metro area. In January 2026, MTB Atlanta received a $1.26 million grant to construct 25 miles of new singletrack across four trail systems statewide, stretching from Chattahoochee Bend State Park near Atlanta down to Pyne Road Park at West Point Lake, with the Ellijay area getting the largest single share.

There's a detail in that arrangement worth sitting with. MTB Atlanta signed a memorandum of understanding with the North Georgia Mountain Bike Association, the actual local club that has maintained these trails for years, specifically to share resources and help keep their board alive. The organization that knows Cartecay Tract and Woodring Branch best needed outside help to keep functioning, and outside help is exactly what showed up. This isn't a story about a wealthy donor discovering Ellijay. It's a story about a local trail club that was stretched thin getting an infusion of money and labor it couldn't have raised on its own.

The build is happening in phases over an estimated year and a half from the January announcement, which puts full completion somewhere around mid to late 2027. The Ellijay-area work, phase two of three, is where the largest chunk of new mileage lands.

As Singletracks reported, the president of the North Georgia Mountain Bike Association, who also works with MTB Atlanta on the build, called this the most significant trail build in the last ten years for the area. That's not marketing language from a press release; it's the assessment of someone who has worked on the build and knows the area's trail history firsthand.

The Picture Is Bigger Than One Grant

The Chestnut Family Foundation money isn't the only thing moving. NGMBA's own project listings, separate from the MTB Atlanta grant, show additional work already in motion: flow and downhill trail development at Ridgeway, beginner and family-friendly trail building at the Talking Rock Nature Preserve, and an 8.5-mile expansion planned for the Aska Trail System. None of that is funded by the same $1.26 million grant. It's happening in parallel, which means the total mileage change hitting Ellijay-area trail systems this year and next is larger than any single funding announcement captures.

For a rider who's used to a fixed roster of loops, that's the real shift. The trail network isn't static anymore in the way it has been for most of the last decade.

What You'll Actually See This Season

None of this means fresh, finished singletrack is ready to ride tomorrow. A year-and-a-half build timeline that started in January 2026 means active construction, not a grand opening, through most of this riding season and into next year. What you'll notice in the meantime is closer to what already showed up on Trailforks: caution status at Rich Mountain WMA logged July 27, 2026. Expect more of the same at that trailhead as crews keep working, along with possible detours or partial trail closures near Woodring Branch as the new flow trail and backcountry loop take shape.

If you're riding Cartecay Tract or Woodring Branch this fall, a few practical things are worth knowing before you go:

• Check the Ellijay region status page on Trailforks before you head out, since caution flags at active build sites can change week to week
• Expect the Red and White Loop area to look different from how you remember it once the rework is finished, since the existing tread is largely old forest road being upgraded rather than a brand-new alignment
• The new mileage at Woodring Branch, the 2.3-mile flow trail and the 8-mile backcountry loop, is being built as additions to the existing Amadahy Trail rather than standalone trailheads, so the parking and access points you already use should still apply
• If you ride Aska or pass through Talking Rock Nature Preserve, know that expansion work there is a separate project from the state grant, run through NGMBA's own trail list

None of this changes what makes Ellijay worth riding on a Tuesday afternoon. It changes what you'll find when you get there over the next year, and it's worth knowing the difference between a caution flag that means a downed limb and one that means your trail system is finally getting the rebuild it's been due for a decade.

If you're weighing a move to a town where the local mountain bike club just got a lifeline and 25 miles of new singletrack are going into the ground around it, Char Stacy can talk you through what daily life in Ellijay actually looks like, trails included.