A gap is a low point on a ridge, and Unicoi Gap is one of the notable ones on the Georgia Blue Ridge. It carries State Route 75 over the crest between Helen and Hiawassee, and it is also where the Appalachian Trail crosses the road, so a pull-off and a trailhead sit at the top, and during the hiking season you will see boots, backpacks and sunburnt faces. The name is thought to come from a Cherokee word for white, or perhaps for fog, and the fog is certainly present on many mornings, rolling up out of the valleys and pooling at the gap.
The route over it is old. Before it was a modern highway, it was part of the Unicoi Turnpike, a Cherokee trading path that linked the settlements of the Georgia and Carolina valleys with those across the mountains in Tennessee, and in the early nineteenth century it was improved as a road for wagons and drovers. Traders, armies, missionaries and, in the late 1830s, the Cherokee marched on the Trail of Tears all passed through country like this. There is something sobering about riding a road that has carried so much history, and at the gap there is a wide view over the forested ridges that should give you a moment of quiet.
The riding is good. On the Helen side, the road climbs steadily out of the Chattahoochee valley through hardwood forest, with bends tightening toward the top and a surface that is mostly clean and well kept. On the other side, it drops through more forest before opening out into the farmland around Hiawassee. At the gap itself, the air is noticeably cooler than in the valleys, and a clear, windy day can feel several degrees colder than the thermometer in town. Autumn colour here peaks in mid-October, and the road is crowded then.
There are no services at the gap, so arrive with what you need. Helen, a Bavarian-style village with a lot of tourist attractions, is the nearest place with fuel on one side, and Hiawassee, about eighteen kilometres on the other, serves as the base for the lake. Early morning in October, with fog filling the valleys below and the ridge tops catching the first sun, is as good as the southern mountains get.