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Georgia - Appalachian Trail

David Aaronson
2005-09-26 15:57:46

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the trail (6). The section from Hogpen to Unicoi was our largest yet (in one day). It's a fairly easy hike although we had a delay due to a stubborn rattlesnake in the trail, and another delay due to heavy rains. This is approximately the 50 mile mark of the trail.

After this section we camped at Jenny's Creek Campground which is not too far away in the vicinity of Helen. It's a family-oriented sort of place but it was comfortable enough. We also went into Helen one evening for dinner. Helen is a melodramatic mountain town that has relocated itself to the Alps. We think the town planners who decided to do this hadn't actually been to the Alps, but it's an interesting result either way. If you can avoid the hordes of people who have nothing better to do than hang out here on weekends, there seem to be some decent restaurants.

In July of 2002 we returned to cover the Tray Mountain area. We hiked to Tray Gap and then camped just off a dirt road nearby. The area is called the Cheese Factory and has several nice campsites. Don't expect to find a cheese factory though, apparently there was one here once but there are no traces of it now.

The next day we screwed up our shuttle logistics which had to be fairly accurate, as the section from Tray Mountain to Dicks Creek Gap is 12 miles long and difficult. We decided to scrap our hiking plans and spent the day in Tallulah Gorge instead. This is not to be confused with the state park of the same name farther down the river. The upper section of the river is located just east of the Appalachian Trail and just south of the North Carolina border. A small paved road leads into the area and continues as a dirt road farther on. The campsites here are beautiful in heavy forest along the river. We hiked up the river (as in, right up the middle of it) for as long as we could manage. The water was cold and the rocks were slippery but there are several good swimming holes and dozens of small waterfalls.

We returned the next day to cover the rest of the Appalachian Trail to Dicks Creek Gap and the last road in Georgia. We came across a rather large wild boar at one point but otherwise we didn't see much wildlife. This happened to be a very hot day and our water supplies ran low enough that we had to consider filtering at springs along the way. (We always carry filtration equipment but rarely use it on day hikes). This section includes a mountain called Kelly Knob which we had been warned about. It is a brutal climb, steep and fairly long. By the time we reached the top of this we were all tired, even Trout. Trout injured a paw near the very end of this hike so we had to save the last 8 miles of Georgia to another weekend.

Well here it is, 8 miles further up the trail this rather unassuming tree has a wooden plaque on it that you can't really read in this picture but it says Georgia - North Carolina state line (7). There's a nice picnic area just a bit farther up the trail.

There may be a barely legible plaque these days, but historically speaking, hikers know they're in North Carolina when they get to the tree. This is, the tree (8). As you can see it is fairly recognizeable as a tree. I must admit I was unsure at first how we would really know we were there but then it grows directly in the middle of the trail and well, it is fairly distinctive. This is technically about 0.1 miles into North Carolina but it's a better landmark so this where we end the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail.