After finishing up my adventures in northern Alabama I began the
Georgia Traverse which is a 390 miles trek through mostly mountainous areas of northern Georgia with occasional crossings into Tennessee and North Carolina. I took advantage of the optional loops and when finished, I recorded 463 miles traveled at 9.2 mpg and it took 29 hours. While researching this journey it seemed like approximately 1/3 of my time would be spent on pavement but that was untrue. My average speed off-road was around 10-12 mph while on pavement it was easily 50-60 mph. With that being said, maybe 4-5 hours out of the 29 was on pavement and that was intermittent.
This was one of several beautiful waterfalls in the
Cohutta Wilderness where I stopped to enjoy the sounds, smells, and cool breeze. just minutes after taking this picture I encountered the first of several black bear sightings.
Much of my time was spent in mountainous terrain so switch backs and shelf roads were endless. It was lush and green and a beautiful time of the year for this trail.
One of the unexpected benefits of traveling full time and not really having a schedule is that not only do I meet the most interesting people, but I can spend hours conversing with them. If you are near Suches, Georgia, stop by the
Skeenah Campground and Mill and say hello to Brian. This mill was built in the mid-1800s on Indian land and has so much history.
Although the mill is currently undergoing repairs before it is reopened for tours Brian was kind enough to show me some of the work that is underway. Being able to see and touch tooling that was manufactured so long ago, that was driven by large belts, that were themselves driven by a water wheel - just so cool! And they have dozens of beautiful spots to camp right next to the river. I will be back for sure.
You will spend much time in the
Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest which is 867,000 acres, has thousands of miles of beautiful streams, and hundreds of miles of trails. I know that many adventurers who were born east of the Mississippi rush out west to explore and I fully understand why but there are so many millions of acres to explore here in the east. When I am making plans to visit a state the first terms I search for are "national forest"and "state forest." There's just so much out there.
Here is the
Toccoa River Bridge which, at 270 feet, is the longest swinging bridge east of the Mississippi River. This is a hiking bridge and is really fun to cross since it swings left and right and up and down as you cross it. I love stumbling upon interesting things such as this and taking time to learn and enjoy them.
On this day I stopped early as I found a really nice camping area deep in the forest, enjoyed an early dinner, and read for a few hours. Of course, as the sun was going down I decided it was the perfect time to knock out a few more hours on the trail. This was around 2230 at one of the few gas stations along the route. Just in case you are curious, I only refuel at
Top Tier Fuel Stations. Anyway, this professional man rolls up in an immaculate Land Rover and there I am in the same clothes I have been wearing for three days, I had not showered in over a week, etc. Let's just say we stood outside in the cold and talked for nearly two hours. Again, I have met so many interesting people traveling full time and the really cool thing is I cross paths with some of them at different places in the future.
This is a stream crossing in the middle of the night in the eastern half of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest and provides an accurate representation of how tight and twisty some of the trails were. The folks that laid out the Georgia Traverse did a really fine job since it is a broad mixture of relatively normal forest service roads, water crossings, tighter trails, some pavement, some flat sections, and lots of mountains.
If you are planning to explore the Georgia Traverse I would suggest you have the ability to air down your tires since many of the trails are rough. It's not mandatory but it will smooth out the ride considerably. Also, I would carry at least one extra fuel tank since stations are generally far apart and usually 20-30 miles off the trail in some areas. When I am in an unfamiliar location off road I generally begin looking for fuel at 1/2 tank while I continue the trail. If I have not come across fuel and I hit 1/4 tank I immediately shift and finding fuel becomes my primary objective. Having additional fuel available is nice but generally is not part of my calculations - that fuel is for an emergency. Another nice feature of this trail is all of the water crossings were around one foot deep and had level rocky bottoms. The water was clear also so it was easy to read the conditions. I still recommend and practice getting out and walking across the ascertain the conditions first hand.
Sitting on a mountain top with the windows down and listening to some Led Zeppelin. "I ain't tellin' no lie, mine's a tale that can't be told. My freedom I hold dear. How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air...
I guess I keep on rambling, I'm gonna, yeah, yeah, yeah..."
