Today was a good day. Exhausting, but good. Our first Excellent Adventure of the day was a hike to the base of the Amicacola Falls, one mile (each way), and included 175 stair steps (each way). We started off from the Reflection Pool and followed the tumbling creek (Amicacola is a Cherokee Indian word for "tumbling waters") all along this route.
The entire hike was so beautiful that we just kept taking pictures.
We reached the steps. Actually, the stairs were easier than the uphill trail.
Almost to the top!
We reached the top. The view here was absolutely breath-taking. I love waterfalls, and this one was magnificent.
Our selfie.
I said NO to the next 425 steps! As the sunlight changed over the top of the falls, the colors changed too, and you could see and feel the mist in the air from the crashing water.
Joe got this camo pak as a Christmas present from Tiffany and Eric, and this was his first chance to use it. He was happy to have it for today's hiking.
Finally, we headed back down the stairs, which was a little easier. We came across Zach's name carved in the wood rail, so we thought Rick and Lori would be interested to know -- maybe he's not really in California!
We were happy to see the end of the trail, and Joe found a rock to rest on. We had made it down!
Then he comes up with this great idea that we should hike to the Southern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail, on Springer Mountain, which is about a 45 minute drive, plus another strenuous mile hike, from here. We stopped back by the campsite to get the GPS, then off we went on our second Excellent Adventure of the day. We had gotten a map and instructions at the lodge last night, so we had directions, and the last 6.5 miles was a Forest Service road (dirt), so Joe got very excited about that (since there is never a dirt side road that doesn't have his name on it, even if his name has to be "Authorized Personnel"). But once we got to the parking lot, we had a hard time figuring out which way to go. Finally, a couple of hikers showed up and got us started in the right direction. One way out of the parking lot is the 0.9 mile hike to the Terminus, and the other trail out of the opposite side of the parking lot is the rest of the 2,159 mile TRAIL (we did not want to get on the wrong trail here). The concept of establishing a trail (2,160-miles) from here in Georgia all the way to Mt. Katahdin, Maine, and thinking people would hike it, boggles the mind. And this trail is no picnic in the park -- it is very rocky, the part we were on was almost all uphill, sometimes a little muddy, sometimes pretty narrow. And people actually attempt to hike the entire trail. Amazing! People are nuts.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the A.T., is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.[1] The trail is approximately 2,200 miles (3,500 km)[a] long, though the precise length changes over time as parts are modified or rerouted. The trail passes through the states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The path is maintained by 31 trail clubs and multiple partnerships,[2] and managed by the National Park Service and the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy.[3][4] The majority of the trail is in forest or wild lands, although some portions traverse towns, roads and farms.
The Appalachian Trail is famous for its many hikers, some of whom, called thru-hikers,
attempt to hike it in its entirety in a single season. Others have
managed to perform a "round-trip" of the trail where they thru-hike from
one end to the other and then turn around to thru-hike the trail the
other way, otherwise known as a "yo-yo." Many books, memoirs, web sites
and fan organizations are dedicated to these pursuits.
And here's some of the history of its beginning:
The trail was conceived by Benton MacKaye,
a forester who wrote his original plan shortly after the death of his
wife in 1921. MacKaye's idea detailed a grand trail that would connect a
series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers. In
1922, at the suggestion of Major William A. Welch, director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, his idea was publicized by Raymond H. Torrey with a story in the New York Evening Post under a full-page banner headline reading "A Great Trail from Maine to Georgia!". The idea was quickly adopted by the new Palisades Interstate Park Trail Conference as their main project.
On October 7, 1923, the first section of the trail, from Bear Mountain west through Harriman State Park to Arden, New York,
was opened. MacKaye then called for a two-day Appalachian Trail
conference to be held in March 1925 in Washington, D.C. This resulted in
the formation of the Appalachian Trail Conference (now called the Appalachian Trail Conservancy).[7]
I'm sure they will be rewriting its history now to include the information that the Froeschkes' hiked the first mile of it.
Anyhow, Joe's ready to go.
We will be watching for these white hash marks to let us know we are on the Trail.
Joe's ready. Me, I'm not so sure.
But off we go. The trail started out downhill but quickly changed into an uphill grind. It took us about 45 minutes, I think. It seemed like a long mile!
We had frequent rest stops.
But we finally made it TO THE TOP!!!
In the side of the big rock, there is a drawer with a book for visitors to sign, so I added our name to that. It felt like geocaching a little bit. But there were no little surprises in it, and the book was full. Someone had added a single sheet so there was room to add our names.
We didn't see any wildlife up here, or on the trail. I did have an interesting big-eyed bug land on my neck that I could have done without. I must have stunned him when I knocked him off because he didn't move again.
We didn't take any pictures on the way back down, we just kept looking for the parking lot. And was it ever a welcome sight when it finally came into view. I kept hoping for a bus, but none ever appeared. My plan had been that I would make spaghetti for dinner tonight, but once I sat down in the car, I did not see cooking and washing dishes in my future tonight, so we drove over to the next town, East Ellijay, and found a nice Mexican restaurant to feed us. On the way we passed a wood carving shop that had a couple bears I liked -- I especially liked the black one laying down, but my picture doesn't do it justice. There was a guy there just leaving (presumably the owner/carver) and I didn't want to give him false hopes so we didn't hang around -- we just pulled the car off the road and I snapped the picture.
I was really ready to be back at the RV, but Joe had seen a sign in the park about a church down a side road, so he thought we should check it out. It turned out to be a 2-mile dirt road (he loved it) that went on and on, and because it took so long, he was really determined to find it. I can't imagine people driving this narrow gravel road every week to go to church, but it appears to still be in use. It was pretty, with a pretty cemetery beside it. However, some of the graves were flying rebel flags and the gravestones said the person was born in the 1800s, so they probably did fight in the Civil War.
Finally, finally, we got back to camp. I must have rested some because I decided to do a load of laundry since the laundry (1 washer, 1 dryer) was only about 300 feet from our campsite. So while I did that, Joe took a couple pictures of our campsite from a different viewpoint. I was thinking there was plenty of room on that patio for a hot tub, and I could use one tonight!
So now it's past 10:30, I've already taken some Ibuprofen, and I'm putting this exhausted body to bed. We didn't drive any RV miles today, but hiking 4 miles was quite a feat!
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