Bear Creek Trail 12-12-15

• Distance- long (7 miles)
• Terrain- easy
• Location- Ellijay (Gilmer County)

(You'll notice my handy new rating system at the top)

We had a lot to do last Saturday morning (hooray emissions testing and vehicle registration renewals) so we decided to just go up to Ellijay since it's an easy drive. Bear Creek Trail is just a little ways outside of the town square and a scenic drive along a country road. The parking area is on a forest service road and it is about a two mile drive on gravel from the main road. We had no issues, but it looks like if it's been raining there are probably a lot of potholes.

We did the 7 mile loop from the main parking area. Supposedly there is another parking area at a higher elevation with a good view of the mountains but I could not find directions to that one. Beginning at the higher elevation adds a few miles as well. There is also a designated camping area with it's own parking lot before you reach the main parking area.

I would recommend starting at the trail directly behind the large map/sign in the parking area. There is a smaller sign off to the side of the parking area that reads "Bear Creek Loop" but if you start here, you will have a significant incline for about 2 miles at the very beginning of the trail. 

About a mile in, you arrive at the Gennett Poplar, which is the second oldest tree in GA (the oldest is in Thomasville, in case you wanted to know). There is a nice area to sit near the water, have a picnic etc behind the tree. There are lots of carvings on the tree, including a really cute paw print! At some point after this, there is a crossing with the Pinhoti trail.

The trail has mile markers, which is very convenient, and the scenery seems to change with each mile. The first few miles requires crossing several small streams, some of which require wading. Around mile two, you leave the streams and go up into a patch of small fir trees and continue into a more forested area. There are some decent mountain views but this is a very dense forest with little clearing.

Around mile 3-4 you come back along side the stream and then deviate away from the water again for a while. The last few miles catch up to the stream again and are steeply downhill. The trail ends along the water, across from the parking area, and you have to wade across to get back to your car. 

It was about 70 degrees out, so we took our shoes off, but the water was still pretty cold. Tennille played in the water a little bit and had fun but poor Nova fell in and was miserable. I don't think she forgave me the whole ride home!

  

I love hiking near water and enjoyed relaxing on the bank of the creek at the end of the hike. We found some very interesting rocks (didn't take any!) and I built a cairn.

I really liked the Bear Creek trail. Most of the trail was very wide and easy to maneuver, which is good because there were a lot of mountain bikers. It took us a leisurely 3 hours-ish but because much of the trail is so flat, it could probably be done much more quickly, if you're in a hurry. Not that you should be. I do not recommend hiking in a hurry. What's the point?

Cloudland Canyon Day Trip 10-24-15

Cloudland Canyon State Park does not have a 4000+ peak but it is probably the most beautiful place I have been in Georgia. The last time we took a hike specifically to look at fall foliage was for my birthday in 2011. We went to Amicalola Falls and unfortunately, the foliage really wasn't that great that year. 

Cloudland Canyon, however, was stunning. We were seriously stopping every 2 minutes to take pictures and just enjoy the scenery. The dogs had a wonderful time also. They may have short legs but had absolutely no problem keeping up. 

Cloudland Canyon is about a 2 hour drive northwest from where we live in the north metro of Atlanta. It is not difficult to reach from 1-75. The bulk of the non-highway driving is on SR-136, which goes through the Chattahoochee National Forest and passes other hiking areas such as a Pinhoti Trail stop and Johns Mountain Wildlife Management area. It is a scenic drive with many farms, pastures, etc. 

The park was very crowded this weekend, because it is reportedly the peak weekend for fall foliage in north Georgia. There are several trail options and the Cloudland Canyon website clearly lines these out. We did the waterfalls trail first, which is only 2 miles long, but has thousands of stair steps. While the views of the waterfalls were lovely, I would not recommend this trail for dogs. The stairs are open metal grate type material and little Nova could not even walk on them due to her feet slipping through. Therefore, I carried her up and down. She only weighs ~8 lbs but it was not very fun for either of us. Tennille could handle the steps but was hesitant and we had to coax her up and down, with many stops along the way. It seemed most of the visitors wanted to do the waterfalls trail, so the steps were crowded with people going in both   directions. Not good to have dogs underfoot....

               

After the waterfalls trail, we went on to the West Rim Loop Trail, which is about 5 miles long, and provided the best views of the surrounding scenery. This trail features large, rocky outcroppings with many observation areas, panoramic views of the canyon cliff faces covered in various color leaves, a stretch of peaceful, relatively flat woodlands, and several hike in campsites. It is not a strenuous trail and has very little incline. The dogs had a blast on this trail and Nova literally bounced over all the roots and rocks. There was not a lot of traffic on this trail at all, especially the second half once we looped around.

         

These are just a fraction of the photos I took. It was hard to choose which ones were best, considering each and every tree had such unique colors. The weather also varied quite a bit throughout the afternoon which changed the ways things looked. It started out cloudy but then rained a bit and humidity rose, causing some haze over the mountains. Once the rain cleared up, the sun came out but by then was around 5 pm. Regardless, the changing sunlight created many different "filters" on the leaves and rock. 

In summary, our visit to Cloudland Canyon was a fantastic day trip. Honestly, we got a pretty late start and did not actually begin hiking until about 2 pm. We started the West Rim trail at about 4 pm, so even if you only have a few hours to spare, a hike around Cloudland Canyon is within reach. We got back to the parking area around 6:30 pm with daylight to spare. We did 7 miles total, with many stops for pictures and doggy water breaks. We easily could have spent the whole day or even the night here, but we do have other obligations today. Our niece is being baptized and and sadly, I have some work to do. But there is always next weekend...