Tuesday, August 6, 2013

North Georgia Adventure

We just got back from a wonderfully relaxing trip to Ellijay (in the North Georgia Mountains).
 

::aaahhh::  


It was a beautiful weekend, and surprisingly cool for Georgia in August.

This is where we stayed:



It was perched at the top of a ridge looking down into the valley below.  Although there were plenty of other cabins nearby, you couldn't see or hear anyone else at all. 

We went hiking on the Benton Mackaye Trail on Friday - the first good hike we've gotten since last fall.  (How quickly the time flies!)


And just to prove that we were actually there, here we are at Fall Branch Falls.



The falls weren't far from the trailhead, but we hiked on past them for about 5 miles, so all told it was around a 10 mile there-and-back hike from the Fall Branch Trailhead to Scoggin's Knob... with a 1800' elevation change in the process.  (Oh, my aching calves!!)


We saw an Ent looming over the trail - he didn't introduce himself, but I'm convinced it was a relative of Quickbeam.


Lots of beautiful mountain views, too.  I'm sure in the winter the vistas are even more gorgeous!

 And then we came across... this.


 We suspect gnomes.

And I have to give props to our little Ford Focus - it really was a trooper!  Our cabin - and the trailhead - were both deep in the woods on several miles of forest-service roads.  Like this:




No, that's not the trail.  That's the ROAD!  The road up the mountain to our cabin was even more alarming, very steep and gravelly and narrow.  Thank goodness we didn't meet any SUVs coming up or down!

We ate dinner in Cherry Log (that's the town, not the restaurant) at a place called the Pink Pig.  And we headed up to Blue Ridge to Mercier Orchards, where we picked up a bag of early apples and some fried apple pies.  YUM!

All in all it was a most excellent adventure - I read several books on the porch swing, the philosopher got some writing done, and we didn't answer the phone or check email at all!  So now, I suppose, I should go check that email and listen to voicemail and get on with the rest of my week!






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