On the same day Gretchen and I explored Stovall Mill Covered Bridge, we drove up to where Forest Service 7 and Forest Service 86 roads (well... I'm not sure I'd call them roads...) intersect (not even a mile south of the North Carolina border) to check out the Holcomb Creek Trail in order to see Ammons Creek Falls & Holcomb Creek Falls. At the trailhead, we were greeted with a cool marker.
Of course, I should have heeded the "Difficult Trail" marker a bit more as on the way down (and the trail only goes down towards the first waterfall) Gretchen had a very tough slip. Her tenacity got the best of her and we soldiered on until we made it to a more exciting marker indicating we made it to the Holcomb Creek Waterfall.
That first picture with the fella on the right hand side of the lower rocks is there to try to give some perspective of this 150 foot spectacular tier fall.
I surely did NOT give this fall justice in my pictures, although I took a good selfie! You really do have to see this thing with your eyes. It is very, very pretty.
We wandered down the trail a bit more to find Ammons Creek Falls. While this tiered beauty is only 75 feet tall, I actually enjoyed it slightly more as its observation deck is positioned just above it and about half the way down it. You get the much more "in your face" experience which did help on my camera shots.
Since we've seen a number of Waterfalls in Georgia and now we're getting to the ever increasingly more remote ones, we might start looking to some of our neighboring states for their showcase falls (and to give us some new weekend destinations). As for this trail and its falls, they are an overwhelming thumbs-up from me!
A beautiful day in North Georgia (79 degrees and just the right mix of blue skies & puffy white clouds) yesterday which got Gretchen and I out of the house early to visit another one of Georgia's historic Covered Bridges. This time up was Stovall Mill Covered Bridge near Helen and I've updated the Covered Bridges Google Map, too. You can park on either side of the bridge, so we started on the east side and got this beautiful picture of this structure that has been here since 1895.
This 38-foot structure does not have any of the windows that we love to take pictures peeking through, so we took advantage of some of the decay to get the closest thing possible.
I wondered down the other side to get some picture of the bridge from down near the creek level looking back up.
The supports on this thing are still (literally) rock-solid and the creek made the perfect sound of swift moving water over rocks – it was music to my ears.
The inside was in very solid shape. I think those main beams where 12"x12". I'm not sure anyone makes things to last like this anymore.
As you can tell above, the bridge has had many "traveling artist" visit it over the years.
It seems even the Dark Knight has left his mark.
In all seriousness, I do wish people had just a bit more respect for historical sites such as this one. Ok... I'm moving on.
On that note, here is the historical site marker and a couple of views from the west side of the river.
It is hard to believe this little bridge is 121 years old. Keep standing strong!!
I got the 2015 kayak season off to a great opener by knocking out a leg of the Chattahoochee River Headwaters to Lake Lanier starting up at Mossy Creek State Park and heading down to Lula Bridge which was the start of last year's Long, Hard Day Paddling the Top of Lake Lanier. It was quite fitting that Brian and his clan came along again since they were with me on last year's trip.
Just behind them is the ending of Mossy Creek just before it runs into the Chattahoochee River.
We also had Roger along with us as well who used my extra kayak.
We knocked out this 8.5 mile trip in 3.5 hours. As shown on my Kayaking & Canoeing Google Map, the first half had multiple shoals. That coupled with the rain we had this last week really had the river rolling; well, by Chattahoochee standards. Overall, a fun day on the river and having fun folks in your flotilla and beautiful scenery keep bringing me back.
With this weekend being the last one before summer camp starts at Camp Glisson near Dahlonega, Georgia, Gretchen and I decided to get out there while the getting was good.
The short hike was worth it to see the beautiful Cane Creek Falls.
When then drove north up into the Forest Service land and parked near the top part of Dicks Creek Falls.
Further down the hill and you can find the main section of the falls.
We then drove another two miles up the very tight Forest Service dirt road to find Upper Dick Falls.
These were very easy little hikes which left us plenty of energy to grab lunch and check out the shops on the Square in Dahlonega before returning back home. What a great day we had in beautiful North Georgia!!
For Mother's Day this year, we took Gretchen to Hurricane Shoals Park up in Maysville, GA.
I'm betting you are wondering "what is at Hurricane Shoals Park?" and unless you hit the web page link above you probably didn't imagine that it starts with a bunch of 1800's log cabins and buildings (aka Heritage Village) like this one.
As you can see it was a beautiful sunny day. Speaking of beauties, my two ladies had a great time checking it all out.
Speaking of old buildings, there were a bunch of them – and even an old school house.
The best looking building was the Miles Wilson Matthews Chapel shown below.
Being big fans of Covered Bridges, we then moseyed over to the 22 year old reconstruction of the original 1869 bridge that burned down in 1972.
This thing is VERY well constructed; inside & out.
We even got our patented "peek through the window" picture!!
But driving through is the best part for sure.
On the other side of the bridge is the name sake of the park itself, Hurricane Shoals, which has a little dam at the top of it before the water rushes down the rocks.
This is a nice little treat not too far away for those living in the Atlanta area and should definitely be visited at least once. I hope all the moms out there had a nice Mother's Day like we were blessed with.