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| The rock at Dicks Creek Gap. |
In Georgia, the
Appalachian Trail (AT) has six major road
crossings. One of the most famous happens to be the last, if headed north on
the AT, it is Dicks Creek Gap.
The reason for its fame is part like I said the AT crosses
GA 76 here making it the final spot before it heads into
North Carolina. It is
also near the town of
Hiawassee, GA (11 miles to the west) making it a popular resupply
point. One of the reasons for this is that the next town the AT passes near is
40 miles away at
Franklin, NC. Add to that most thru-hikers have
already spent over a week on the trail, so a lot of people just want to get to civilization, especially after the rugged hike from Unicoi Gap to Dicks Creek
Gap. It is also a spot, second to Neel Gap, where people quit the trail in
Georgia.
Like I said above it
is one of the six major road crossings the AT makes. I had been to the other
five,
Woody Gap which crosses GA 60 and Neel Gap, where the AT cuts through
Mountain Crossing, is off US 19. Three and four are right together as GA 138
passes through both
Tesnatee Gap and Hog
Pen Gap and finally there is the fifth, Unicoi Gap, which is off GA 75 and nine
miles east of
Helen, GA.
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| Woody Gap off GA 60. |
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| Elevation - 3,173 feet. |
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| Neel Gap features Mountain Crossing. |
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| At an elevation of 3,108 feet. |
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| Tesnatee Gap off GA 138... |
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| ...Elevation of 3,138 feet. |
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| Pete's favorite Hog Pen Gap... |
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| ...elevation 3,485 feet. |
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| Unicoi Gap off of GA 75 at an... |
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| ...elevation of 2,949. |
So, I really never thought I would get to Dicks Creek Gap,
unless I did a thru or section hike. By looking at the AT Guide, there didn’t
seem to be a real day hike there and from most things I seemed to see or read
about the spot, most were just racing to get to the gap so they could hitch a
ride to Hiawassee. I did learn that there was a carved rock like one finds at
Woody and Hog Pen Gaps, so I did want to see it, but it is another half-hour to
here from Helen.
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| With the Woody Gap Rock... |
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| ...the second at Hog Pen Gap... |
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| ...& the third at Dicks Creek Gap. |
However, I bought the book, that I have mentioned before,
Day Hiking the North Georgia Mountains by Jim Parham and in it he describes a day
hike to a vista over Whiteoak Stomp. The hike is a five miler that goes south
from Dicks Creek Gap. I thought about that this would be a good hike, but first
I wanted to hike to
Tray Mountain, because as I chronicled here, it was the number
one spot on the Georgia AT that I had yet to visit.
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| Andrews Cove. |
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| Tray Mountain. |
So in April I finally made the trek to Tray Mountain and
while I didn’t start the hike from Unicoi Gap (I came up from
Andrews Cove Campground),
I did make a point to go to the gap so I can see the third
George Noble plaque,
which rest on a big boulder. Then, on my way back I thought to myself that I had
been to five of the major road crossing, maybe it was about time to hit the
sixth.
I will say that this hike didn’t come off as planned. I had
first planned to do the hike on May 8th. If I remember correctly the
weather was going to be spotty, so I moved it back to the next week. I planned
to go at the end of the week and the weather, which original looked promising
went south, so I had to move it again. The day I scheduled was Monday of this
past week (May 19), while it rained on-and-off all weekend, however the day I
picked looked good. So, I packed my day pack had everything ready, but just
before I went to bed I checked the weather and there was one of the weather alert icons. Anyway, I clicked on it and there was a fog warning for
the North Georgia Mountains and the forecast had gone from sunny to cloudy.
Well, I thought maybe it won’t be too bad and went to bed.
When I woke up Monday morning it turned out to be thicker than I thought and would not improve until afternoon. When
I looked at the weather it looked like I would catch a break Wednesday, so I
decided to move the hike to that day. Wednesday came and the weather turned out
nice, so on to Dicks Creek Gap. As I approached my destination I wonder if I
would find the parking area with maybe one or two other cars, but the lot almost
full, so I swung in a grabbed one of the last spots.
Dicks Creek Gap itself is a nice area, like a cross between
Woody Gap and Hog Pen Gap. As I said Dicks Creek Gap is one of the three places that have carved AT
rocks, but like Woody Gap it has picnic tables. What it shares with Hog Pen Gap
is no vault toilet like one will find at Woody. Because of its position as the
last road crossing in Georgia (and last resupply spot for 40 miles) there were
a couple of shuttle vans there.
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| Some of the picnic tables. |
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| Panorama of Dicks Creek Gap. |
One was from the new hostel a half-mile down the road,
Top of Georgia Hiking & Hostel Center, which if you stay there overnight will provide
hikers a free shuttle to Hiawassee and back to Dicks Creek Gap. They also offer
shuttle service to other locations. This was what they were doing waiting to
take two section hikers back to
Amicalola Falls, but another group wanted to
stay at the hostel and go to Hiawassee, so I was asked if I was going south,
and I was, to look out for these other hikers and tell them to wait at the gap
and I obliged. One of the things I love about the trail is the people I meet.
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| Headed south. |
So, I headed south on the AT I guess this is probable the time to
mention what I had read about the hike. In Parham book he described this hike
as moderate, but it was little tougher than a moderate trail. Most of it was
pretty steep and it had very few switchbacks. I have been on trails rated strenuous
that were a bit easier. However, one of the things I found surprising about the trail was
unlike most of the North Georgia AT it was not very rocky. As I have documented
before a rocky trail and North Georgia go hand-in-hand. I mean even
Sawnee Mountain is rocky, but this section of the AT while not free of rocks was less
than other spots I have traversed.
What the trail did have was a lot of those Mountain Laurel
tunnels I love. To this point the section from Indian Grave Gap to Tray
Mountain had the most I had seen, but this section of the AT had more. Moving
through these and hitting the first steep uphill section one comes to an interesting
spot. Off to the left was a bench with the view of a mini-waterfall, which had
a name Carnes Cascade. It was a nice spot and I would guess a lot of
thru-hikers might miss it in their charge to get to Dicks Creek Gap.
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| Mini-waterfall... |
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| ....called Carnes Cascade. |
When the trail finally flattens out one comes to a junction
with the trail left leading to a piped spring. From time-to-time on the trail
one will passes a spring and a number of these will have a pipe sticking out so
to make it easier to fill a water bottle. Is it safe to drink?
I spent summers as a kid and still do drinking spring
water, but that is for the individual hiker to decide. This area is also the
site of an old AT shelter, Snake Mountain, which was abandoned in the 1950’s and is no longer visible.
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| Junction for water at site of the old Snake Mtn. Shelter. |
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| The short trail heads to... |
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| ...a piped spring. |
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| Very large... |
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| ...& three fire rings. |
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| Trail to camping area at Dicks Creek Gap. |
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| Spot where a pink ribbon was placed... |
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| ...& it says steps. |
I think it is a good time to mention the plethora of wildflowers
on the AT this day. I have seen a lot of these on the trail this spring and
today is no exception. Some were on their last legs like the Daisy Fleabane, Rattlesnake
Weed, Sweet Betsy and the Flaming Azalea. Others were coming into bloom like
the
Virginia Dayflower, Venus' Looking Glass,
Appalachian Bluet, Common Blue Violet,
Woodland Phlox and my favorite Mountain Laurel. Also, there was a lot of Southern
Blackberry blooming, which is now at its peak.
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| Camping spot. |
It is here that I ran, again, into an Asian
couple and older woman who I assume was the mother to one of them. They had blown
passed me on the uphill on Powell Mountain. They had a picnic of sushi and gave
me an energy bar. I think the reason they did was because they loved Pete, my
pink hiking rabbit that Deb gave me last year, who goes on all my hikes. They just
thought he was so cute.
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| Asian family I met, they loved.... |
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| ...Pete, the Hiking Rabbit. |
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| Pete hates the Easter Bunny! |
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| Pete at his favorite place...Hog Pen! |
Anyway, I followed the blue blaze and
finally came to the outcrop…and let me say it was nicer than I expected. On the
AT Parking Site the photo showed a fogged in vista, so you couldn’t see anything.
So I was pleasantly surprised by the vista. It gave good views of Glassy Mountain, Lake Burton, Black Rock Mountain and up in the left corner Georgia’s
second highest mountain, Rabun Bald.
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| The vista. |
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| Glassy Mtn. & Lake Burton. |
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| Closer look at Glassy Mtn. |
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| Black Rock Mtn. |
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| Rabun Bald. |
After sitting, eating a Cliff Bar and
enjoying the view I headed back. As always the trip back, because it was mostly
downhill, was easier and it took me 30 minutes less time.
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| Tunnel & white blaze. |
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| Back through the tunnel. |
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| Nice shot on the way back. |
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| Steps head back to... |
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| ...to... |
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| ...Dicks Creek Gap, elevation 2,675. |
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| The view that thru-hikers can't wait to see. |
The combination of a steep hike, it was 4 o’clock, I had to
cook dinner, the Blackhawks were playing (after the game they played I don’t think I would
have counted it), and I had Deb’s car so I decided not to head-up and instead headed back
to the Apartment. Before I started back I made one more stop at Spoil Cane Creek
and took in the flowing water. So, that was my day of finishing the sixth major
road crossing and another day hike on the Georgia AT.
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| Spoil Cane Creek... |
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| ...as it flows downstream. |
enjoyed reading about your hike and the great pictures. thanks for sharing.
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