Waterfall Fun When You Hike Georgia

Mountain Laurel

Well, Saturday (May 31) it was the final hike of Spring Thru ’14 and it had an added twist it was my first hike with the Hike Georgia Meetup group. 

As anyone knows I do a lot of solo-hiking and there are times when I actually like being out in the woods on my own. However, I really do enjoy hiking more with others. Most of my friends here in Georgia don’t hike and Deb is limited to five miles and she doesn’t like the trail if it is two boggery (grown up with summer foliage) so for long hikes in the summer it usually is just me.

However, back in the winter I found this group on Meetup, a site that allows

At Dicks Creek Gap

people of all interest to get together. Anyway, I found this one called Hike Georgia. It is a group for people who liked to hike and since I fit the bill I joined up. I did notice that like a lot of hikers in the group were not very active in the winter, so I had to do a number of my cold weather hikes on my own. But, when spring approached hikes started to pop-up on the group site. I signed up for a couple, but each time something came up like weather or Deb wanted to go out (her favorite time to hike is early spring).

After doing the solo-hike at Dicks Creek Gap I was wondering what to do next. Since late spring means that vista were hit and miss I decided to hit a waterfall hike. Then I remembered a hike not too far from where I live in Dawsonville. The hike, which I read about in Jim Parham’s book Hiking the North Georgia Mountains, was in the Dawson Forest WMA and followed Wildcat Creek to a couple of nice waterfalls. The hike was about 8.5 miles out and back which included a hand cable ford of Wildcat Creek.

Big Canoe

While thinking about doing the hike I happened to check Hike Georgia and to my surprise this very hike was scheduled for Saturday. So, I signed up because this killed two birds with one stone, I got to do the hike and it allowed me to finally do one with Hike Georgia.  One of things I found out about the hike was unless you were hunting or fishing one had to by a Georgia Outdoor Recreation Pass (GORP). These pass are $6.50 for a three-day pass. So, I went online and got my pass for the hike.

Hike Georgia Group

The drive to the trail first takes one through the Big Canoe community, which is basically a private town near Mount Oglethorpe. It is a nice drive which finally got to the turnoff to Wildcat Campground Road and I was surprised about how rough the road to the trailhead turned out to be (no Jim didn't say anything about this). I have been on Forest Service roads that where much smoother. There was one particular spot which was steep, mostly red clay and had me concerned about getting out if it rained particular hard. I traveled 40 minutes, so I was going to hike.

So I arrived, and met up with my hiking partners and they were all really nice. The hike leaders Dwayne and Sue Brown, with a couple of others, were hiking the almost nine miles barefoot. I like being barefoot, but I don’t know if I am ready to hike that way. After about 15 minutes waiting for everyone to arrive, we took a group-shot and it was off down the trail. Since this was my first hike with the group I didn’t know what to expect and I will say the pace was a little faster than I was use too. I guess one reason for this is because I take a lot of pictures and because of this I brought up the rear.

Headed up the trail.

Trail is green blazed.

Summer trail.

Mountain Laurel.

Footbridge across the creek.

Wildcat Creek.

Someone put in a slide.

Some of the beautiful spots on the creek.

Tree on the trail.

Trail cuts through the tree.

On the way to the falls.

Besides taking pictures I wanted to make sure no one was left behind. One of the people in the back was Steve an older gentleman who was struggling with some of the uphill spots. I think this is the time to mention Mr. Parham’s description. Once again there is no description of the difficulty of the hike and while it was far from the hardest hike I have been it was more difficult than Parham let on oh and his mileage was slightly off.

One thing Parham did get right is after passing a footbridge to Turner Trail there would be a spot where hand cables would be used to ford Wildcat Creek. 

The footbridge...

...that goes to...

...the Turner Trail.

The reason I mention this is because this is where my hike with Steve would come to an end. When we reached the cables, most of the group had crossed the creek. Dwayne called to us and said that only one person had fell in the creek here on other hikes he had been on to this spot. Also, a lot of the people who crossed had done so barefoot. I decided I could make it with my boots on and Steve made the same decision. Anyway, I let him go first in case anything went wrong, and it is a good thing I did.

The hand cable creek crossing.

Here where Steve had his problem.

Looking from the other side.

So, Steve started to cross and in a flash he slipped off the rock and landed on them. I knew it was bad and when he found his footing he yelled up he thought he had broken his finger. One look, because I could see bone, confirmed it. I helped him out and started to dig in my back for my first-aid kit. By this time Linda, who had come on the hike with Steve, had come back across the creek it was certain his hike was over. She told Steve that she would go back with him, because he definitely needed a trip to the Emergency Room.

After seeing off Steve and Linda, I headed across the creek, via the cables, which I made without incident. So from here it is off to the 60-foot waterfall off Fall Creek after first passing a beaver dam.

Beaver Dam.

The 60-foot...

...Lower Fall Creek Falls.

Sue & Dwayne enjoy the falls.

Group shot at the falls.

One last look.

 I will say it was a beautiful waterfall and a chance for the group to assembly again. We had lunch, a group photo and some people even jumped in the water before the group moved on to the second waterfall.

It was another mile-and-a-half to this next falls and it was mostly uphill. It was about this time that one of the group, Carol, asked if she could use one of my hiking sticks. I have learned that even when the hike is not supposed to be too difficult that they sometimes hard than advertised, so I always bring my sticks. Anyway, I let her use one of my hiking poles.

We are headed on the Fall Creek Trail.

Trail now white blazed.

Fall Creek Trail.

Log across the trail.

Another shot of the summer trail.

This trail reminded me of some of the waterfall hikes in Tennessee. Well, eventually the trail came to a creek crossing and the 80-foot waterfall.  This cascade of water was even more impressive than the other falls. One of the cool things I spotted near the top of the falls was a blooming thicket of Mountain Laurel.

The 80-foot Upper Fall Creek Falls.

Water & Laurel.

This was a wonderful waterfall.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the falls and after taking time to admire the water, the clouds started moving in and it was looking more like that 50 percent chance of storms was looking more likely by the minute, which signaled it was time to head back.

Once again I waited to make sure everyone caught up and the last person was this cool guy Greg. The 4+ miles back to the trailhead we hiked together and I found out that he use to own a software company and he was now working on a phone app. 

Headed back.

More summer trail.

Cool white blaze.

Trail headed back.

Rapids at the hand cable crossing.

Trail we came from.

We eventually caught up with the Carol, who has my other hiking pole, and Joe. It was about the time that we caught up that we came to this sloppy patch and it was here that I found the best bear print I have found in my travels. I know they are in the area because I saw a picture of one from nearby Mount Oglethorpe.

Bear print.

Wildcat Creek.

Another shot of the creek.

Damn at the swimming hole.

Another nice shot on the trail.

We are back.

Had to stop & get a picture...

...of this Mountain Laurel.

We got back just before the storms rolled in. I know Greg was even more concerned then me because he had a real wheel drive Hyundai sports car, but we both got out with any problem. I even had time to check out a batch of Mountain Laurel I somehow missed on the way in. Anyway, it was a nice hike, the people where cool and I look forward to a future Hike Georgia Meetup outing.