Hike Georgia On Rocky Mountain And A Little Christmas Shopping

It was the last Hike Georgia Thursday outing for 2014 and today we headed up Rocky Mountain. At 4,017 feet this mountain towers above 900 feet above Unicoi Gap, the place we started from. The hike was a 5.5 mile lollipop loop that went north on the AT (Appalachian Trail) and then connected with the Rocky Mountain Trail to loop back to the AT and eventually Unicoi Gap. Let just say that the climb up Rocky Mountain is steep. However the Rocky Mountain Trail was rated by the National Geographic Map as easy. But, like last week’s hike up the Pinnacle Knob Trail it wasn’t. Oh, on the AT we ran into some SoBo (southbound) thru-hikers, they looked a little ragged, but the had only 53 miles to the finish line at Springer Mountain...congratulations SoBo's!

After the hike I went to Helen to a couple of stores including Betty’s Country Store and the Nora Mill Granary. Nora Mill was cool because inside is a operating granary. I then finished the day at a store I have wanted to visit for a while Old Sautee Store. This historic general store was as nice as advertised. It was a good day.