Checking On The Future Of The Trail To Big Sawnee Mountain.

The hiking trails of Sawnee Mountain Preserve and the Indian Seats are on what I call Little Sawnee Mountain. However across Tribble Gap is the actually summit, which I call Big Sawnee Mountain and soon there is going to be a hiking trail to the top of the mountain.
Today I made a trip up to where the trail will go, on the summit, and where it will start, at Tribble Gap across from Sawnee Mountain Preserve. I hadn't planned to go to Sawnee Mountain today, I had an appointment in Alpharetta and I was going to hike at Island Ford of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. My GPS took me to the wrong place and when I finally got it fixed I still had almost a half-hour (I think it was 8 miles but lots of traffic) to get there, so I just decided to head back north.

Little Sawnee (ridge to the left) & Big Sawnee (Right)

Big Sawnee Mountain from Cumming.

Looking for Island Ford...Damn GPS!

It was on the way up GA 400 that I thought I would go by Sawnee Mountain Preserve and see the progress being made on the new trail up Big Sawnee. As I said before the park sets on another part of the mountain, what I call Little Sawnee. I had asked at the Sawnee Mountain Preserve Visitor Center about the state of the trail up the summit side of the mountain. I was told that the bid process was over and they would be starting soon. I asked this back in October.
When Deb and was at the park Sunday I noticed at Tribble Gap that through the trees you could see work had started. There was orange barrier fence across the road and snaking up the mountain. I figured that the new trail would go up from the Tribble Gap area where the second parking area and trailhead are for the park. However, I read that not only would there be a new trailhead across the road, with additional parking, bathrooms and a new playground.
Before I came to the park for a closer look, I decided to head back up Tower Road to the summit of Big Sawnee Mountain. Like I have said before (here) you can drive to the top. Besides communication towers there are homes and the old Barker House and Fire Tower on the summit. While I didn’t see any trail construction, it could be coming up the other side of the Barker House, which is Forsyth County property. Anyway, it was good being up there and today on the fire tower was some Turkey Vultures…cool. Oh, I also got a good look at Atlanta on the way back down.

Summit, Barker House (left) & Fire Tower (center).

Barker House, yes it looks like a spaceship...

...& Fire Tower.

On top of the tower...

...Turkey Vultures!

Remember it is not open yet.

Atlanta from Big Sawnee Mountain...

...& Dunwoody.

Snowmen waiting for snow..

I then travelled the short distance to the Tribble Gap area of Sawnee Mountain Preserve. Right there across the road plenty of construction was going on. At some point I need to find out if there is a date for when the trail will open, I hope soon. While I didn’t have a lot of time I decided to do a lollipop loop hike to the Indian Seats, about two-miles. The views were much better today from the Seats than on Sunday and I even had a squirrel pose for me.

Where I came from...

...& where I am going.

Construction across Bettis Tribble Gap Road.

I did hike too. Here is the Eaglet Trail...

...Indian Seats...

...& its vista...

...Slaughter & Blood Mountains...

...clouds over Brasstown Bald...

...where I was Thursday, Yonah Mountain.

Some people ENOing.

The Indian Seats.

Atlanta...

...& Stone Mountain.

The squirrel that posed for me...

...got his nut.

We can't have anything nice these days!

Winding back to the parking area.

**Update 02-20-15**
I went to Sawnee Mountain Preserve on Friday. I am going to post about that later, but since I did a blog on the future of the trail up Big Sawnee I though it would be better to update this blog post instead of putting this information on my new one. When I went into the visitor center to find out if the trails were open I spotted plans on a table for what is called Phase III of Sawnee Mountain Preserve, the trail up to Big Sawnee. One set of plans was for the new trailhead area across Bettis-Tribble Gap Road with parking (76 spaces), restrooms, pavilion and a playground. The second showed the trail up the mountain. It looks like it will be a loop trail, acutully two loops including one with a connector trail. One thing I noticed was no connector trail to the Barker House on the summit. Hopefully there will be one, but the trail looks really cool.

The New developments on Big Sawnee.

The new trailhead area.

Overview of the whole Preserve.

Trails up Big Sawnee...

...& the summit area.