Tales From The Wood Booger: Back-Up Hike Georgia At Buford Dam On Laurel Ridge Trail

Friday, March 6, 2015

Back-Up Hike Georgia At Buford Dam On Laurel Ridge Trail

Today was going to be the first hike of Spring-Thru '14. After missing two weeks because of weather, my Thursday Hike Georgia group was looking forward to hitting the mountains of North Georgia, specifically the Bear Hair Trail at Vogel State Park, but the Snow Miser had other ideas. With the winter weather scheduled for this morning we decided, yesterday, to moved the hike to the old reliable Laurel Ridge Trail at Buford Dam. This location was the site of our first hike as a group back in early October. Back in the fall we had 10 people so the turnout today was less (four), but it really was a last minute hike. We started the hike on the Laurel Ridge Trail from the Lower Overlook this path is around four miles. We went left on the trail because in my opinion it is more a little difficult as it has more uphill spots. You can add on some extra distance at the beach and the river area to make it slightly longer, coming in at about five miles in total. Anyway, it started out cloudy but cleared near the end of the day. One of the big highlights was I got to take the group over to visit the Goats of Buford Dam. They were cool as always. After the hike I stopped at the West Bank Overlook to get a better view of the dam. Also of note on the way home, up GA 400, I saw the car that the woman drove into Lake Lanier. Oh, one more thing we are no longer a Thursday group but a mid-week group (it always seems to be bad weather on Thursday).