Recently I had an opportunity to go spend a little time in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia and had the chance to go hiking and exploring in this vast mountain wilderness. A Very different experience than hiking in the Florida wilderness that is for sure! The first thing you need to get used to is the elevation and terrain changes. On the mountain trails it seems like you are either traveling up or down and not really much consistent level hiking. The miles feel longer on the mountain trails. For example, you may hike 5 miles up a mountain but that would feel like a 10 mile hike in Florida simply because the elevation difference in my opinion.
When you hike in the mountain wilderness here you begin to feel an overwhelming appreciation for the vast wilderness. For instance, some of the trails I hiked you could stand and look off a ledge from 4,000 feet up and see the valleys and mountains below. You really feel small and insignificant up there! It just is another perspective that I never get to really experience while hiking in Florida. Think of it as you being able to go down from space onto Earth, it is sort of the same feeling for me when I got to look out over this amazing mountain wilderness.
The next experience I enjoyed was the spectacular geology of the trails.
I mentioned the elevation changes on the trails that was nice yet challenging. I also noticed a lot of rock formations and big boulders along the trails. It truly demonstrates the power of nature and it had to take hundreds of thousands of years if not millions for some of these rock fomorations to form. Another observation I would like to point out is the distances of these trails, simply astounding how far they go through the mountains. Some trails I hiked on were 300 miles or longer! Of course I only got to hike a small fraction of that. Also the area was nearby where some of the Applachian Trail goes thru so that was also quite the experience to be able to hike on some of that historical trail!
Many of the trails here have waterfalls and ravines you can explore. In fact a lot of our hikes were based around areas with waterfalls. Where there is a waterfall is usually a trail to hike by it. Just an added bonus to the hikes! Getting to some of the trailheads is another experience on its own as well! A lot of them are accessible only via unpaved mountain roads. It was quite the adventure driving to some of the trails for miles up old mountain roads, scary at times but part of the adventure for sure!
I hope to have more opportunities to go back here, there is just so much to explore! You get a sense of wanting more and that feeling of missing out on something great when your gone. A place of enchantment etched into my memory though it is a place you can't forget.
I'll be writing more soon about some adventures that I had here and I also posted links to some photos and videos from this trip below. Enjoy!
