2 posts tagged “hike”

Trying to decide what to do to get out of the house, we picked a hike at Sweetwater State Park.  It was listed in the book, 60 hikes within 60 miles that Samma and I have been using…

We got up early, yeah right… OK so 9:30 is early for Samma’s family.  Ate breakfast and headed over to do the hike.  It was a pleasant day with a high of 82, a nice breeze and partly cloudy.  We looked at the trail maps and headed out the blue trail to the end and back along the red trail.

The red and blue trails converge at the old mill/factory

 split again to meet up at the “falls” which are really just a small cascade.

 along the way, of course I (or in the case I am holding it – David) took pictures of the “monsters”.

On Friday at lunch I went to Barnes & Nobles to get a book on hikes/waterfalls since Samma & I had decided to go for a hike on Saturday.  The main book we used was

60 Hikes within 60 Miles -- Atlanta.  It is a nice book with pretty good descriptions, directions, and hikes that are not all woods/mountain hikes, there are several through downtown Atlanta... We decided on De Soto Falls, there are actually 2 waterfalls there lower falls and upper falls .  Having made up our minds Friday night, we got up late and headed to the mountains near Dahlonega to get to the trail.  Since it was shorted to the lower falls, and since the book made it sound like the shorter of the falls, we chose to visit it first.   Samma spent a lot of time shooting pictures of mushrooms (I have the evidence, but will not bore you with it...)  The hike to the lower falls was easy, with a rise of maybe 100 feet from the valley floor onto a tributary to the main creek (Frogtown Creek) flowing through the valley.  The trail was nice and hard packed dirt with switchbacks to get you up the mountain side.  After visiting the waterfall, it was back to the starting point to head to the upper falls,  Once again, Samma was photographing almost every mushroom we came across (and yes, I got photos of her photoing the 'shrooms). 

This hike is a little longer mostly longer along the valley floor before turning up to the falls. 

We only met one other group (father & son) on the walk up to the upper falls, but once we got there, three other groups showed up to kinda spoil the beauty with talk... We had a great time and actually hung out till everyone else left the waterfall and it was nice and peaceful after that...  We even took an artsy fartsy picture of the waterfall from my camera through Samma's camera.

 

I took a movie of each of the waterfalls also...

After the hike, we headed back to Dahlonega to eat at the Smith House (it actually sits on a gold mine) which serves food family style and keeps bringing out more until you stop eating and ask for dessert.