Short Roadtrip, Day 1...Headed to the Mountains

 Day 1

Tuesday October 17, 2023

     When you live on the south side of town and want to escape to the North Georgia mountains for a few days, you have two choices.  You can either leave super early in the hopes you beat the morning commuters, or leave mid morning and home they've cleared out.  I did consider setting the alarm.  Red Top Mountain State Park is north of Atlanta and they have some really nice trails, all relatively flat.  

     I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Instead, I chose three trails all in the same area, just west of Lafayette.(pr; La-FAY-ette) Two trails were in the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area.   

      Just inside the entrance is a sign that says you must have a state recreation pass to use the preserve.  An annual pass runs $60.  If there were places to use it closer to home, I'd buy one.  It seemed silly for one day.  But, they don't do Day Use passes.  

      I had two trails in the preserve picked out.  The first was up a twisting mountain road that had seen better days. 

       It was paved, sort of.  You just had to watch out for some good sized potholes.  I decided to roll the dice and risk getting caught without a pass for the first trail.  It was only .3 miles round trip to a seventy foot waterfall.  What are the odds someone would come around checking for passes.

       The hike starts at the Lost Wall trailhead.  

       For a short trail, it certainly was rocky...

     The trail's namesake, the rock wall...

      Multiple trail reviews talked about the real possibility the waterfall would be dry.  We hadn't had any rain since Friday, so I wasn't that surprised to see no water actually flowing.

     In another part of the preserve is the Blue Hole Spring.  It's a natural spring with a clear pool that appears blue, thus the name.  I decided against rolling the dice twice in one day.  Instead, I kept driving west in Hwy 193.  

     Shortly after Mile Marker 7, there are two dirt roads heading north and south.  I have no idea where the southern one goes.  If you turn right and drive a quarter mile, you'll find an unmarked trailhead, as well as a pullout for perhaps three cars.   

      There's a steep dropoff on both sides of the trail.  This is actually the track bed for an abandoned section of the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railroad.  The line was first built in 1910 to connect Chattanooga, TN, Gadsen, AL and North Georgia.  In the 1960's a steel company bought the line and used it haul supplies back and forth between their plants in Chattanooga and Gadsen.  The last section of the line was closed for good in 2009.

     Being a railbed, the trail is nice and flat.  Though it could use a little love from someone with a chainsaw.   I was taking my time and it still took me less than twenty minutes to the old tunnel.

    The inside of the tunnel has long since flooded.  Since I hadn't packed any rubber boots, I simply chose to shoot pictures from the entrance.

     The road back out to the highway...

     A few miles west, I passed a sign for a "Civil War Wayside." 

      It's a small parking area and some historical markers that had seen better days.  Obviously, no one had thought to replace the markers in a while.

    In September 1863, Confederate troops under Lt. General Bragg had evacuated Chattanooga and were headed south.  Maj. Gen Rosecrans led his troops in pursuit.  Bragg set a three part trap.  If it worked, it would halt one line of Union advance into Georgia.  For some unknown reason, the officer sent to lead the center of the trap failed to spring it.  Seeing this, the other officers held off as well.  Bragg regrouped and planned an attack for the next morning.  By then, Union reinforcements had arrived to cover Rosecrans' withdrawal.  

      Eventually, I rolled into the town of Trenton.  I've been here a few times before.  It's just the closest town to the state park I'd be visiting the next day.  On my first visit, I found a small barbecue place tucked in the back of a parking lot.  The next time, they actually had an enclosed dining area.  Somehow, I wasn't that surprised to find Thatcher's Barbecue had moved once again. Now they're in the center of town, right on the courthouse square.  And yes, the food was just as good as I remember.

     My home for the next two nights was the Days Inn.  Respectable, though nothing fancy.  I asked about breakfast when I checked in.  The guy at the desk told me it starts at 6A and it's "honeybuns, yogurt, oatmeal and coffee."