New Gear and some trip pics

M

milani74

Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
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Hi all. I got the opportunity to get out and see some of the local attractions here in GA lately and wanted to share the info on this place in case any of you were ever in the area looking for something to do. Due to the recommendation and generousity of a certain member here, cough ROCK6, I camped out 2 weeks ago in Panther Creek, GA. For those not familiar with the area, it's in North Eastern GA. You have to hike in about 3 miles and there are a series of first come first serve camp sites. The whole area reminds me of the Smoky Mnt Ntl Park. The hike in wasnt too bad. There were a few areas on the trail that were very unstable. The worst was an area that you need to almost get on all fours to duck under a rock jutting out, but all in all, the trail is well maintained.
Here are some of those pics.


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I recently purchased a Hiker Pro water filter and it paid for itself on this trip. With water so close to camp, it was really awesome not to have to carry more than a liter on me.
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There is actually about 3 seperate waterfalls, each larger than the previous and culminating with the "Big Falls" at the end.
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Now for last weekend's trip. I splurged and bought a two new big items: a REI Half Dome, Plus 2 tent, and a Osprey Aether 85 pack. So far, I am very happy with both purchases.
The tent is almost all mesh, yet has a great rain fly and 2 side doors with vestibules. The only thing I could see to improve is to add a window on the rain fly and also to add some better clips to connect the fly to the ground sheet. The huge boon for this tent however, is the extra 10 inches lengthwise and 5 in the width. As I am about 6'1", I find my toes hitting the tent walls of most tents therefore causing my sleeping bag to get wet.

Now for the pack. My load was 34 lbs with no water, but with 2 days of food. I need to review what I packed and see about getting that down a little more. However, with that load, the pack itself felt like 20 lbs. It was very comfortable. The things I like about this pack is it weighs just over 4 lbs, can compress down, has a side zipper, and the outside compression pouch. Overall, it fit perfectly and no other pack I've tried on fits as well with a load as this does.

Now for the trip...
Springer Mountain is the beginning of a continuous trail called the Appalachian Trail (AT) and goes from Georgia to Maine. The trail I did this past weekend was the approach trail and is 8.3 miles long. It begins in Amicalola Falls State Park where the tallest water falls east of the Mississippi is.
I was lucky enough to do almost half of the AT when I was a 12 and that was the last time I was here.
Anyways, here are some of my favorites:
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Thank you Bryan, but I'm just visiting here. I tend to think that Northern GA and the Blue Ridge Mtns are one of God's masterpieces!
 
I was at Amicalola Falls a couple of weeks ago...very nice place! The approach trail makes you wanna forget about life and stay on the trail all the way to Maine!

Billy
 
Thanks all. Both places are awesome and I highly recommend to see them if you are in the area.
 
Great pics, thanks for sharing. Man there's nothing I like more then wading\swimming in something like that come August. I wonder if it still has a decent water level then? It's probably a 6 hour drive for me, so doable, the problem is all of the other great places in between.
 
Awesome pics, that looks awesome! That's not far from here...I want go there this summer!
 
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