Sat, Feb 12 2011 - Jacks Knob & Horse Trough Mountain + Brasstown Bald (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Tony C, Scott Looper Participants: Tony C, Scott Looper, Ray R, Marshall, Sunnie, papi, Sarang Tipre

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We really had a great day on the trail for this one.  As usual, the weather played a large part and it was near perfect for a D5 hike...  Temps in the 40s with some gusty winds that kept up cool on thsoe climbs.

On the drive up, we saw a few little patches of snow by the road, but very little.  We assumed most of it has melted, but as we hiked up the Jacks Knob trail, we were very pleasantly surprised to find a good bit of snow on the northern facing slopes.  This was a lot of fun to hike in and very pretty (see pics), but we had planned to bushwhack up Horse Trough Mtn from the northern side and wasn't sure how that would work with the snow if the approach was too steep.

But this was an "Explorer" hike, so we just played it by ear and stayed flexible.  It turned out that the route up was steep enough to be challenging but not so much as to be extra slippery with the snow.  We did have to fight our way through some briers but it wasn't too bad.  We made it to the summit of Horse Trough and while there no major overlooks or open views, it was still very satisfying. I had seen this very conspicuous mtn from both the top of Mt Yonah and always wanted to get up there.  So felt good to be on the summit.

We decided to head down the shortest route..down the steeper east side...a little tricky footing, but we just slowed down and it wasn't too bad.  It was enjoyable, but was also welcome to emerge from the denser foliage onto the wide open AT after about an hour of being off trail and bushwhacking.

From here we went to check out the headwaters of the Chattahoochee, then we did a short bushwhack up to the top of Jacks Knob itself.  Then back to the cars and drove up to the Brasstown Bald parking lot for the half mile walk to the summit.  The winter air was so clear and the views were incredible as always.   The wind had died down at that point, so it was very pleasant up there, and ended another adventure in N GA with the AOC.  - Tony C

Main Pics

Marshall and Sunnie's pics

Ray's pics