Sat, Jul 14 2012 - Cohutta Wilderness Tear Britches to Panther Creek Falls (View Original Event Details)
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The four of us and Cedar the yellow lab departed the carpool and headed to the TH. Ever present dark skies were all around us and threatened. The drive from the Ellijay Square to Gates Chapel Road was smooth, until the blacktop ended. At this point a Y appears and one should go RT (by the little bus stop for kids) on FS90 gravel road. A hard RT on FS68 takes you to a T, where you go LT towards Lake Conasauga. A few miles down the road is the Tear Britches trail parking area. The FS is a graded road, but not maintained in winter time. A car can pass fine without clearance worries.
We began our trip with a steep climb for .5 miles and then a very long downhill took us to an intersection. We went right to Bray Field. This "field" isn't open, rather it is tree covered. I expected an open area akin to a prarie or horse pasture. The trails in this area are not blazed well, if at all. We took the Conasauga River Trail for a few hundred yards and found the sign for Panther Creek Falls (as planned).
After crossing the river multiple times and not seeing any waterfalls we questioned our location. We thought we were on the Panther Creek Trail but we were not. We were still on the Conasauga River Trail. It was Cedar's fault. We continued for some time along the trail. After confirming our location on the map we pushed ahead and camped at the intersection with Chestnut Lead. The next morning we climbed Chestnut Lead to FS68 and caught a ride to the cars at Tear Britches TH about two miles down the road.
Cool temps prevailed, the scenery was awesome, the muffins smelled yummy, the company excellent and we encountered only four people on the trail Sat. and a small hiking group on Sunday morning. We donned rain gear for all but ten minutes but heard thunder numerous times. The rain felt good when it did come.
A baby bear ran across the road on the way to the TH, wild turkeys crossed the road on the way home and the water was ohh so refreshing. Nature was kind to us all weekend. If you want solitude, hike or backpack this route, it was very nice.
OTOH, we'll be back to see Panther Creek Falls.
Pics:
http://sadeldesigns.com/CohuttaWilderness.html
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