Know The Frog - Big Frog Wilderness Fall Tour

There is a small, basic NFS campground a 20-minute drive from the trailhead (Sylco Campground) as well as a few dispersed sites along the road leading to the trailhead. It's basic, but it's free and very convenient. By staying there before the hike, you'll avoid the very early morning carpool hour!

See the fall foliage in this remote backcountry wilderness, touring 20 of the 32 miles of trail in the Big Frog Wilderness. At 4,224 ft, Big Frog Mountain is the farthest west of the 4000+ ft peaks in the Appalachians.  There is nothing to the west higher than Big Frog until Big Bend, TX or the Black Hills, SD ... not even in Canada. Big Frog Wilderness is crossed by the Benton-MacKaye Trail (BMT), a 300-mile trail reaching from Springer Mtn to rejoin the AT in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

This hike, mostly ridge hiking, will touch most of the popular trails in the heart of the wilderness area. It's timing, slightly past general peak foliage for the year, will mean we'll have a beautiful late peak foliage and the falling leaves will already be unveiling more great views.

Starting from the Wolf Ridge Trailhead, we'll climb up Wolf Ridge for 4 miles, approaching Big Frog's summit from the west into the rising sun. This is the steepest, hardest route up the mountain. After a short break, we'll continue south on the BMT for a half mile to pick up the Licklog Ridge Trail down a gradual ridge on the far side of the mountain and descend from the ridge to the west to our lunch spot along a lazy creek in a deep, rhododendron-filled narrow valley, the lowest point of our hike. After lunch, we'll climb back out of the valley to rejoin the BMT on Fork Ridge. Following this ridge up we head back towards Big Frog's summit, approaching from the north now. 600' below the summit, we take Big Creek trail down to midslope on the western side of Fork Ridge and contour south in the shadows of tall ridge spurs to meet Wolf Ridge again 2 miles from the cars.

As this will be a long day, with a long drive afterwards, we will stop in Eton or Chatsworth for a quick dinner, possibly Subway, returning to the carpool by 9pm.

Distance: 20.5 miles

Elevation change:  4800'

This is a very long hike with significant elevation gain and we will need to frequently regroup. Please do not sign up unless you're in very good shape! The trip leader will contact you to verify your fitness if you have not completed at least a D5 with the AOC recently.

From I-75:

Take exit 293 off I-75 and turn right onto US 411 north. Continue 39 miles to Chatsworth, GA. Continue another 13 miles north on US 411 to Cisco, GA. Turn right onto Old Hwy 2, just before the post office. Only the first 2 miles are paved. Keep left at the fork at the 3 mile mark, then continue another 5.6 miles to the bridge marking the boundary between GA and TN. After crossing the bridge, turn right onto Peavine Sneed Creek Rd for 3 miles (just short of Sylco Campground). Turn right just before the campground and follow that road for 4.3 miles to the signed driveway for Wolf Ridge Trailhead.

As foggy, drizzly hikes in the fall can also be quite satisfying and beautiful, this hike will be rescheduled for 3. Nov if and only if the forecast calls for storms or heavy rain.