Brasstown Bald

A hike up Brasstown Bald was in my sights because it’s the highest peak in Georgia. To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations of this hike but it turned out to be pretty enjoyable and a decent challenge! I arrived early in the morning when some low level clouds were in the valleys. This little mountain above was not directly on the hike but still part of the Brasstown wilderness.

The Brasstown Wilderness is among ten wildernesses that all are part of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. I’m unsure the benefit of declaring small areas wildernesses that already exist within a national forest. I do know that they preserve a few endangered species such as the Pygmy Shrew and a few species of birds. Black bear, deer, and other large game animals also live within the wilderness.

I always prefer to hike when there are leaves on the trees or at least snow on the ground. I had neither on this trip so I expected the entire hike to look like this above; nothing but dead trees and no wildlife. The no wildlife part turned out to be accurate, but later in the hike there was some change of scenery.

The sign below warns about excavating or damaging Native American ruins. The Brasstown Wilderness is known for its Native American petroglyphs. I didn’t do a good job of seeking these out and actually didn’t come across anyway. I met some locals who told me many of them are hidden and not marked on maps for preservation purposes. The ones that are known aren’t too impressive anymore due to natural erosion. I still wish I had come across some but this certainly made me feel better about missing them.

I did a 11 mile (18 kilometers) round trip hike along the Arkaquah trail. It starts off at 2,200 feet (670 meters) and quickly rises to Locust Log Ridge when begins at 3,600 feet (1,100 meters). The steep part ascent is a combination of a direct trail as well as some switchbacks towards the top. Just the weekend before Brasstown Bald, I had down Vermont’s highest peak of Mt. Mansfield along the Laura Cowles trail. That was seriously twice as steep as Brasstown Bald’s Arkaquah trail! Along with deep snow and subzero temperatures this was much easier. I didn’t realize it until I got to Georgia, but my lower legs were ridiculously sore and made the uphill hike a bit annoying. I even tried to step sideways and even backwards for a while because it was that bad. Once I got to the top of the ridge they didn’t really bother me anymore.

When the entire forest is nothing but dead trees I usually try to get decent photos by focusing on the little things. These moss covered rocks had so much white lichen on them that I seriously thought someone had painted them at first. As it turns out it’s all natural!

You may have noticed that in my photo of the Brasstown Bald sign that there was a lemon wedged in the lower right. There was a web address on it, and I didn’t think much of it at the time. As I hiked along I saw several other lemons along the trail like this one above. I even eventually came across the marker that someone had dropped on the trail. Later after my hike I attempted to go to the web address out of curiosity and found that it was a disgusting website that was thankfully blocked by the coffee shop. As it turns out, this was a known website and trick to get people to view it. I photoshopped the address out of the first lemon so I’m not supporting their cause.

Aside from the lemons on the trail, I found this part here interesting. There was clearly a recent forest fire. The ground was burnt lower on the mountain and it looked like the flames passed upwards. Since the soil around it was darkened by the flames I’d assume the fire happened with the past few months.

Shortly after the forest fire area, I came across my favorite part along the whole trail. The rainforest! Of course it’s not really a rainforest, but after hiking through dead trees and coming across this wet green patch it sure felt like it. I called this area above the entrance to the rainforest.

Here’s one of the dark green ferns I saw along the trail. There were several parts with some large rocks that had water running over them and kept things green all year around. Keep in mind this was January, so it was great to feel that I had just stepped out of winter.

The rainforest didn’t last as long as I would have liked, but I probably had at least a good solid 15 minutes of hiking in it. This photo above shows one of the moss covered trees there. This area really was much wetter than the beginning parts of the trail. I wonder if this area is more likely to get more precipitation for some reason.

Also in the rainforest area was this giant rock. The thing was beautiful because of all the colors of licen and moss on it. It even had a few ferns hanging down here and there. I didn’t think to search for petryoglyphs at the time, but this giant rock would likely be a good contender.

Eventually I left what I called the rainforest and went back to a normal trail. Actually this was kind of a combination of the two sections of trail I had started on. Instead of everything being green and wet it was dryer but still had some green plants. By now I had hiked close to 5 miles and was pretty close to the summit. So the trail map shows it following a ridge, but close to the summit making a large U-turn as you meet up with a road. I didn’t want to walk along a road, so I thought I’d be smart and go off trail and follow it all the way to the top. At first it was easy, but the higher I got up the thicker the vegetation got. I even had to move around some other giant rocks and got a bit muddy. It wasn’t anything serious and probably was still faster than following the road. Definitely more interesting!

A few minutes after leaving the off trail area I had picked I ended up on the street. As it turns out, there is a small paved trail that goes to the summit so you don’t have to follow the street after all. I went up a short distance and arrived to this sign marking the top of Georgia. As the sign states, this should have been Greentown Bald instead of Brass, but a mistranslation of a Native America word left it Brasstown forever.

The view from Brasstown Bald had lots of potential, but being in the middle of January and without snow it wasn’t the best conditions. At nearly 5,000 feet, that’s a respectful elevation. I’ve seen some beautiful summer pics and even a few winter pics with snow, so this can be one of the best views in the state for sure. Below is myself on the top of Georgia. Since I hit the reset button for all 50 state high points, this was #3 for me! 47 to go.