AT and Benton McKaye

Anne joined us this year for a few days and we wanted to take her on our favorite loop of the Appalachian and Benton McKaye trails. You start at Three forks and meander up a lovely forested AT.

Petey also had the pleasure of accompanying us on this one. He wasn't too sure of the hiking sticks and I must admit, he is about as eager to ford streams as I am. I do love the variety of fungi to be seen on this trailAnd weird growths on trees..And other unique vegetationBut the bummer on this trip is, that although the AT is one of the best marked and maintained trails, we happened to miss the turn or we were very cleverly turned around (that is what Wood and Anne claim - I continue to forget their reasoning and think we missed the trail) and never did hook up with the Benton McKaye and ended up rehooking up with the AT and coming back down the way we started (after about a 1/4 mile clever turn around). I think the massive rains we have had in Georgia as of late, made the trail a bit impassible in places, because I remember all other stream fords on this trail - at least this loop of it, being very easy to get across. We had some challenges and Petey and I waited while Anne and Wood forded and then tried to find the trail on the other side (petey does not like to get wet) (me neither). So we ended up crossing back over the same road to our beloved truck. BUT I have to say the FS road to get to this trail and then the windy country roads to get back (which include another FS road) are all part of the adventure and all in all it was a great day.