A while ago I made a post asking for recommendations on the bear creek backcountry trail in Cloudland Canyon state park, and I got some info that the land containing it had been sold and that the trail was no longer open, but I went backpacking this weekend and I'm happy to say that as of 11/17/25 the land has not been sold and the trail is still open! I do not know if they plan to sell land in the future but for right now it's still open, so just wanted to let yall know that.

Camped at a spot on Cowpen gap road and it was gorgeous! There were no other campers in the area that night from what I could tell and you could hear the wind blowing miles away. The temperatures were fine, it was cloudy and it did drizzle intermittently but the shelter held well and kept both me and my gear bone dry. The silence of the night was only broken by howling coyotes, which was a bit eerie to experience when alone but super cool nonetheless. Had to sleep with some music on just to cut the silence, but overall 10/10 experience.

Back from our long weekend at Vogel! Thanks for your recommendations! Not everything is pictured, but we got to visit Helton Creek Falls, Raven Cliffs Falls, Blood Mountain, post-hike ice cream at Meemaw's, boiled peanuts from Sunrise, Brasstown Bald, Dukes Creek Falls, and beer and a schnitzel sandwich in Helen.

Will definitely be back, want to visit so many of the other spots we couldn't make on this trip!

Whole tent is flooded right now, everything is soaked, with a thunderstorm right on top of me. But… still pretty awesome. I sorta accepted it at this point. Currently dipping my toes into the puddles of my tent.

Are there any good cool cliff jumping spots that are worth the visit

First, I want to say that my issues were unrelated to the park itself.

I was in the walk-in tent area and a group was playing loud music and was very disturbing until 11:45p! If you have been to the walk-in area, you would know how strangely it is laid out, so there's not a good way to tell where noise or light is coming from at all. It's actually quite a trek back to the car from some sites (mine was nearly 0.5 miles).

I do believe I quickly resolved the situation myself by being a bit of an asshole... but come on.

I can't say I've ever been in a situation like this. Yeah we all like to have fun, even at the parks, but at a dense, walk-in tent site? Maybe backcountry, cottage, or pioneer I could see.

What is even the protocol in a situation like this? I really do not think calling the park emergency number is a good use of resources.

Otherwise, I loved the park and will be back again soon! Only other complaint I'd have is the trail was roughed up by downed trees. They looked posed so as to not fall on anyone (still looked dangerous), but the path was not clear at all in parts of it.

After the advice of the sub on the conditions at Panther Creek/West cowpen I decided to pivot. Ended up doing a little fishing at Conasauga and then a leisurely 7 miles to the confluence of hickory creek/tearbritches/panther creek trails. Picked up a bunch of ticks, one of which I found at 11:30 last night after showering. Definitely need to do a respraying of permethrin on all my gear. It was a great day to get out there!

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Hello to all. My family was voting at Lake Russell in Elberton this past weekend. We left our tube on a sandy beach for a short moment. We boat here most every weekend and have never had anyone mess with our things. If you happen to have found this tube or know someone who came home with an extra our children and ourselves would greatly appreciate the kindness in returning it. Please message me if you have any information. Thank you.

Spent a night a couple of weeks ago up at Fort Mountain, the weather cooperated beautifully for late February. I caught a pretty significant rain storm around mid-night, but i stayed high and dry in my hammock with my rain fly.

It was good to get to test my gear in some adverse conditions.

If you haven't had a chance to visit the park, it is beautiful with tons of camping, hiking and some serious mountain bike trails.

Did a little out-and-back jaunt from swinging bridge to Skeenah Gap. The leaves are not yet in full glory, but the dogwoods, hickories, and some of the oaks are nice.

A few notes: the FS816 parking lot was super crowded!

The spring at the campsite between Licklog Mtn and Rhodes Mtn is waaay off trail (1000ish ft). The path is blazed blue but can be hard to follow.

BMT and DRT hold to the ridgeline so there are some long-ish water carries compared to the AT, but I never really needed more than 1.5L at my 2.7 mph pace.

If you don’t already, carry a little gear repair kit. A little super glue and some tenacious tape saved my night’s sleep for sure. I have no idea how I got a 3 inch scratch in my pad, but it would have been a pretty uncomfortable night without the repair. Now it looks like a nonplussed winking carrot. 😉

We arrived for a one night stay in some light rain which cleared out the next morning. November and it was pretty warm in the day time but pleasant at night. The canyon trail got crowded quick up top on a Saturday but if you venture out past the first few canyons the crowds thin out. The backpacking loop was pretty quiet as it's really just woods so does not draw any crowds. Did not do the entire loop - just out and back.

Hike in was easy. I think roughly 3 miles to our site if that. We went counter clockwise on red trail so hit sites 6, 5, 4, then 3. Six and Four don't have much privacy but Six has a large shelter I guess you could stay under. Ranger said "cross the bridge and then go up the hill". She was not kidding. It's quite a hill up to the ridge the sites are on. Other than that it was mostly flat though. The first 3/4 a mile or so follows a rain wash that is well - pretty wet after a rain. It was generally sandy more than muddy but if recent rains (drains for days I hear) then water proof boots would be helpful. Mine were not and I was okay by choosing footsteps carefully.

We explored the canyons in the AM which were better than I thought. Definitely worth going into canyon if you can rather than just looking from the top at visiter center.

Other than backcountry/hike in there is no camping FYI. But Florence Marina State Park is nearby.

Didn’t have the legs to summit Blood on day 2 of a one night trip, but had a great trek on Coosa Backcountry Trail starting out of Vogel State Park.

Lots of campsites, and plentiful water with the exception of one 5.5 mile stretch from Calf Stomp to after Slaughter Gap. Plenty of ridge time and had to be water smart for that stretch.

Went counter-clockwise and camped on the shoulder of Coosa Bald with a great view of Blood and Slaughter. Ran up to Coosa Bald for sunrise with just food and mess kit, which was a beauty of a breakfast and coffee. Returned to camp, packed it up and bushwhacked to top of Slaughter before running back down to the trailhead/park.

Beautiful hike with awesome views throughout when no growth on trees.

A couple of weeks back, I took a hike starting from the Betty Gap Trailhead. As I made my way down into the valley, I encountered a few fallen trees on the path, but they weren't too tough to navigate around. However, about 2 miles in, where the trail flattens out and you reach the first significant water crossing, it was a complete mess. There were several trees piled up right across the trail and into the water, stacked about 10 feet high and super dense. I managed to get past it, but it was quite a struggle to keep going. When I started searching for a place to camp, I found that there were fallen trees everywhere, making it impossible to find a flat spot without a tree in the way. In the end, I had to hike back out and set up camp almost right on the trail, on a slope. It honestly looked like a tornado had swept through and caused a lot of destruction. I’m not sure, but it seems like this trail from the Betty Gap side is going to be out of commission for quite some time.

Howdy folks! This past weekend me and 3 buddies hiked the Beech Bottom trail down to Jacks river to try our hand at fly fishing since I had read lots of promising reports.

Trail in was great shape, the minimal blowdowns were easy to step over and it wasn’t too hard even with half of the group being first time backpackers. You get some really nice vistas once you reach the Jacks river valley.

To get to the point, we camped just outside the closed zone (great spot btw just no firewood) next to the river and hiked both upstream through a pretty overgrown trail a mile or so and downstream from our camp to the falls. We all probably threw hundreds of casts with varying flys, and absolutely zero luck. We saw maybe 8 fish over 5 inches, rest were minnows. Did Hurricane Helene do some serious damage to the fishing up here or were we just fishing the wrong areas of the river?

My first time hiking up in this area and absolutely loved it! Right after the rain so it was a bit muddy but so worth it to hear the wind howling at the top of the trail.

My first time at the park and it did not disappoint! I camped and hiked out of the walk-in sites. I went in the middle of the week and it was a ghost town (ngl it was a bit creepy being the only person there at the campsite). I hiked the connecting west rim trail until I got to the waterfall trails, about a 7.5 mile loop. All around great time there.

Hiked the PMT solo last weekend, 2 nights, 3 days, really enjoyed myself.

Stayed the first night at Big Knot and the second night at Big Oak Springs, beautiful weather. I've just recently gotten back into backpacking, and this trip reminded me of what I love about being in the woods: solitude, natural beauty, and overcoming obstacles.

The only bummer was the amount of trash I found on the trail. Please leave no trace, it's just making your garbage cleanup someone else's problem if you litter.

Hello. A while ago I posted in this subreddit asking for help planning an overnight in the Cohutta Wilderness. Many kind people responded and I wanted to repay that kindness with a trip report. This post is meant to be searchable for future people wanting information.

My hike started at Betty Gap and descended into the Conasauga River Trail. As reported, there were pretty consistent blowdowns but most of them were just hopping over a downed tree or straddling a larger tree to get over. Before even reaching the Conasauga River there was one blowdown that completely obscured the trail and took some navigating to get around and find the trail again.

This led me to realize what I would want to pass along to others: If your are a moderately experienced hiker but wouldn’t consider yourself the best of the best, you should use GPS to make sure you can stay on trail. I always make a custom AllTrails map (which is possible on a PC with a free account) that contains the route I plan to hike. Then I start the activity at the trailhead. This gives me a decent map with highlighted trail to stick to. And my experience is that your location and direction will appear on the map even without cell phone reception.

After getting to Conasauga River Trail, expect to cross the river a ton. Stopping to change shoes every time you cross is really infeasible due to the frequency. I would suggest a hiking sandal or to just resign yourself to have wet shoes and socks. I went with the former. More on that later. If you find yourself wondering where the trail disappeared to, it probably crossed the river and you missed it. It never crosses in relatively deep sections. But of course how deep a “relatively deep” section is depends on water level. In my experience, the deepest crossing was my lower thigh. I had read crossings may have aqua green blazes that alert you, but I never saw one on this trail. Instead it was usually fairly obvious where to the crossing ended by the way the vegetation on the other side was slightly less dense where the trail picked up.

Slightly before the junction where Conasauga River Trail meets Panther Creek Trail heading North there was a series of blowdows that made navigating tricky. At the junction there is a decent spot for a small campsite and a fire ring. Locating Panther Creek trail at the junction there was very tough and again I was thankful to have GPS. I also knew from my research that Panther Creek Trail follows Panther Creek (surprise surprise) so that helped pick up where the trail started.

The first and only aqua green blaze I saw was on this trail, heading East toward Panther Creek Falls. This signaled the last crossing of Panther Creek and I’m glad the blaze was there because the crossing was not obvious. The other side of this cross was a very steep hill that someone may never think would have a trail on it. But once we knew there must be a trail on the other side it made it more obvious there was a worn down dirt path going up the steep hill. This, I came to find out, was the start of a very steep and very strenuous climb to the top of Panther Creek Falls. At this point, blowdowns and overgrowth makes it very difficult to follow any semblance of a trail. Blue blazes on trees mark the way, but sometimes it took me 5-10 minutes of scrambling around on blowdowns and boulders to find a blaze. And sometimes “finding a blaze” meant you reached a point where you can see a blaze, but it’s still 20 feet uphill.

This is where the shoes and pants are important. Because in stark contrast to the hiking sandals and shorts (or zip-off) pants you would want for water crossings, this section all but requires closed toed and sturdy shoes and long pants. Toward the end of this climb, the trail gets slightly more obvious with about 20-50 makeshift rock steps, most of which are maybe a foot tall. Note: My original plan had us camping at the top of the falls then hiking back down the next day to hike out via Hickory Creek. After climbing up, I would not consider going down this climb. This is why I hiked out via the remainder of Panther Creek Trail and East Cowpen Trail instead.

There is AT&T cell service at the top of the falls. Enough that I could actually browse Reddit for information about the trails I would be hiking the next day.

The top of Panther Creek Falls is obvious from its west facing bluff view. It’s unmistakable. There is a makeshift campsite right at the top of the falls, but it’s not completely flat. About 50 yards beyond that, there is a good and large flat spot between two creeks that is better suited for multiple people and tents.

In this flat area at the top of Panther Creek Falls the trail is either non-existent or I just never actually found it. But the area is open enough that just generally heading away from the falls is possible even without being on a trail. This makes hiking Panther Creek Trail out of this area difficult without GPS. Particularly it was hard knowing where and how to pick up the trail to get out of the flat spot with campsites. GPS was a lifesaver. After that while it is a steep climb it is currently not all that affected by large blowdowns and it’s not nearly as rocky and steep as the climb to the falls. I think I remember two large blowdowns that required some navigating but they were pretty self-explanatory. There are white blazes on this trail to help dissuade you from making wrong dead-end turns. Some are faded enough that you may question if they’re blazes. But if they’re questionable but on both sides of the tree, it’s probably a blaze.

Do note that after hiking out of the flat spot at Panther Creek Falls, there is not another significant water crossing for the rest of the way back. We passed a few trickles and puddles that could be used in a pinch. But there was no clear flowing water. We stocked up at the falls for the hike out and didn’t refill until we were picked up by friends at the trailhead.

East Cowpen is in good shape. It’s wide and has minimal trees to go over. Anything to go over on East Cowpen can either be stepped over or straddled over. The hike ended at Three Forks Trailhead.

That’s my report and advice. Overall a great trip but I was happy it was only the one night because it was tiresome physically and mentally. Heed the warnings about GPS. Take a paper map for sure. Do research. Bring a friend. Make sure you’re prepared for climbs, overgrowth, and water crossings and have appropriate clothing.

Thanks to those who commented on my earlier post. The walk in sites are a very easy walk from the car - not any further than you would walk to the toilet at any campground. In fact, I walked past the car on the way to the toilet. AND... free, hot showers. This was a very pleasant surprise.

There was plenty of hiking with trailheads in the park - maybe 2 miles to the AT. The trails leaving from the park are easy to find but aren't so well marked - several of us missed the turnoff to Blood Mountain so you've got to pay attention during those 2 miles.

They had entertainment at the pavilion both weekend nights if you were so inclined.

While the sites aren't 100% private, I didn't feel that my neighbors were close enough to be uncomfortable.

There aren't any bear boxes or cables but I decided if a bear came into camp it would be like the old joke about outrunning the bear - I only have to outrun you, not the bear.

All in all a pleasant spot from which to do many miles of day hiking.

I stayed at backcountry site #4 this weekend, and I wanted to share what a great time I had. The site is private, it has a new bear locker, and a creek runs through it.
My favorite feature is that it’s just 0.2 miles up trail to a beautiful overlook where I enjoyed the sunset. I can’t recommend this site enough.

Last weekend was my annual camping trip to Cumberland Island, and as always, it didn’t disappoint. I love going this time of year—perfect weather, fewer people, and just an incredible place to hike and camp. Usually, I stay at Brickhill Bluff, which is my favorite, but this time I camped at Stafford Beach Campground for the first time, and it was really nice. Quiet, shaded, and just a short walk to the beach.

The weather was perfect—mid-70s and sunny during the day, with a little rain one night. Made for some great sleeping, just lying in the tent listening to the light rainfall.

On Saturday, I hiked 25 miles along the beach. Didn’t see a single person the entire way. Just me, the sand, a few wild horses, and the ocean. And for miles, I hiked with dolphins. There were four separate pods right off the coast, each with maybe two or three dolphins, all pretty close together. They kept surfacing as I walked, almost like they were keeping pace with me. Definitely one of the coolest experiences I’ve had hiking.

As always, the sunrises and sunsets were unreal. The stargazing at night was just as good--including a shooting star. Absolutely one of my favorite places in Georgia to hike and camp. Already looking forward to next year’s trip.

Beautiful little pionneer sites and some awesome hiking passing by waterfalls, etc. Anyone else have any experience up there?

Every year I take a camping/road trip to north Georgia. This year I'm taking my new 2022 Wolf Pup 16TS, so I had to find places it will fit. It's a nice 22 foot camper with plenty of room for the dogs too.

I plan to start by visiting Stone Mountain for a couple nights, I'll check out the park then head to Arabia Mountain and AWARE for a day. After that is Cloudland Canyon for five nights, I'm hoping to check out Petty John's Cave, Ruby Falls in TN, and hike some trails. After that is DeSoto Falls for a few nights so I can check out the copper mine in Dahlonega and visit Helen as always. I also want to check out the nuclear aircraft facility an hour away. The last stop will be Dames Ferry for a couple nights before heading home.

So far it's looking like it's going to be a solid trip with some cool things to explore. I'm taking my two dogs, so let me know if you know of any good dog parks around these places. I my find myself with some extra time at Cloudland or DeSoto, so let me know if there are some good places to check out around those.

Took the AT from Woody Gap to Neel Gap yesterday. AllTrails has it at 10.4, the signs say 11.3 and I logged about 12.4 according to my watch. The morning rain made for a muddy trail, but the rivulets and little falls were popping and beautiful. The weather was great, and I much prefer the Blood Mountain approach from this side. Trillium was in bloom all over the place and so pretty. Photos: Preachers Rock, White Trillium, view from Blood Mountain, and the view down trail toward a small waterfall on Baker Mountain.