Georgia Traverse - New Years Trip

[chris_nc]

Had an awesome overland trip on the Georgia Traverse route for 5 days, over the New Year's holiday, with two other OB members (@generaloverland OB 9002, @tnave94 OB 6348) and a non-member. Didn't get in as many miles as we had hoped, but completed about half the Traverse, and rang in the New Year doing what we love!

The most awesome part was the Barred Owl that decided to visit our camp, catch a field mouse we had been watching for about 20 minutes (within feet of us), and then continue to hang out and even came down to the ground right next to us while we sat at the fire. Amazing!

Put the chain saw to work cutting out fallen trees blocking the trail and winching them off to the side.

Rang in the New Year at Unicoi State Park in Georgia and enjoyed an amazing steak dinner to celebrate.

Definitely a great way to kick off 2019!

 

[PatriotT4R]

Had an awesome overland trip on the Georgia Traverse route for 5 days, over the New Year's holiday, with two other OB members (@generaloverland OB 9002, @tnave94 OB 6348) and a non-member. Didn't get in as many miles as we had hoped, but completed about half the Traverse, and rang in the New Year doing what we love!

The most awesome part was the Barred Owl that decided to visit our camp, catch a field mouse we had been watching for about 20 minutes (within feet of us), and then continue to hang out and even came down to the ground right next to us while we sat at the fire. Amazing!

Put the chain saw to work cutting out fallen trees blocking the trail and winching them off to the side.

Rang in the New Year at Unicoi State Park in Georgia and enjoyed an amazing steak dinner to celebrate.

Definitely a great way to kick off 2019!

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What would you consider the best stops on the trail for camping? my trip is planned for this May.

 

[chris_nc]

What would you consider the best stops on the trail for camping? my trip is planned for this May.

Hard to say. We started at the eastern end of tracks available from the Georgia Traverse web site. Our trip worked out where we basically took our time getting started each morning, drove the route most of the day and then around maybe 3-3:30pm, we started looking for potential primitive camp sites for the night. The goal being to have camp set up just prior to dark if possible. The waypoints you can download from the site show an amazing number of potential camp sites, so we would just start scouting in the area we were in, based on those and then select one.

Another option would be to target established campgrounds. They were reasonably priced, pay per night, and we did end up doing that as well.

New Year's eve day, we had a hard time finding a semi-dry primitive site, so we ended up at Unicoi State Park. We had 4 vehicles in an RV spot, which worked out fine. A hot shower in the morning, and breakfast in Helen was a bonus!

 

[cracker0925]

I’m gonna run this new year... Amy suggestions?

 

[cracker0925]

Any

 

[Gear up overland]

Would you do the traverse with a trailer?

 

[chris_nc]

Hey folks, sorry for the delayed response. Nick, I think the only thing I would point out based on some recent information posted from the forest service is that the Wildcat Creek area (look up Wildcat Creek campgrounds) are closed due to major forest service road damage in the area. We stayed just past those campgrounds in what turned out to be one of our best nights of the trip. You should definitely review/plan your routes and contact the local ranger stations regarding closures. There are plenty of ways to re-route most of the traverse, but it helps to know ahead of time. Scott, you could definitely take a trailer (provided it was at least somewhat off-road capable) on the trails and routes that we did. You might have to be more selective on camp sites, but there were plenty of spots that would work for a trailer. I also know of a few other guys that took trailers and had no issues.

Hope this helps.