Unicoi Trip – Day 3

19 December 2017

It was an eventful day.  I hiked 3 of the 6 waterfalls starting at 8:30 this morning and finishing at 3:30 pm.  My puppies are tired and I suspect it will be a 3 Advil night tonight.

I went to bed early last night but didn’t get to sleep until after midnight because I was wrestling with the thermostat.  I set it and it never shut off.  The heat was unbearable even though it read 76F.  I kept lowering it to get it to shut off and then it would run until I lowered the temperature again.  Finally, I had lowered it so much that it was too cold in the room. I shut the fan off (it was on continuous run) and that did the trick.  I was awake at 5 am and up by 5:30 pm.

I decided to do the closest fall first – Anna Ruby, just outside of the park.  It is in the Chattahoochee National Forest and the fall keeps bankers hours – the gate did not open until 8 pm.  I guess the US Forest Service sleeps in.

I then headed to Dukes Creek Falls.  Depending on who you believe, it is either a 2.3 mile round trip or a 3.8 mile round trip.  It felt more like the 2.3 was correct.  You experience a 344 foot elevation gain while you hike.  This was the tallest fall I saw today at 165 feet.  The water flow was pretty good and a fly fisherman added to the idyllic view.

The fee for parking was $4 payable to the US Forest Service.  It’s an honor system and you fill out your envelope with your car tag and make of vehicle, the date and time, etc.  Guess who does not provide pens or pencils and guess who didn’t have one on them?  The pen I had was dried up but I etched the form and put the envelope in the box.

From there, I headed to DeSoto Falls, so named because a piece of Spanish armor was discovered near the falls and supposedly DeSoto explored in this region.  This was about a half mile round trip to the lower falls.  There are three falls along this creek – upper, middle and lower.  The middle and upper were closed due to debris on the trail – another casualty of Hurricane Irma.

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The lower falls are 35 feet high and you experience a 160 foot elevation gain on the trail.  The first part is steep but after that the trail flattens out.

The next decision was a tough one.  I wanted to hike Ravens Creek Falls but this was a 2.5 mile one-way trip to the falls meaning that I had to hike 5.0 miles round trip.  I decided to go for it and I am glad I did.  The falls are really nice and you pass another fall, Duke Falls (not to be confused with Dukes Creek Falls earlier).

The trail was almost all up hill for 2.5 miles (567 feet elevation gain) and the last 100 feet were very steep, almost to the point of climbing hand over hand.  The falls are 50 feet high and pour through a split in the rocks.  The elevation here was 2,639 feet so I succeeded in getting some height in with my hikes.

Along the trail, I passed some older and younger hikers (I must be getting my second wind) and was feeling pretty good until some younger hikers passed me on the trail.

There was a class of young students with their chaperones and they made it to the top as well.

After I got back to the jeep, I decided to call it a day.  My tootsies were tired and tomorrow is another day. However, there is a 99% chance of rain tomorrow, so I may not be hiking after all. Stay tuned.