Had a case of cabin fever this weekend so my 8 yo son and I hopped in the JK yesterday and hit the road. Didn't really know where we'd end up but pointed the rig northbound. We weren't on the road long before we found our first stop. We caught the last 45 minutes of an Atlanta Falcons morning training session. Very cool.
View attachment 157483
View attachment 157485
We made a pitstop for lunch at one of the many greasy spoons in the South - Waffle House. My son and I discussed our mission over waffles, bacon, eggs and hash browns. It was then I remembered a WOL thread from the east coast folks describing a short mountain trail that led atop a mountain with an incredible view. After a little digging on the Wayalife app via my iPhone I found the info I was looking for - Bell Mountain in Hiawassee GA. Bellies full I set the GPS for our new destination.
It was a beautiful winding 1.5 hour drive through numerous small GA mountain communities to the trailhead. There is absolutely no signage to be found so finding the trailhead was only an assumption until we came up on two other rigs that had already come off the mountain. The only regret is not being prepared to properly record our trip. iPhone had virtually no free space so I had to delete pics from my photo album to get the precious few we were able to capture. My gopro stopped minutes into the ride due to a full SD card- $#%!. Lesson learned.
These are the moments I'll never forget being able to share with my boy. It's amazing, I've lived in GA all my life and didn't have a clue about this place until learning about it on this forum. That's pretty damn cool - thanks!.
View attachment 157497
View attachment 157499
View attachment 157501
I consider myself somewhere between a noob and intermediate to off-roading. I believe this trail was labeled as easy but I can assure you I experienced the "pucker factor" on a few occasions. To be honest, it was a bit careless of me running the trail without a spotter. Hindsight's 20/20 but still glad for the experience. Funny thing is my son said he was excited and scared all at the same time. Scared because the trailed looked SCARY and excited because he thought we may be able to try out the winch (didn't need it).
We spent the better part of an hour at the top taking in the panoramic views, climbed a few foot trails to even better vantage points and shared some laughs. For obvious reasons my son renamed the site "Color Mountain". I'm sure there's a story to all the graffiti but haven't researched it yet.
After satisfying our off-road itch we made our way back south and stopped to throw a line in a few mountain streams and decided to stay the night in a Bavarian style town named Helen GA. Had a great German style dinner, watched the crazy river tubers and just got out of the day to day grind even if it was for just a day. REALLY wish I could have taken more pics to share. Next time...
View attachment 157521.