PDA

View Full Version : directions please



mdionne
02-26-2004, 19:22
i am dropping a thru hiker off next week at the approach trail and would like a short hike to the summit (for the memories). i need directions to forest road 42. the one just outside springer summit. from say, oh i don't know, maine. using roads and highways please. :D

Dances with Mice
02-26-2004, 19:49
i am dropping a thru hiker off next week at the approach trail and would like a short hike to the summit (for the memories). i need directions to forest road 42. the one just outside springer summit. from say, oh i don't know, maine. using roads and highways please. :D

To get to Georgia's Amicalola Falls State Park from Maine, use roads and highways to drive south. Once you cross the Georgia state line, stop to get gas and marvel about how much cheaper gas is in Georgia and buy a roadmap. Use it to find Amicalola Falls State Park. Drop the hiker off there

http://www.gastateparks.org/

Then drive to the terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia using the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club's directions.

http://www.georgia-atclub.org/directions.html

loonyhiker
02-26-2004, 20:55
If you follow the maps to Amicalola State Park, the park people will be able to give you directions to FR42. They did for me last year and it was easy to follow their directions.

loony



i am dropping a thru hiker off next week at the approach trail and would like a short hike to the summit (for the memories). i need directions to forest road 42. the one just outside springer summit. from say, oh i don't know, maine. using roads and highways please. :D

ga>me>ak
03-01-2004, 12:33
Stop at the Ranger station in Dahlonega (just across the parking lot at Walmart) and they will give you a highlighted map right to 3 forks-the start of the AT off of FS42. It's 10 miles to where the trail crosses and takes right at 1 hour to get there from HWY52(I think 52). The road is ok but don't plan to be in a hurry. Great place to camp and have surprise/treats for friends or anyone else on their first day out....beer,steak dinner,etc. For that matter, let them slack it to there and spend the night and then go on.

hacksaw
03-01-2004, 12:57
Stop at the Ranger station in Dahlonega (just across the parking lot at Walmart) and they will give you a highlighted map right to 3 forks-the start of the AT off of FS42. It's 10 miles to where the trail crosses and takes right at 1 hour to get there from HWY52(I think 52). The road is ok but don't plan to be in a hurry. Great place to camp and have surprise/treats for friends or anyone else on their first day out....beer,steak dinner,etc. For that matter, let them slack it to there and spend the night and then go on.

HOLD ON HERE!

3 forks is about 4.5 trail miles NORTH of the terminus on FS 58!

IF you want to get to the trail crossing at BIG STAMP GAP on FS 42 the best road will be to go NORTH out of Dahlonega on US 19 to the intersection where US 19 turns right and GA 60 goes straight up toward Suches. Follow GA 60 up past Woody Gap about two miles to Cooper Gap Road (FS 42) on your left at Tritts old Store(now an antique store). Follow this road to the end of pavement and you will proceed about 12 miles on FS 42 (watch your signs at the road crossings and make sure you stay on FS 42) to the parking lot at the AT road crossing. This is the long way in, however. The best way from the north is from Ellijay at the intersection of GA-515 and GA-52. Follow GA 52 SOUTH for approx. 10 miles to Stanley's Store at the intersection with Roy Road between the store and the Cartecay Methodist Church. turn left on Roy Rd., go about 10 miles to the end of Roy Rd. and turn RIGHT on Doublehead Gap Rd. (currently there is no road sign for D.H. Gap rd.) Go about 2.5 miles to FS 42 on your right. Turn onto the gravel road and in 6.5 miles, about a 30 minute ride, you will cross the AT. Turn into the parking lot to your left immediatly after passing the AT sign.

As to the road conditions, I was up FS 42 yesterday(in a '88 Oldsmobile 98 with about 4 inches of ground clearance) with absolutely NO difficulty. The road is in the best shape I've ever seen it for this time of year.

Hacksaw

ga>me>ak
03-06-2004, 10:41
Hacksaw...
are you sure we aren't talking the same place, just different ways to get there. heading west out of Dah on 52 to Grizzalds old store hang a right( I think this is Nimble Rd, go to the old church hang a right, follow it to the dirt road which is the FS 42 road. You follow it out past the ranger weigh in station (deer). About 6-7 miles in, it comes to a intersection with 2 other 50's something roads, but 42 goes west? to the At. Just before you get to the AT, you pass the road to Hickory Flats Cemetary :dance on the right( the sign may be gone). If you continue on past the AT, the road takes you to the church you mentioned. Am i missing something here... I've been going up there for the last 4 years to camp/hike.... or am I just confused :-?

Rain Man
03-06-2004, 14:49
As to the road conditions, I was up FS 42 yesterday(in a '88 Oldsmobile 98 with about 4 inches of ground clearance) with absolutely NO difficulty. The road is in the best shape I've ever seen it for this time of year.

Hacksaw! It was great to meet you and Happy at the Amicalola Falls Visitors Center last Sunday! Sorry you couldn't hike up with us.

As to the condition of USFS #42 from the west, the conditions were excellent. My wife drove our Dodge Caravan up from the west (Ellijay/Cartecay side) on Sunday and I drove it back down on Monday. We went slowly due to the washboard effect and "potholes" here and there. But to be an unpaved Forest Service road, it was dry and very good. Not a single risk of bottoming out or getting stuck. I did drive very slowly, about 15 mph, but that was partly just to enjoy the mountain scenery.

By the way, this was in spite of the fact that the lady ranger in the Amicalola Visistors Center told us due to "all the rain and snow" that she wouldn't attempt it without an SUV. She seemed to be serious, but later we decided that must have simply been the "official propaganda" they have to tell the public.

Outside, someone (it may have been you, Hacksaw) told us they'd just done it in the past week and it was in great shape. That's certainly what we discovered. I think they need to be a little more "accurate" in their reports of conditions, otherwise how do we know when to believe them and when not to believe them at all?!

If my wife couldn't not have driven up, we would have had a major disruption to our plans.

Rain Man

.

hacksaw
03-14-2004, 15:03
Hacksaw...
are you sure we aren't talking the same place, just different ways to get there. heading west out of Dah on 52 to Grizzalds old store hang a right( I think this is Nimble Rd, go to the old church hang a right, follow it to the dirt road which is the FS 42 road. You follow it out past the ranger weigh in station (deer). About 6-7 miles in, it comes to a intersection with 2 other 50's something roads, but 42 goes west? to the At. Just before you get to the AT, you pass the road to Hickory Flats Cemetary :dance on the right( the sign may be gone). If you continue on past the AT, the road takes you to the church you mentioned. Am i missing something here... I've been going up there for the last 4 years to camp/hike.... or am I just confused :-?


ga>me>ak,

Well, I'm sure we're talking about the same destination (the southern terminus for the AT), but three forks is definately NOT the closest parking for the .9 mile walk to the summit of Springer Mtn.

When you speak of the road by Grizzle's Store off Ga. 52 that is Nimblewill Church Road. it does about a five mile loop back to Ga 52 at about the 2 mile marker in Lumpkin County. Off this road is FS 28-1 and FS 28-3. 28-3 goes past Nimblewill Church and up to Nimblewill Gap on the approach trail. This is also the service access road for the Len Foote Hike Inn, but you can't drive to it. The road has been abandoned after Nimblewill Gap. The former terminus for 28-3 was Old Bucktown Road which dead ends into Roy Road about five miles east of Ga 52. This is the traditional route from Dahlonega to Ellijay some 100-150 years ago.

More important to this discussion is FS 28-1. It turns north off Nimblewill Church Road about .2 miles before 28-3, considering that you are travelling west out of Dahlonega. Travelling northeast on 28-1 at about the three mile point you will come to a Y in the road. The right fork is 28-1 toward Camp Merrill and on to Cooper Gap and across FS 42 through some smaller mountain communities and eventually intersecting Ga 60 several miles west of Suches.

The left fork is FS 77 and that is the road you drove up 6 or 7 miles to those "50's something roads". When you get to that point you are at the intersection with FS-77, FS 58 and FS 42. FS 77 ends at that point. FS 58 begins at that point and is what you took to get to three forks when you drove straight through the intersection. FS 58 is the road that goes by the Hickory Flats Cemetary, the Three Forks road crossing of the AT, and it does end at a church, however it is not the same church as the one at the western end of FS42. This is also the extension of Doublehead Gap Road to the northeast of the FS 42 intersection, however when it changes from paved to dirt I think the name changes to Askey Rd., one of the oldest roads in the area.

Back to the intersection, if you were to have turned left at that point you would have then been on FS 42 heading west. In about 3 miles you would have passed the road crossing with the first section of the Benton Mackaye Trail. In another mile you would have passed Big Stamp Meadow on your right, an area several acres big that is kept clear cut and seeded with grass for a food plot for the long legged wood rats in the area. (local name for Mchigan white tailed deer, the introduced species replacing native white tail that were hunted to near extinction in the first half of the last century) In another mile past the meadow you would have come to the FS 42 parking lot on your right, just 30 feet short of the road crossing with the AT, .9 miles north of Springer Mountain. Another 6.5 miles west on FS 42 is the western end of FS 42, at the (paved) Doublehead Gap Road.

And once more, back to the intersection (Whose name, BTW, is Winding Stair Gap), had you turned right here in about 12 miles staying on FS 42, you exit the CNF on Cooper Gap Road, the road that goes past the old Gooch Gap Shelter, at the intersection of Cooper Gap Rd. and GA 60 just east of downtown(?) Suches at Tritt's Store (now an antique shoppe).

This information was compiled over 35 years of riding these old Forest Service Roads and watching them change names, numbers, and routeing through the mountains over the years. The most accurate map I know of that is consistently correct in numbering of these roads and showing their ties with public roads and trail crossings and shelter locations is one designed for the hunter. It has enhanced topo maps of all the Georgia WMA's in the northern zone and inherently includes all the miles of the Ga. AT, albiet on separate maps which are all on the same sheet of plasticized paper. This map is available at all the sporting goods stores and most convenience stores in this area, as well as the Forest Service Storefront locations in Dahlonega, Blairsville, Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Hiawassee, Clayton, and on and on. The map is titled something like Georgia Northern Zone WMAs and is around 8 bucks. I would highly recommend it to all you other North Georgia hikers on this site, particularly if you get in the woods with hikers much. I think you can find it at REI, and I know you gan get it at most WalMarts and the one and only BARGAIN BARN in beautiful Jasper, Georgia!

I think you can now see that we were indeed speaking of the same destination.

Hope this helps you all in getting around in the North Ga. woods....Have a ball! it's fun to waste a day driving around on old dirt roads, in fact, it's a southern tradition!

Hacksaw

Happy
03-14-2004, 22:12
Hacksaw, It was a PLEASURE to meet you two weeks ago, and I KNOW you KNOW the North GA mountains like no other...thanks for the info...but I still want to know where the location is for the Mountain Lions...after we talked on Sunday and I hiked the approach trail I talked with "Gizmo" at the top and he had just encountered a "Black One" and was very excited! Send me a PM.