20 Day Quest for the Connie Pt 2

[Tipi Walter]

Okay boys, I manage to get my gear squared away and pull a September trip (with cooler temps than July) into the Big Frog/Cohutta wilderness. I started on the Ocoee River on the BMT and hiked south to the Conasauga River and back again. A great trip overall and especially the lucky opportunity to see 3 pit vipers---2 copperheads and a rattlesnake.

All trip pics are here---

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backp...e-Connie-Pt-2/

Btw, my first Quest of the Connie was in October 2015 and can be found here---

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backp...or-The-Connie/

20 DAY
QUEST
FOR THE
CONNIE
PT 2

TRIP 185
August 30--September 18, 2017

HIGHLIGHTS
** THE REMNANTS OF HURRICANE HARVEY
** DAY 2 SOAKED IN THE RAIN
** ALABAMA BACKPACKER STEVEN ON FROG MT
** 40Fs ON BIG FROG MOUNTAIN
** COHUTTA WILDERNESS RANGER KEVIN
** 4 HORSEBACK RIDERS CROSSING ROUGH RIDGE CREEK ON JACKS RIVER TRAIL
** BIG THUNDERSTORM IN CROOKED DOGWOOD GAP
** FIRST DESCENT OF PANTHER CREEK TRAIL WITH 75 LB PACK
** HICKORY CREEK-RICE CAMP TO JACKS RIVER
** JACKS/RICE CAMP CROSSING SUCCESS
** COPPERHEAD ON JACKS RIVER TRAIL
** 8 SCOUT LEADERS ON JACKS AND UP PENAL TRAIL
** THE NUT HAUL UP FROM DOUBLE SPRING GAP
** HURRICANE IRMA HITS THE BIG FROG AND I HUNKER IN
** PULLING THE YELLOW STAND/BIG CREEK LOOP
** RATTLESNAKE ON GRASSY GAP TRAIL
** COPPERHEAD ON GRASSY GAP TRAIL
** 34 CREEK CROSSINGS

TRAILS
Entrance at Thunder Rock Campground on Ocoee River
BMT South (West Fork 303)
**West Fork 3rd Crossing Camp**
Rough Creek Trail 70
Big Frog Trail
**Low Gap**
Big Frog Trail Up
**Fork Jct Camp**
Big Frog Trail
**Frog Mt Top**
BMT South to Double Spring Gap
Hemp Top Trail
Penitentiary Trail
**Mid Penal Camp**
Penitentiary Trail
Jacks River
**Jacks/Penal One Up Camp**
Jacks River
**Rough Ridge Creek Camp**
Rough Ridge Up
**Crooked Dogwood Gap**
Rough Ridge Up
Cowpen Trail (North)
**Panther Top**
Panther Creek (Down)
**Conasauga/Panther Camp**
Conasauga River
Hickory Creek
Rice Camp Down
**Rice Camp Old Trip Camp**
Rice Camp
Jacks River (4 Crossings up)
**Jacks/Penal One Up Camp**
Penitentiary Branch Trail Up
Hemp Top (North)
Double Spring Gap Nut Climb to Big Frog Mt
**Frog's Tongue Camp**
Big Frog Trail
Fork Ridge Down
Rough Creek 70
**West Fork 3rd Crossing Camp**
West Fork Trail
**West Fork Camp**
West Fork Trail
Trail 70 Rough Creek
Big Frog Trail
**Low Gap**
Yellow Stand Lead Down
Big Creek Up
**Peter Camp Creek Camp**
Big Creek Up
Grassy Gap
Wolf Ridge Up
**High Curbow Camp**
Wolf Ridge
Frog Mt
**Frog's Tongue Camp**
Big Frog Trail
Big Creek Top Down
Grassy Gap Trail to Low Gap
Big Frog Trail
**Frog Pond**
Big Frog Trail
FS 221 Roadwalk
BMT North
FS 45 Roadwalk to Thunder Rock and OUT


All trips begin with a pack, in my case a Mystery Ranch G7000 at 85 lbs with full 20 day food and fuel load and 6 books to read and burn etc. The "accoutrements of idiocy". And my trip beings on the Ocoee River in Thunder Rock campground on the Benton MacKaye trail heading south. I had significant problems with this pack due to the hard plastic hipbelt stiffeners which dug into my hip flesh. Time for an upgrade or remake.


I hiked in about 6 miles on the BMT and set up camp at the 3rd Rough Creek crossing on the West Fork trail. Notice the dirt bank on right. This will be important information when Hurricane Irma swings thru and I need a place to go with some protection from falling trees. I come here on Day 13 and the dirt bank provides this protection.



I eventually make my way up to Frog Mt and pass thru the wonderful rhodo tunnel as shown. The first of my trip gets me soaked with the remnants of Hurricane Harvey. It's about 10+ miles from Thunder Rock to the top of the Frog.



While camping on top of Frog Mt I run into this backpacker with his Kelty pack from Alabama. It got into the 40Fs by early morning.



I leave Frog Mt and take the BMT south into Double Spring Gap---it's the hardest section of trail in the whole area as it descends (or climbs) a 1,000 feet in one mile. I stay on the BMT south over Hemp Top Mt and take Penitentiary Branch trail down to Jacks River and cross downstream to this campsite at the jct of the Rough Ridge trail. While there I meet Cohutta wilderness Ranger Kevin on right with ranger-in-training Colin on left. Kevin knows more about Cohutta than anyone and we have an interesting conversation. He's out and about citing people around Jacks River Falls breaking the rules.



In order to get to the Conasauga River I have to cross the Jacks and head south in a big way. One avenue is this---the Rough Ridge trail. Of course the whole place got burned out in the November 2016 wildfires but it has healed up nicely. Rough Ridge though is a Nutbuster trail because it climbs steeply for several miles.



This is a fave campsite and is called Crooked Dogwood Gap and is in the middle of the Rough Ridge trek after the nasty pitches. It has water and so you can leave Rough Ridge Creek with minimal fluids. I got hit with a big thunderstorm here with buckets of rain and lightning zaps. Survived to see morning.

[Tipi Walter]

After I finish the Rough Ridge trail I tie into Cowpen trail and head north past Cowpen Mt (second highest mt in the area, next to Big Frog), and camp on Cowpen in Panther Top Camp which is right next to the trailhead to Panther Creek trail, the toughest trail in the Cohut. I've been up this trail several times with a pack but never down the thing with a 75 lb pack. I feel brave and decide to descend olde Panther. Here is the Panther Bluff section at the Falls where the trail passes this pretty rock ledge and falls like a rock down to the right in a giant boulder field. Go slow, cinch up protective cup, pause often, don't trip and pitch forwards, go slow. Did I mention going slow?



Panther Creek trail eventually drops you down to the Conasauga River and so the Quest of the Connie is complete!!! I set up camp nearby and watch a dayhiker crossing the Connie on his way up Panther Creek trail.



On Day 10 I cross the Connie one more time and get on the Hickory Creek trail which in about 9 miles takes me to the Rice Camp trail as shown here. I am now heading back north to the Jacks as I finished my quest. This is my biggest mileage day at about 11.



This is probably the most difficult Jacks crossing of all---the Rice Camp/Jacks ford. Why so difficult? Because of the brown algae on the rocks and the bedrock covered in the stuff. It looks easy, right? It ain't. I dump my pack and make a second hiking stick and go in my boots for 2 practice runs. If you stand on the pebbles and river stones you have no problems, but once you step up on the bedrock you'll be flung down hard and soaked. The biggest challenge of the trip? Yes, especially with my 75 lb pack.



Once I pull the Jacks crossing I go up-river to Jacks Falls and run into Ranger Kevin talking to some backpackers heading downstream. He's out every weekend checking to see if idiots are camping around the Falls illegally or bringing alcohol etc. Notice my satanic red devil pack on the rock.



I leave the Falls and head up Jacks 3 more crossings and run into Jimmy relaxing on the trail after a big meal. We talk and he wants to know all the trails I've done on this trip and I show him all my camera pics. He's sluggish and there's a family with a kid behind me so I move him off the trail with my hiking pole and we say our goodbyes.



I continue up the Jacks and set up camp one crossing up from the Penitentiary trail jct and see 8 boy scout leaders crossing below my camp so I get some pics.

[Tipi Walter]

On Day 12 all talk is of Hurricane Irma approaching the mountains and so I get an early start away from the Jacks (don't want to be anywhere near the Jacks in high water) and take the Penitentiary Branch trail up and out of the river valley. I catch up with the boy scout leaders who are also anxious to get the heck out of the wilderness. We hike together up the Penal trail.



With the scout leaders on the Penal trail. They pretty much beg me to get out of the mountains before the Hell Storm and get into a town but I demur and tell them the woods is my home. We reach the Hemp Top trail and they bail south out to Dally Gap and their cars while I head north back into the Big Frog and that protected spot I mentioned in a previous pic. Funny thing is, while these guys told me to get out at all costs, none of them offered me a ride from Dally Gap. Hmmmm . . . . .



When's the last time I did a really righteous nighthike?? Well, after leaving the scouts I climb to Frog Mt (up the hellish Double Spring Gap Nut) and set up camp on the Tongue of the Frog (ridge table a little north of the Frog). Around midnight of Day 13 the wind really starts to pound the mountain and so I'm on the trail by 5:30am and ready to lose some elevation and find a protected spot. All news was of Irma coming into North Georgia and destroying everything. I slapped in new batteries in my headlamp and had a great night trek down to the West Fork of Rough Creek.



I set up camp at my protected West Fork spot (as explained) and Irma is nothing like they forecasted for my area so I booked it back up into the Big Frog wilderness and took the Yellow Stand Lead trail to link up with the Big Creek trail, with Big Creek here as shown. The Big Creek trail is one of the few Frog trails which follows a big creek for a long ways.



The Big Creek trail follows Big Creek and crosses this creek, Peter Camp Creek. I set up camp next to this creek at a new spot and wash my hair and scalp and clothing and generally get renewed for the last several days of the trip.



The Big Creek trail climbs up to the Grassy Gap trail in a little place I call Bark Legging Gap and I turn right and take Grassy Gap trail to this spot, Grassy Gap. Then I take Wolf Ridge up and camp in Curbow Fields, a giant flat level ridge below Big Frog Mt.

[Rasputen]

Hey Tipi,

Have enjoyed the trip reports and pics as I prepare for an end of October trip into the Big Frog.
BTW- just got back from a trip into the Citico. The Brush needs your help..Good grief... and the trail sign/post is missing again..

[Tipi Walter]

Wolf Ridge trail pops me back out onto Frog Mt and I head north and set up on the Tongue of the Frog and run into my first BMT thruhikers of the trip. This is Compass Bearer. Her companion Steven is coming up the trail.



On Day 19 I bail off the Tongue on the Big Frog trail and take the upper end of Big Creek trail down to Grassy Gap trail and turn right to get to Low Gap. On the way I run into 2 pit vipers in quick succession. This is Johnny sunning himself on the trail and we talk. He won't move and I can't get around him so I gently prod him with a long sapling stick with leaves on the end. After 30 minutes he gets the idea and slides away.



What's odd is just 15 minutes later I run into Billy enjoying his day on the trail. We talk and he wants to see all my camera pics of the trip and then gives me a warning about humans on the trail with these words "They are dangerous and can deliver a painful bite". I agree.



My trip ends on Day 20 as I take the Big Frog trail out to FS road 221 and roadwalk to the BMT intersection and take the BMT north to FS road 45 and do a roadwalk back into Thunder Rock campground where I meet my shuttle ride out.

[Tipi Walter]

Hey Tipi,

Have enjoyed the trip reports and pics as I prepare for an end of October trip into the Big Frog.
BTW- just got back from a trip into the Citico. The Brush needs your help..Good grief... and the trail sign/post is missing again..

Somebody has it out for the Brush by all these post removals. If you have a facebook account I wish you would voice your concerns here and let them know---

https://www.facebook.com/groups/131281280304018/

And ask them why they haven't worked the Brush since 2009!

I haven't been in the Citico/Slickrock for several months mostly because of the motorcycle noise pollution on the Skyway. You can hear them even on the Brush Mt trail. Grrrr . . . . . And they completely destroy any wilderness feel on many other trails.

What's your Big Frog trip plans and route???

[Rasputen]

Somebody has it out for the Brush by all these post removals. If you have a facebook account I wish you would voice your concerns here and let them know---

Haven't used FB in years but happy to drop a line if it will help. My legs looked like someone pulled me out of the mouth of a great white after this trail. This is my 3rd time on the Brush and the work to joy ratio might make it the last for some time!

What's your Big Frog trip plans and route???

Tentative plan: Mt trip is a month out so the plan may change as I recon the map/book.

Day 1- Thunder Rock CG --> BMT to Big Frog Mtn
Day 2- Licklog Ridge--> Rough Creek ( camp somewhere?)
Day 3- Rough Creek-->Big Frog Trail (camp somewhere?)
Day 4- Big Frog--> back to BMT and out

[Tipi Walter]

Tentative plan: Mt trip is a month out so the plan may change as I recon the map/book.

Day 1- Thunder Rock CG --> BMT to Big Frog Mtn
Day 2- Licklog Ridge--> Rough Creek ( camp somewhere?)
Day 3- Rough Creek-->Big Frog Trail (camp somewhere?)
Day 4- Big Frog--> back to BMT and out

Sounds good. I did the Licklog down from the Frog once and it offers a pretty view over to the Frog. At the Rough Creek 70 jct you can turn left and head down to the East Fork crossing where there are some campsites by water. Scout up and down the creek away from the trail etc.

I fashion Trail 70 into 3 parts---Rough Creek East, Rough Creek Middle and Rough Creek West. The west portion skirts by Frog Pond just before it merges with the Big Frog Trail 64. There's an excellent campsite right by this jct. Oh and if you set up camp there (above the Pond), you can follow Big Frog trail left about 200 feet and reach a usually flowing spring for water. One time I got my water out of the Pond though.

On this last trip instead of getting back on the BMT I hiked Big Frog trail out to FS road 221 and followed it to the BMT intersection and then hiked the BMT over to the FS 45 road crossing and just roadwalked it down to Thunder Rock.

[Rasputen]

Perfect. Thanks for the 1st hand trail knowledge. Between your pics/reports, a few videos and maps I have a pretty good lay of the land.

Hoping for some cool/cold weather come late October. See ya out there sometime in the high lonesome...

[johnspenn]

Perfect. Thanks for the 1st hand trail knowledge. Between your pics/reports, a few videos and maps I have a pretty good lay of the land.

Hoping for some cool/cold weather come late October. See ya out there sometime in the high lonesome...

http://www.cohuttawildernesshiking.com/ Is a really good resource on the trails in the Cohuttas. There's a sister website that covers Big Frog as well.

http://www.bigfrogwildernesshiking.com/

[Tipi Walter]

http://www.cohuttawildernesshiking.com/ Is a really good resource on the trails in the Cohuttas. There's a sister website that covers Big Frog as well.

http://www.bigfrogwildernesshiking.com/

Yes, these are good links. There used to be a Cohutta forum called GeorgiaHikes.com which had in-depth discussions on all things Cohut---with guys like Trail Frog and others---Experts of the area. Maybe I mentioned this before. The site though has disappeared. I wonder what ever happened to Trail Frog?

[TNhiker]

I wonder what ever happened to Trail Frog?

someone kissed him and he turned into a Trail Prince.....

[Tipi Walter]

Or a rattlesnake ate him.

[martinb]

Irma hit me with 80+ mph gusts. I was snug as a bug in my house, never lost power. Nice TR Walter, as usual. I'd like to check this area out one day.