Johns Mountain/Pinhoti Trail

 Scenic City TTA hike led by Tammy Hendrick 

Beautiful day, beautiful hikers! Fourteen of us trekked up and around Johns Mountain in North Georgia. No one truned back at the stone steps climbing up the side of the mountain, but there was a lot of huffing and puffing. The snack at the top and the views made up for the effort. Unfortunately the hike on the northeast side of the mountain was quite the ascent too. FInnaly, we arrived at the second ovservation deck and some of the hikers found out that they could have driven to this overlook! Not a problem for these hardy hikers, as we picked our way through some bounders walking down the mountain. Next stop was Keown alls, which dripped into the nice rock house. Another mile or so and we completed our double loop trail. We hiked about 5.5 miles withe 100 foot elevation gain. 

Larry mentioned to me that there was a Pocket Recreation Area I should see while I was this close, only about a mile away. It was so pretty, and a CCC built spring house and short rock walls to guide the crystal clear spring water to the creek it joined. The water coming out of the spring was about two feet deep. I've never seen this much water flowing out of a spring. This whole area is beautiful. 

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Pinhoti Trail CHC

My first hike on the Pinhoti Trail. Destination: Snake Creek Gap trailhead on Georgia Hwy 136. This is a huge gravel parking lot with a bathroom. Met three hikers from the Chattanooga Hiking Club. Susan was our hike leader today and had a map and trail descriptions for each of us. This part of the trail is Section 25, we did 5.2 miles of it and returned for a total of 10.4 miles. There were a few wet weather streams in the first 1.1 miles. Then you see the pile of rocks at the crest of Mill Creek Mountain. I think someone is trying to make the mountain taller. It's a really pretty ridge top walk with two good views into the valley. When the leaves fall, the views along the ridge will be much better.

There were five or six campsites along the trail and a big one by Swamp Creek where we had lunch. On our return climb out of the cove, we had stopped for a breather and I saw something moving on top of the ridge. Not a bear, not a hog, it's a big black and white dog. Sniffing around not paying any attention to us. Nobody but us on the trail all morning, and it would be a long walk into either valley....and then along came some hikers but nobody was looking for a dog.

After the hike I drove further on 136 then left onto the Scenic Byway. There are other trailheads for the Pinhoti, John's Mountain Overlook, Keown Falls, and the Pocket. The Pocket had a campground. Keown Falls parking lot was full, lot of folks out today. Then I drove to John's Mountain WMA. There must have been 200 tents in the meadow areas. Lake Marvin is there and they have rock climbing, hiking, biking, horse riding.

A little about the Pinhoti Trail:

The Pinhoti Trail is a long-distance trail, 335 miles long, located in the states of Alabama and Georgia. The trail’s southern terminus is on Flagg Mountain, near Weogufka,  Alabama, the southernmost peak in the state that rises over 1,000 feet. (The mountain is often called the southernmost Appalachian peak, though by most geological reckonings, the actual Appalachian range ends somewhat farther north in Alabama.) The trail’s northern terminus is where it joins the Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia.

The Pinhoti Trail is a part of the Eastern Continental Trail and the Great Eastern Trail, both very long-distance US hiking trails connecting multiple states.

The north terminus is approximately 70 miles west of Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

Georgia has about 164 miles of the trail, and Alabama contains the other 171 miles of the 335-mile-long trail.

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