Chattooga River Backpacking Trip

The weekend of September 6th we decided to go on a backpacking trip to the Chattooga River in North GA right at the SC border. We have canoed section 2 of the river before and loved this spot we camped at on the beach. We have always wondered if you could find it by trail but no one could figure out how. It took some research on the web but we found the right trail and set out to find our spot again via land not water. Drew, Jojo, Sierra, Auggie, and I packed into the 4 runner Friday night. Funny part is we had already committed to dog sitting Auggie for Chris this same weekend so we just took him with us. I mean whats one more dog at this point? ;)

Friday night we drove up to a marked primitive camping area on the West Fork which is close to the trail head so we could get an early start on Saturday morning. We arrived around 9:30pm. that night. The campground had a handful of spots each with a fire pit and picnic table. Nice little spot.

Saturday morning we woke up early with the dogs ready to get out of the tent and explore! We started the day with freeze dried spinach and cheese omelets (which were actually pretty good) and an orange. After breakfast we packed back up and hit the road to the trail head. The Bartram Trail head we used is at the Russell Bridge on Hwy. 28. We started out just fine but quickly we must have taken a smaller trail off towards the river. Next thing we know we are bushwhacking through the forest! This was very hard and you were literally crawling over and under tree branches, stumps, you name it. The backpack kept catching on the tree branches and making life very difficult. I finally told Drew something must be wrong I just can't believe this trail is supposed to be this way. Trails are usually pretty clear cut from the trees. So we get out the map and guide book to try to figure out what the heck is going on. Drew had on pedometer thankfully and that helped us figure out we had gone to far in that direction. So we start back tracking by bushwhacking our way through the forest. We came out in a different spot but found the original trail...yea! Next thing we know low and behold there was the bridge we had missed because we were on the wrong trail. I think we went under the bridge and that is how we missed it. At this point we had hiked about an hour more than needed and I was really worn down from all the bushwhacking.

Once on the right trail we moved right along nicely! We hiked for 3-4 miles more until we saw this really nice campsite off the trail. It was wooded, had a fire pit with some large logs left in it to burn and a nice little beach spot. The river had a bunch of shoals with rocks to play on for us. So we had to make a decision, do we go further and try to find the beach spot or stay here at this spot? I was purely exhausted and told Drew feel free to go hike and try to find that spot but I was not going anywhere else! We proceeded to setup camp and eat some lunch which consisted of tuna snacks, trail mix, and some fruit.

The rest of Saturday was pure fun. We put on the bathing suits and hit the river playing around on the rocks with the dogs. They all loved the river! Well Sierra didn't like getting wet a whole lot but she did it because the other two were doing it...dog peer pressure;) Late afternoon we broke out the box wine I packed in because I was not planning on packing it out...I wanted to lighten the load! We had a summer salad bag for an appetizer while hanging out on the rocks. We had these two rocks right off the shore where you could not even get wet to get on them and they were setup like a deck in your back yard...it was sweet. We ate all our meals on the rocks in our chairs, talk about scenery! We followed that up with a dinner consisting of smoked sausage with zatarains jambalaya. Dessert was freeze dried dark chocolate cheesecake pudding, ummm good! The view from the "granite deck" was awesome in the dark. The stars and moon were so bright, not what I am used to in Atlanta. I even saw a shooting star:)

Sunday we awoke to a beautiful day. Started with a breakfast of freeze dried huevos rancheros (really good) and oranges. We hung out on the river for a few hours playing on the rocks again until we packed up to head back home. The hike out was WAY smoother than the hike in which was well received by my tired body.

Overall I hate we did not find the beach spot since we are pretty sure we were only 1/2 mile from it but now we have a reason to go back and do it right! The dogs had a blast! We saw 2 trips of horses w/riders go by and 2 kayakers go down stream but that was it. A crazy, fun, peaceful, beautiful weekend in the woods. Just what the soul ordered:)