Backpacking the Chattooga River 2009

Drew and I wanted to try this trip one more time before we moved from Atlanta so we could find "paradise" (the beach spot). This time Chris and Jen came along with us and their dogs Auggie and Gracie. Memorial Day weekend seemed like the perfect time to try it since it was 10 years ago when Drew and Chris first canoed that spot for Memorial Day weekend. We drove up to Clayton on Thursday night to camp at a campground on Overflow Creek Rd on the West Fork of the Chattooga. This is a nice campground with a 4-5 spots, some primitive bathrooms, picnic tables and nice fire rings. It makes it easy to arrive at dark if you need to but this time it was still light for us.

Friday morning we got up and had some breakfast of muffins, bacon and bananas. We then packed up and drove the few miles to the Hwy. 28 bridge where the trail is located. It was a nice day with a mix of blue skies and clouds. We hiked the trail for about 2 hours. It ended up being a 3.5 mile hike. We did not get off the trail and bushwhack this go around :). The trail is a fairly simple trail. Not many steep hills or anything. We passed the spot Drew and I camped last time and before we knew it we ran right into the beach spot! Success!! We setup camp and started a weekend full of relaxation.

The dogs had an absolute BLAST! They ran, dug, swam, you name it! Here are a few fun shots of dog activity.

We enjoyed plenty of "sweet tea" and food during our trip. Chris and Jen brought some tubes for playing in the river and started us out floating the rapids. It was a lot of fun!
















We had a beautiful sunset over the trees to top off the trip.




















A good time was had by all! Worth the 1.5-2 hour hike to get to paradise and serenity. I hate we won't be close to this anymore but hopefully we will have plenty in PA to write about on the blog.