Short and Sweet Trail
The Byron Herbert Reece Trail is a short entry trail to the Appalachian Trail and to Blood Mountain, a favorite of mine.
Been a pretty busy June, but I found an afternoon that I was able to get out to hike. I felt compelled to back to the Blood Mountain area of North Georgia. I’ve hiked up Blood Mountain before, and it’s one of my favorite areas to go. There was no time to go up the mountain, but I figured I had time to take a quick excursion up the Byron Herbert Reece Trail, which is only about .7 miles, but it’s one of the entry trails to the Appalachian Trail.
The trail itself is lovely, and this time of year, it was very green, but pretty dry. There is a creek that runs through the trail just near the beginning of the path, but there was no water in it. The drought across Georgia and South Carolina is still rather prevalent. Although this was kind of sad, it did provide a view of some very intricate tree roots that are normally probably under the waterline.
BTW, a note about the images on this gallery. It wasn’t until I was already on the Freeman Trail (I’ll get to that in a moment) that I realized that my camera was not set properly, so the colors and resolution aren’t the best on some of these images. Plus, it started to get dark, so the lighting was a bit off. They still turned out ok, but I’m hoping to go back again to get some better shots.
Anyway, the BHR trail has significant changes in elevation, with a few switchbacks here and there to make the slope a bit less steep. The switchbacks not withstanding, one can definitely feel the burn on the trek up to Flatrock Gap, where the BHR trail hits the Appalachian Trail and the Freeman Trail.
I stopped at Flatrock Gap for a while, to enjoy the scenery of the surrounding North Georgia Mountains. And since the BHR trail was a bit short, I decided to continue on along the Freeman Trail, which goes around Blood Mountain, connecting back up with the Appalachian Trail at Bird Gap on the other side of Blood Mountain.
The Freeman Trail is considerably more rocky than the BHR trail, and in most places the trail is nothing but a conglomeration of various stones, with a smattering of boulders here and there. It’s gorgeous, as a result, and I would have liked to continue on along that trail. However, the sun was starting to go down, and traipsing around the area in the dark was not what I had planned, so I started back after going maybe halfway along the Freeman Trail.
All in all, a worthwhile hike, with some great scenery, and a reminder to take another trip up to the summit of Blood Mountain again.
