Well that was an amazing trip. We traveled about 300 miles exploring the mountains in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
The journey started in Jasper, where we left Vintage VW at around 9 AM. We started with 18 vehicles, definitely the largest group yet. About half were Vanagons and the rest were bay window buses and also a Rabbit truck and a Thing.
From Jasper, we headed East and traveled through Dawsonville and Dahlonega and finally onto Helen, where we stopped for lunch. From there we pressed on into higher elevation and turned onto some forest service roads which took us to our first campsite of the trip, along the banks of the Tallulah River. At around 2,080 feet, temps were in the low 30s.
The next morning, we got up early and departed our campsite. This time, we headed into North Carolina and drove through Franklin and headed West on Tellico Gap Road. Around 4,000 feet we encountered a light dusting of snow on the road and surrounding hills. The road got steeper and more winding, so we sent a lifted Vanagon up first to scout the terrain. There was one sketchy turn but everybody made it up with no problems. We stopped at the top of the hill where the Appalachian Trail crosses and met a few hikers there. Though we intended to have lunch here, the cold, wind, and snow cut our visit brief so we continued on down the hill.
At this point one of the Vanagons lost their clutch, so we pulled over. At a nearby residence, a nice couple came out and offered us coffee and let us use their phone (no cell service). The guys at Vintage VW were kind enough to come out and trailer it back to the shop and another Vanagon shared their bunk with the driver of the felled vehicle so he wouldn't have to miss the rest of the trip. While that was going on, a group of us went on ahead and found a scenic spot along the side of the road to stop and have lunch, eventually everyone caught up and we continued on.
We continued West into Murphy and then headed North into the Cherokee National Forest and stopped at the State Line Campground. Literally on the state line, this site exists half in North Carolina and half in Tennessee. While we were camping on the Tennessee side, we had to walk into North Carolina for the bathrooms.
We enjoyed the Tellico River in our back yard but it was considerably colder here and the temperature dropped down into the teens once the sun went down. We built a raging fire to stay warm and woke up to 14 degrees Monday morning. The rest of the group left early while we stayed behind and made breakfast. They had one last stop at Bald River Falls and we finally met up for the last time at Hardee's in Tellico Plains.
I took sooo many photos that I intend to share and even got some good GoPro footage as we traversed the mountains. This was such a fun trip and we made new friends, including Johnny B and I can't wait to see where Pop takes us next year.
