(AL-FL-SC-TN-) Georgia:Brasstown Bald

The last and fifth highpoint of this trip was the Brasstown Bald in Georgia which was conveniently in the way to Atlanta and our flight back to Michigan. We decided to take one of the trails to the top, with the decision ending up on the 6 mile round-trip hike of Jack's knob trail.

The trail was a nice forest trail with moderate inclination and a total elevation gain around 2300 ft. Apart from mosquitoes it was a nice experience in weather that actually looked more like what one would expect in The Smokey mountains as can be seen form the haziness in the picture below.

The trail passes a minor peak on the way to Brasstown Bald before descending a bit to reach the large parking lot 0.6 miles from the top of the mountain. The minor peak and the parking lot can be seen below as photographed from the state highpoint.

Reaching the top one finds a nice lookout tower and visitor center at the end of the last paved section to the top. The sign also confirms that one have reached the Georgia highpoint. In the initial low clouds this was good since higher nearby peaks could have hid only a short distance away but still completely out of sight.

As luck would have it the clouds scattered to some extent while on the base of the lookout plattform (the tower and visitor center opens for the season later in May). The resulting view can be seen in the photo below, while descending the sun started warming up the hills. and offered a helping hand motivating the hike down on somewhat tired legs.

Stats:
State: Georgia
High point:  Brasstown Bald
Elevation: 4784 ft (1458.2 m)
Date: May 2, 2011
Total elevation to date: 89083 ft (27152.5 m)
Access: Trail, class 1, 6 mile 3h
Difficulty rating (of 10): 2
Potential Difficulties: Blood sucking insects! Finding the trail head.

(AL-FL-SC) Tennessee: Clingmans Dome (-GA)

The highpoint of Tennessee was one that had eluded me once before when I visited the region in the fall together with Eric. Back then is was early winter weather who completely shut down all chances of using roads between Tennessee and North Carolina that passed through the Smokey mountains national park.

This time however, weather was threatening with storms coming in from west, but they stayed away for the visit apart from bringing in some high clouds, but the viewing distance was unusually long for the location which is known to be veiled in clouds.

Sometimes the sun peeked through the clouds though, and showed some beautiful hills when walking up the "steep" last half mile from the visitor parking to the highpoint. It also showed how much the local tree population was suffering from invasive species together with acid rain which is heavily produced by exhausts and the massive monstrous usage of the coal which is still mined in many of the surrounding northerns states.

Hiking up the paved path to the lookout tower one is met by the sight of a very different lookout tower which mostly resembles a flying saucer. 

Temperatures sank from a warm 80F (27C) to a much colder 55F (13C) with strong winds on the top, prompting many visitors to turn around back to the parking to pick up more clothes even with the short distance to the top.

Being the second highest high point in eastern USA, and only some 30ft lower than the highest  (Mt Mitchell, NC) there were some spectacular views to be had when the clouds and weather cooperated.

Stats:

State: Tennessee
High point: Clingmans Dome
Elevation: 6643 ft (2024.8 m)
Date: May 1, 2011
Total elevation to date: 84299 ft (25694.3 m)
Access: Drive-up, short hike
Difficulty rating (of 10): 3
Potential Difficulties: weather! road closures.

(AL-FL-) South Carolina: Sassafras Mountain (-TN-GA)

Sassafras mountain in South Carolina was next on the list and the third highpoint in 2 days, in the third unvisited state of the trip which brings the 'states visited' count up to 33. Sassafras is named after the plant which was used (the root) for flavoring root beer back  in the day.

It is located just on the border of South and North Carolina, meaning one have to navigate the state border markers to know which state one is currently in on different sides of the mountain. One can reach a nice newly built lookout spot on the south side looking out over the hills of the state of South Carolina.

From the lookout platform which is close to the parking there is a short walk up to the highest point of the mountain and state. There are some very nice trails on the mountain which is part of the Foothills Trails, which I hiked parts of together with Tricia.

Standing by the Sign indicating both Sassafras mountain and the foothills trail system

Stats:
State: South Carolina
High point: Sassafras Mountain
Elevation: 3560 ft (1085.1 m)
Date: April 30, 2011
Total elevation to date: 77656 ft (23669.5 m)
Access: Drive-up, Trail
Difficulty rating (of 10): 2
Potential Difficulties: Identifying the exact highpoint.

(AL-) Florida: Britton Hill (-SC-TN-GA)

Floridas highest point is also the lowest one of all the american states, it's even lower than the highest point in washington (Distric of columbia), neverteless for completeness one might as well visit it, nad it is situated in the far noth of Florida south of the town of Florala, which as one might suspect lies on the border  of FLORida and ALAbama. Have to admire the people who come up with these imaginative names...

The high point is located in a park and well marked from the surrounding roads making it one of the easiest located and visited highpoints. It's marked with a nice stone monument declaring the incredible height of 345ft (105m) meaning that most moderate high-rises in Miami and other Floridan towns are actually higher than the natural highpoint of the state. To get higher than the highest natural point climbing a moderate tree in the northern parts of Florida is enough if elevators aren't your cup of tea...

Stats:
State: Florida
High point: Britton Hill
Elevation: 345 ft (105.2 m)
Date: April 29, 2011
Total elevation to date: 74096  ft (22584.5 m)
Access: Drive-up
Difficulty rating (of 10): 1
Potential Difficulties: none?

AL - Cheaha Mountain (-FL-SC-TN-GA)

Cheaha Mountain in Alabama was the first of 5 highpoints I did together with Tricia on a road-trip through parts of the south. Despite being under 1000m in height the surroundings and the road to the highpoint offered many beautiful views of flowing hills and mountains covered in green.

The top of the mountain is home to a stone-built lookout tower (and many less adorable radio communication towers which are common to find on elevated areas. In the same area you also find campsites on the top of the mountains which might have some of the best views of any eastern campsites.

Just In front of the lookout tower is a USGS marker, with an alternative spelling of the mountain from the WW2 era. There is also a nice informative sign declaring the highest point of Alabama and offering a nice photo opportunity.

There really aren't many difficulties in reaching the high-point other than possible accidentally taking the wrong one-way route close to the highpoint. After the Alabama highpoint we decided to continue our trip the same day to memorable things such as tornado-disaster areas, Florida's highpoint and Florala...

Stats:
State: Alabama (AL)  
High point: Cheaha Mountain
Elevation: 2407 ft (733.7 m)
Date: April 29, 2011
Total elevation to date: 73751 ft (22479.3 m)
Access: Drive-up
Difficulty rating (of 10): 1
Potential Difficulties: Taking the wrong turn on one-way roads near highpoint.