Day Seven - Wolf's Den (233 miles)
We rose early to get served the first breakfast of the day but after waiting for 15 minutes we decided to head out on our trip for the day, we could wait no longer. After gassing up at the gas station across the street from TWO we headed east on Wolf Pen Gap Road. The scenery on Wolf Pen Gap Rd. is amazing. With several farms, a creek, and Lake Winfield Scott, the views alone are reason enough to this ride, but the road is the real treat. We twisted through several hairpin turns, switch backs, sweeping turns and twisties as we climbed through Wolf Pen Gap at an elevation of 3300 feet. Further east the road "Ts"at US 19 where it is necessary to turn left (north) for a few short miles before turning right back onto the Gap Road also known as GA 180. After about 10 more miles of great road we took the GA 180 spur road up to Brasstown Bald (KMZ). This three mile trek up the mountain is nice and is a well maintained road. On top of Brasstown Bald the views from the parking area are good. Probably not as good as the view from the top, but even this being our second visit we did not bother hiking up to the observation tower. Both times we have been here it has been early in the morning and virtually no one in sight. Back down the mountain we continued east on GA 180. The road comes to an end at GA 17 where we turned right and headed back toward Helen. The Chattahooche River was on our right as tight hairpin curves eventually give way to sweeping curves. The Chattahooche River provides much of the power and drinking water for Atlanta, which is amazing to me since it does seem to have much volume. Along the way we climbed Unicoi Gap at 3000 feet where there is a nice park and the Appalachian Trail crosses the road (KMZ). Just north of Helen we turned left on GA 356. This road took us to Unicoi State Park. The park is home to Anna Ruby Falls, but far too touristy for us. We continued on the road until its end at GA 197 where we turned left and headed north toward Lake Burton. The first few miles are quiet farm country with gentle sweeping curves. The asphalt was new and smooth. As we approached the south end of the lake I saw Burton Dam Road (KMZ) and we decided to turn and do some exploring. We found the dam and stopped for a break. The road back to the dam was dotted with summer homes where people from Atlanta vacation (I guess). We wound our way around the lake to Tiger GA where we headed north on US 23 for a short time before turning south on US 76. Although the map makes this road look small it was heavily traveled. As we approached the SC state line we crossed the Chattoga River just above the Tallulah Gorge. We stopped at a little state park and walked down to the river. It was quite nice and we thought this would be a good place to take a break but we were not quite ready for one, so we went on into Westminster. Bu the time we reached Westminster it was lunch time so we stopped to fill up on gas and got a sandwich and ate at the old train depot in the center of town (KMZ). It had gotten hot by lunch time and we decided to find some back roads and head back to the river spot. Once back at the river we took a plunge in the river (KMZ) and spent about an hour or two just lounging around. After our cool dip in the waters of the Chattoga we tried to find our way down into the gorge and head back into GA. We could not find a way to accomplish this. We even committed the sin of asking directions but to no avail. We eventually worked our way to the Cherokee Foothills Byway south of US 123. Once again we confirmed what a disappointment this road was. We jumped on I-85 west for a few miles and worked our way back to Helen. We turned left once again on GA Alt 75 but this time turned right on GA 348 known as the Richard B. Russell Highway. This road is a flat out race track. We were not alone on this road, there were numerous sport bikes zooming around all over the place. We stopped at the half way point (KMZ) for a break and saw no less than 10 packs of bikes going by. We continued back the way we came and back to TWO for the night. Once there we still had plenty of daylight so we headed back down GA 60 and ate at Turner's Corner Cafe. Coming back night was beginning to fall on us so we had to take it a little easy not wanting to meet any furry animals up close.
