The Georgia Traverse

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Bozz

Bozz

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Just got back from the Georgia Traverse. The videos I watched make it look a lot more......wait for it........tame.....than it actually is. At least most of the parts that we were on.

One of our camp spots along the traverse.

Took these with a GoPro knock-off as it was getting dark. Somewhat blurry. Wasn't familiar with the camera. Should have used my cellphone.

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This was our first trip on the Georgia Traverse. Unlike a LOT of the videos I had seen about it (ALL of them actually), MOST of what we went on was VERY rough and steep (up and down hill). As for clearance, we did not have any issues in my Raptor with a RTT on the back even, my truck clears at about 7-7.5 feet. There were MANY places (hundreds) where trees had been down across the road, but obviously other trail runners had cut them at least wide enough for a vehicle. We only passed 2 or 3 places where we wondered if we were going to make it height-wise, but as we got closer it was obvious that we would make it with some room to spare.

I am not familiar with the names of the different sections. We had GAIA maps on a tablet with the Georgia Traverse mapped out and waypoints, but had great difficulty getting it to work 100%. I guess we should have brought a 10 year old kid to work it for us. We entered the trail at Dillard, GA and headed West after driving out there from Nashville, TN. Got on it pretty late in the day. It was ROUGH going. VERY bumpy, LOTS of rocks pitted into the trail/road. By the time we found a place to camp we were losing our fascination with the GT. Took a while to get out of there the next morning, but then we encountered some much smoother trails, a a couple more like that first one. We kept commenting that none of the videos made it look this unpleasant. Camped the second night (will have to figure out where that was in a few days, not sure. Photos from above are from the second night). Third day was just go as far as we could on the trail to a paved road that would lead us home, somewhere West of Helen, GA? We cut our trip short one day. Actually the trails that we were on the third day were the most enjoyable and scenic. I did have to use 4H and 4L several times. The elevation was way up there and some sections of the trail were VERY ROCKY, but the weather was perfect. We finished up somewhere near the top rafting entry point of the Ocoee River this afternoon, hit pavement and headed home.

**** We took WAYYYYYYYYYYY TOO MUCH STUFF! Culled it down to about 15-20% when we got back. Mega redundancies, mega overkill.

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I have tons of video, too, from GoPro that was magnet mounted on my roof and from dash-cam behind my rear view mirror. Have to sort through it all and condense it. Lost the part of coming up the Tail of The Dragon. Thought I had it set to not loop/overwrite, but....obviously not. :( I knew I should have pulled the camera card out when we got to the first campsite and put in a new one. Always go with your gut! That's the 4th or 5th time we've been on the Dragon, EVERY time by accident, never planned. Each time we get halfway up I say, "I think we're on the Dragon". The giveaway is all of the sports cars, motorcycles and photographers.

Three different photography companies on 129 got me in 5 different spots going up, I just have to sort through and see which photo$ I want to get. I will post those when I get the digital downloads.

Overall, it was a good shakedown trip. It was the wife's first official camping trip, and mine with a rooftop tent. We commented several times that it would have been much safer and enjoyable with a few more vehicles. There were a couple a 20+ mile dirt/rock/boulder roads that we had to use 4H/4L and if we had gotten stuck, it may have been days before anyone came along to rescue us. We had cellphones (which mostly (MOSTLY) didn't work, cb radio, gmrs radios (5watt and 50 watt) and uhf/vhf), but we now know somewhat how the Pioneers felt. Tons of downed trees across ALL the trails, but some Jeepers must have cut them up days before.

Still, we had fun. We cut it short by a day to get home. We were exhausted. Still, we had fun.
 
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That looks fun as hell. I never heard if it and I live here
That's alright, I live near the Tennessee Dirt Devil and never heard of it until about 3 years ago. It's VERY similar to the Georgia Traverse, nowhere near as mountainous, though.. Several water crossings and tons of rock/boulder climbs. Much of it is narrow, only wide enough for a single vehicle.
 

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I have tons of video, too, from GoPro that was magnet mounted on my roof and from dash-cam behind my rear view mirror. Have to sort through it all and condense it. Lost the part of coming up the Tail of The Dragon. Thought I had it set to not loop/overwrite, but....obviously not. :( I knew I should have pulled the camera card out when we got to the first campsite and put in a new one. Always go with your gut! That's the 4th or 5th time we've been on the Dragon, EVERY time by accident, never planned. Each time we get halfway up I say, "I think we're on the Dragon". The giveaway is all of the sports cars, motorcycles and photographers.

Three different photography companies on 129 got me in 5 different spots going up, I just have to sort through and see which photo$ I want to get. I will post those when I get the digital downloads.

Overall, it was a good shakedown trip. It was the wife's first official camping trip, and mine with a rooftop tent. We commented several times that it would have been much safer and enjoyable with a few more vehicles. There were a couple a 20+ mile dirt/rock/boulder roads that we had to use 4H/4L and if we had gotten stuck, it may have been days before anyone came along to rescue us. We had cellphones (which mostly (MOSTLY) didn't work, cb radio, gmrs radios (5watt and 50 watt) and uhf/vhf), but we now know somewhat how the Pioneers felt. Tons of downed trees across ALL the trails, but some Jeepers must have cut them up days before.

Still, we had fun. We cut it short by a day to get home. We were exhausted. Still, we had fun.


That sounds freakin awesome....but...
You gotta work on your pullout game
 
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