What this is all about

I like to hike, and I belong to a womens hiking group called "TrailDames" - one of our hikes took us to a waterfall just over the border in South Carolina. This got me interested in finding waterfalls nearby and earlier this year I found a website with directions and photos of waterfalls in North Georgia at (see links for TrailDames & North Georgia Waterfalls below)

I now also belong to another womens hiking group called Off the Grid. Both OTG and Traildames are on Meetup.

Mr. Anthony's site has lovely photos of well over 100 waterfalls in North Georgia and I got interested in seeing them. As the weather got hotter through the summer I concentrated on shorter hikes to falls, and falls that were visible from the road. Then, as it started to get cooler again, I started doing longer hikes. It turned out to be far more fun than I expected it to be, and to my surprise - when I added them up - I had been to over 100 myself!

So I decided to make a record of them and of what it's like to visit them, in case anyone else is interested in seeing them too. I will be adding photos and directions, trail conditions, etc. in the future. As I "redo" falls I will update the page that already exists for them, instead of creating a new page every time. Keeping with the format of this blog site, I will put new information at the top of each existing page.

I won't be putting road mileages on the directions, I strongly urge you to compare my directions to a good map so you can see the distances for yourself. I'm not very good at guessing distances, so if I can find a trail length I will use that. If I'm guessing, I'll put a question mark so you'll know!

My apologies for the "watermarks" on the photos, but I have had...and know other people who have had...photos stolen off the net. The watermarks are to ensure that they can't be reused without being identified as mine.

I got a good GPS unit and I'll slowly be putting GPS coordinates for the falls, when I can. If I can get close to the falls the GPS will be for the falls. Otherwise, it will be for where you can see them most easily.

Nov 2012: I got a new PC and now that I can actually get things done (!) I'm going to rearrange the way the falls are listed. I'm going to list them separately, instead of grouping them by the day I saw them. The only ones I'll group are the ones that are on the same creek, or very close - like on the same road.

I've completed rearranging the posts. Hopefully this will help make the falls easier to find. I also found my count was WAY off, so I've updated the total too.

Jan 2013 - I just got a video camera, so I'll be adding short videos of the falls as I am able to get back to them. They might be a bit shakey at first, but hopefully I'll get better as I get used to using it!

Jan 2014 - I almost forgot about posting this! I had been in contact with Sharon Collins, the host of GPB's "Georgia Outdoors"...offering to take her around my 18 Waterfalls tour. She was not able to make it, but I did take her cameraman Shane Keating on the tour. I was hoping they'd do a show about the tour, but that didn't happen. However, some of the shots did show up in the episode "Mountain Magic"...so I've added a link to that episode.

Aug 2015 - I've created a Google map of the waterfalls I either have been to, or know about as publicly accessable, check it out at: https://goo.gl/maps/79Lyb

Got some additional news. The episode of Georgia Outdoors mentioned above, that has some of the shots taken by the cameraman on my 18 Wateralls tour...won a 2015 Southeastern Emmy for "Magazine Program" http://www.gpb.org/emmys

Total Falls

Total waterfalls as of 6/7/2015: 504
Total videos as of 6/7/2015: 180

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Nancytown Falls (2 falls)

7/17/2011 - on my way back from Martin Creek I took a detour to see if I could find a Forest Service Rd that my map program shows comes out very close to where the trail to Nancytown Falls comes out, on FS 92.  I did find it, but it's not open all year round.  I managed to get a GPS for the falls on FS 192 and a new picture, but I didn't hike in to Nancytown Falls - I don't hike in this area when ticks are active!

5/8/2010 This marks my real "first" waterfall trip of my project, when I got serious about doing as many as I could.  These falls are on the Sourwood Trail out of the Lake Russell Recreation Area near Cornelia, GA.  Not to be confused with Lake Richard B. Russell.

Lake Russell is managed by the Forest Service and encompasses two lakes - Lake Russell and the much smaller Nancytown Lake.  All of the trails start at the trailhead parking beside the smaller lake.  The Sourwood Trail is a "balloon" trail that goes up the paved road, past the locked gate and group camping area to a right turn across the creek.  The trail sign points to the left, but I prefer to go the opposite direction.

Turn right, cross the bridge over the creek and follow the Forest Service road, past another road that goes to the left.  Keep going until you cross a side creek, where there is a small, pretty, unnamed falls.  The trail proper starts immediately across the bridge and goes up the creek past this falls.  Where the trail makes a left turn up a big hill, there is a side trail that goes to Nancytown Falls.  This is the shortest route to both falls.  You can either complete the loop and come out on the paved road - where you would turn right to get back to the parking.  Or you can back-track the way you came. 

GPS: 34°30'19"N 83°28'26"W
GPS:

Directions and Information: can be found at http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/!ut/p/c4/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDfxMDT8MwRydLA1cj72BTJw8jAwjQL8h2VAQAzHJMsQ!!/?ss=110803&navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&navid=110190000000000&pnavid=110000000000000&recid=10490&actid=42&ttype=recarea&pname=Chattahoochee-Oconee%20National%20Forest%20-%20Lake%20Russell%20Recreation%20Area
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