Preface

      You better eat your Wheaties.” I will never forget that park ranger’s warning spoken so many years ago. He was trying to warn my high school buddies and me that the trail we were about to attempt was pretty difficult. Of course, we paid no attention to him—hey, we were teenagers—and carrying little knowledge of what lay ahead, we stormed up the path. Hours later, several exhausted 16-year-olds lay strewn about a campsite, too whipped to whip up dinner. Our disregard for the ranger, and our failure to educate ourselves about the trail, led to much misery. These days we laugh about it, but nobody was laughing at the end of that hard day.

      That experience really taught me the value of using guidebooks and other sources to actually plan a trip. A major motivation for writing this book was to help others avoid such trouble and truly enjoy their time while exploring trails surrounding Atlanta. My involvement in the project resulted from my experience serving as a GPS mapping correspondent for Backpacker magazine. Through this work, I not only learned the finer points of documenting a trail, but I also encountered a great number of people from Atlanta who were new to hiking. Curious as to why I was scribbling in a notebook on the trail, they would often approach me and strike up conversations. And mostly, folks just wanted clear and concise information on good places where they could hike. This book is an extension of those conversations. My hope was to point people toward the places that I love to visit and provide them with good information, but not overwhelm them—to help them easily plan an outdoor excursion and be prepared to travel safely.

      I have included the majority of the available trails within a couple hours’ drive of Atlanta, but in deciding what to leave in and what to omit, I focused on including those that are most enjoyable. I eliminated some areas where trails have become overgrown and very difficult to navigate. Some chapters, such as those concerning the Cohutta Wilderness and the Appalachian Trail, serve as a primer, offering details on selected hikes that will familiarize you with the area. (Although the Georgia Pinhoti Trail is not included in this edition, I hope to include it in a future one.)

      I have occasionally flavored trip descriptions with my experiences while hiking, but be aware that you could have a very different experience, depending on weather and other variables. One of the best things you can carry on the trail is a flexible frame of mind—that and basic knowledge of the terrain and environment. It always helps to know if you need to eat your Wheaties.

      All of these trail descriptions come with one important caveat: You’ll probably have a better time if you avoid hiking during peak travel days. The population of the Atlanta metro area has exploded in the past 20 years, so on a warm spring Saturday, popular trails resemble I-285 at rush hour. Granted, work and other responsibilities relegate most hiking to the weekends, but if you can arrange to hike on a weekday, you will be rewarded. That campsite you love so much will probably be unoccupied, and you could have that swimming hole with the waterfall to yourself for a little while.