Back in the Saddle

It has been a few weeks since I have been hiking. Yesterday I got back in the swing of it by hiking at Mistletoe State Park. I hiked the Cliatt Creek Trail and the Rock Dam Trail.

I found the trails in the book Hiking Georgia by Donald W. Pfitzer.



I arrived at the park and paid my $5 entrance fee. I then parked in the parking lot immediately by the fee station where the trailhead is.



The Cliatt Creek trail is marked by white blazes. It is a two mile loop with 18 natural trail markers. They are described by the nature guide available at the trail head.

The trail is in a second growth forest. The original forest was cut down for logging and farming.


The Cliatt Creek trail.



The pines are loblolly pines.




An American Holly.



An Eastern Red Cedar.


The trail is connected to the Rock Dam Trail, which is a 5.5 mile loop trail. They meet up by the Cliatt Creek.



The Rock Dam Trail is marked by blue blazes

Continuing on the Rock Dam Trail, I came to a junction.



I first went to the left and checkout the creek.



After wards I returned to the junction and continued to the right along the path. I ended up at another junction where both trails immediately dead end. Looking around, I realized that I hadn't seen any blazes in a while, even though I was on a trail. I did the most obvious thing and kept going. I made two sweeping arcs looking for the trail or blazes. After not finding anything, I did the right thing and went back down the trail the way I came until I found a blaze.

Returning to the junction, I found the blue blaze.



The trail crossed the creek continued. I kept an eye open for the blue blazes.

Later I came to another junction.



Luckily they clearly marked the posts.



I found a place by the creek and ate lunch. I packed a sandwich, carrots, and vanilla wafers.



After my lunch, I continued down the trail and 100 yards later, found a picnic table at the Rock Dam.







View below the rock dam.

In addition to the rocks at the rock dam, there were a lot of cool rocks along the trail.



I of course had to climb on the rock.




A large rock that split open.

Part of the trail went along the bottom of an eroded creek bed.



I found this awesome tree!



I thought it would be a great place to take a photo and took a bunch of different poses. I set the camera on a log and ran to get onto the branch.



I didn't make it the first time.



The Rock Dam Trail runs back into the Cliatt Creek trail.



Continuing on the Cliatt Creek trail, I came across this interesting scene.



The trail ended behind the office, just across the street from the trailhead.



There were a lot of fungi growing along the trail.



There was also a lot of fauna on the trail. In addition to the following animals, I also saw some deer.



I look forward to returning.