Walker County High Point Trip Report
Date: June 13, 1999
Author: Andy Martin
Since Martins Lane was not going to touch Towns or Union counties in GA,
I decided to tack on the Walker county HP to glob GA onto the lane.
The topo map showed a dirt lane leading in from the west, but it looked closed
at the main highway. Too bad, because it is in great shape, and someone actually
lives off it at about 2,100' on the way up the peak.
I next tried a dirt lane that is not shown on the map, but heads east down to the
letter "B" in "Long Branch" on the map. This lead to a house in the bottoms.
Well, sometimes you just have to hike, so I parked at the Lookout Mountain Rural School
(may be a church now?) and headed east under the power lines. The day was drawing
to a close, so I hustled over Long Branch, joined the dirt road at 1,800',
and puffed my way on up. Near the top I took steps to the ridge top,
and then paced off a distance of 200' north of the lookout tower.
A spectacular cliff formed the east face of the north-south trending mountain.
The lookout tower was missing some 2 landings, but I scampered up it anyway
(do this at your peril) and was rewarded with a wonderful view from the top.
With the steep drop-offs east and west and the darkening sky, you felt awfully
high up there - pretty close to flying. This was by far the neatest summit of
the trip so far - and in fact turned out to be the best of the trip.
Not wasting any time I headed downhill, and had a little trouble finding the
Long Branch creek crossing in the gloom. One final hill to climb,
with an interesting mine tailing half way up, and it was back to the car.