Weather: Very cloudy, light drizzle at first.

We went for a hike to Dukes Creek, located right above the little town of Helen, in the north Georgia Mountains. A tornado had just blown thru Helen and there are several photos showing the roofs with tarps on them and the trees all torn down.

The Little Town of Helen. Tornado Damage

The Hike:  At Dukes Creek we saw an absolutely beautiful area; lush trees and a beautiful rushing creek.  The start of the trail was wheelchair friendly, then came to some steps where the actual hiking began.  The “Lookout” at the beginning of the trail was beautiful.  You could see Yonah Mountain in the distance.  My great-great grandmother lived very near Yonah Mountain and Mama was born there.

The trail went downhill almost the whole way – which of course, meant that it was all uphill on the way out!

The platforms where the falls are were great.  There were several levels and each had a place where you could sit and rest and enjoy the beautiful waterfalls.

On the way back out, we took a side trail and followed it for about a half a mile to where it ended at a fenced off  “Protected Area”. A lady and her dog had followed us down this trail (unbeknownst to us) and she almost caught Don “fixing” his britches!! 

We then went to the lodge at Unicoi State Park and walked around there for a bit, then on to Anna Ruby Falls.  The gift shop there was having a  “Closing Sale”, so we bought a little baby raccoon (stuffed animal) for Mama and a map of The Appalachian Trail.  The trail up to Anna Ruby Falls was very pretty, but it was extremely crowded.  Anna Ruby Falls were very pretty.

Short Day – Good Hike.

Here is a slideshow of the hike:

Dukes Creek & Anna Ruby Falls

Since Mama fell and broke her hip in 2006, we haven’t been hiking. Didn’t want to leave Mama at home alone. But we did love hiking, so we decided to start back hiking again.

Yesterday we went back to our first hike location, Raven Cliff Falls and took a hike. It was a lot harder than what we remembered! We are really going to have to work hard to get back in shape!

Raven Cliff Falls is a 2 1/2 mile hike up to the falls and 2 1/2 mile hike back out for a total of 5 miles. We made it up to the Falls and had our lunch sitting on the rocks hanging out over the river. Very nice. Just as we finished eating and before we were packed back up, it started raining – really hard! Luckily, we had our rain ponchos, so we got those on and headed back out – sloshing all the way!

So – first new hike – we were wet and sore – but we did it! Good day!!