Hickey Gap Trail...officially the middle of nowhere

I'm way behind on these blog posts but that's probably ok since I think I'm the only one reading them! I feel like I'm just doing this for posterity purposes now. You know, to look back and think about "the summer of hiking." Most bloggers will admit they blog for themselves more than anything. I can definitely say that is the case for my professional blog, www.techhelpful.blogspot.com, it allows me to gather my educational thoughts and to deal with them. But I digress.

I recently downloaded the All Trails app that allows you to look for trails by area. I did a little traveling this week and my plan was to hike while I was in the Jasper, Alabama area but the weather didn't agree. That being said, once I got home I started looking at the app and reading about different trails and I was immediately intrigued by what was said about the Hickey Gap Trail in the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area. This is the farthest I've driven to hike but reading that you had to use ropes to get to parts of the trail sounded really awesome. So I clicked "get directions" inside the All Trails app, it opened in Google Maps and I headed out.

The journey to get to this trail is not for the weak at heart. In fact, I was fairly certain I was headed to no man's land or the shadowland of the crazy outcast hyenas, except it was beautiful. I immediately was glad I had my Toyota Forerunner. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't want to tackle that drive in a regular car- it was rocky with lots of potholes. I really expected to make it to the dot on the map and be nowhere but to my big smile I came to a sign after driving approximately 6-8 miles on a one lane gravel road which screamed isolation and banjo music, but boy was it pretty!

I was more than a bit surprised when I pulled up and found a couple of vehicles already parked there. I was convinced I was the only one crazy enough to take this trail on. Hikers are almost always friendly and I met this sweet little couple that said, "did you see that little bear back there?" And after my gasp I said, "no I didn't." My first thought was "if there is a little bear there is probably a big bear." But I had come this far, I decided I wasn't turning back! Secret and I got ready for the adventure.

The hike is labeled moderate but there was nothing moderate about parts of that hike. It's 4 days later and I'm still feeling the burn in my quads! I will say it was gorgeous! The meandering along the creek was wonderful and using the ropes to get down below the falls wasn't too terrible (even Secret managed it well). It was busy there that day to my surprise I probably saw 15 people. Also to my surprise I took my first hiking fall. I decided to step into the water off a large rock and it was much slicker under my Chaco's than I expected. I've got a nice black and blue bruise on my hip from it. That being said, there is a much easier way to get into the water there...at the bottom of the falls is a rope swing. I wasn't that brave on this particular day but it looked like loads of fun.

 Secret and I spent some time sitting at the bottom of the falls for quite a while watching butterflies and listening to the excitement of children. As we headed back Secret thought the trail went one way and one more step and she would have had a 15 foot drop. I screamed her name and she crouched to "hold on." I was in the process of trying to figure out how to pull her back when she did this magnificently quick 90 degree turn and pulled it out...in case you are wondering why I call her "Secret the Wonder Pup" - name was earned on this hike! As we headed back to the Forerunner yet another hiker asked me if I had seen the elusive bear. Alas, I never saw it...but I can't say I am sad about that either. Hickey Gap was an amazing day of adventure nonetheless!