Optimists Creed, 1922
Promise Yourself - To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
Amicalola Falls is Georgia's Tallest Water Fall
Amicalola Falls drops 729 feet to a stocked trout pool at its base and is the highest falls in Georgia. It is one of Georgia's most visited park sites in the State. There are viewing platforms of the falls at the top, the middle, and the base. There are roughly 600 stairs that allow one to hike up or down the falls if one wishes - but it is a steep set of stairs to return if one decides to hike up or down the stairs. The nearby Amicalola Lodge affords visitors one of the best views of the northern Georgia wilderness in the Fall. The park is also the location where most through hkers of the Appalachian Trail heading north start their journey toward Mt. Katahdin in Maine.
The Southern Tip of the Appalachian Trail (AT)
About 30 miles north of where we live in Coal Mountain, GA, the southern end of the AT starts at Springer Mountain. An 8 mile hike from Amicalola State Park, or a one mile backtrack hike from a parking lot along the trail, will take people to a beautiful spot that is the official southern end of the AT. From the southern end of the trail it is only 2,200 miles to the northern end of the trail on Mt. Katahdin. I've been to both ends of the trail, but have hiked only about 800 miles of sections of the trail in between. If you've seen an entry in one of the AT trail books from 'Vermonster,' then you've seen an entry that I left during a hike.
