I left this morning to cloudy skies but warmer than expected temperatures. As I climbed the steep gravel of Dendy Orchard road it began to drizzle. It drizzled off and on for a good while and I had to keep stopping to put on or take off my jacket. I arrived at the Georgia line on hwy 106/246 and looking off in the distance towards the Little Tennessee river valley below it looked like the sky was clearing. I dropped down off of the mountain fast into Dillard and it was a lot warmer down in the valley.
I rode a lovely paved curvy road by Lake Burton and went by dozens of lake mansions and houseboats. I followed Seed Lake on a gravel road and it was tough going due to the loose a d dry gravel, washboard, steep hills and sharp turns. At length I turned into Bear Gap road which had a big Road Closed sign at the beginning. As today is Saturday I figured I could get through no problem. The road was completely missing at the first creek as they were replacing the bridge. But it was a fairly small creek so simply took my shoes and socks off and was about to wade through when a desperate looking woman ran up and stopped me. She inquired as to whether I knew of another way to Minnehaha Falls. I told her I didn't really know my way around the area as it was my first time here(people sometimes assume that if you're cycling around an area that you are probably a local and know it like the back of your hand). I looked at my map of my route on my phone and the falls trailhead was less than a mile down the road. It looked like a really long drive to get around the road closure so i encouraged her and her friend to simply wade across as I was doing as the distance was so short. She wished me a good ride and then they walked back to their car having made the decision to drive all the way around, tens of miles extra to save only 2 extra miles of walking. Intrigued I decided to see the falls for myself. I rolled up to the trailhead to find a couple on foot. The man answered my question before I could even ask, he said it wasn't more than 600 yards long. I asked them if they had forded the creek to get there and he replied that they had. He added it's a really long drive to get to this side. I walked up the short distance and it was totally worth the effort. At least a hundred foot cascade. I only saw one other person on the way back, and he too was on foot. The bridge work brought solitude to this probably popular spot in normal circumstances.
I pushed on and began to tire but the riding became pretty easy on the rolling terrain of Habersham county. I unexpectedly rolled up on the oldest White Oak tree in the state at a crossroads. It was enormous.
After what seemed like forever I arrived at Lake Russell WMA, and hoped to camp by the Broad river but all the spots were taken by a horde of locals. So I had to ride a bit further down and camp in a quiet spot next to a small, unnamed creek.