Fort Mountain-Vann House Ride--May 14, 2016

The four of us (John, Dave, Richard and Bob S.) took off from our favorite Chevron at exit 27 of I-575 at 8:30 am, heading north on old highway 5 to Tate and Jasper, then up Johnson Mountain and Yukon Road to Ellijay.

After a very brief stop at Ellijay's Burger King we picked up SR 52 and started the scenic climb up to Fort Mountain. We stopped at the Cohutta Overlook and hiked up to what was once a 360 degree viewpoint, that is until the trees on to the south grew to block that view. Never-the-less the 200 degree plus view to the north was well worth the effort.

Back on SR 52 we climbed the rest of the way to Fort Mountain State Park then after a stop at a south-facing view point headed down the s-curves to Chatsworth. We passed through Chatsworth and in short time turned into the Vann House Historic Site. The Rangers were glad to see us (business was slow) and gave us a guided tour of the Cherokee chieftain's formidable estate.

Soon hunger called and we headed south a short way on US 411 to Edna's for lunch. The parking lot was jammed with cars, motorcycles and pickups and we anticipated a wait. Not so. We were soon seated at a table for four and our meals were on their way.

After lunch we turned off of Us 411 and got on Old 411, a much more pleasant ride south. From Old 411 we went on SR 136 to Jerusalem Church Road and a trip over Henderson Mountain. Unfortunately video of the Henderson Mountain leg disappeared in processing but the remainder of the ride back to Ball Ground remained and is part of the video.