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Brasstown Bald Vicinity Including the Arkaquah and Wagon Train Trails |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2019) |
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Brasstown Bald Vicinity Including the Arkaquah and Wagon Train Trails |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2019) |
| November 2017 - Fall Foliage A beautiful fall day, exploring the east side of the Arkaquah Trail and the upper portion of the Wagon Train Trail. |
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| Looking south toward Young Harris From the rock outcrop on the knob located several hundred yards west of Chimneytop Mtn. |
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A few examples of the spectacular foliage color: |
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| From the same viewpoint as the first image in this section. The moving clouds resulted in constantly changing light & shadows, so this image is rather different than the first one... |
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| Rock overhang along the Arkaquah Trail |
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| Shadowy ridges... |
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| Yellow Birch trees along the Wagon Train Trail. These trees are at the very southern limit of their range. |
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| Dendritic lichen designs |
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| March 2019 I hiked along part of the Arkaquah Trail looking for Monotropsis odorata, but didn't have any luck. |
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| I took a few shots from the rock outcrop west of Chimneytop. |
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| Early May 2019 With our friend Joan visiting from Oregon, we took a hike along the Arkaquah from Brasstown Bald. Approaching thunder-storms forced us to turn back before reaching our destination. |
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| The trail was lined with tons of Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia). |
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| I was surprised to find Painted Trilliums (Trillium undulatum) along the trail. They were the largest examples of this species I've ever seen, so big that when first seen from behind, I assumed them to be Trillium grandiflorum. |
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| Downy Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) flowers |
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| A very nicely colored Trillium grandiflorum. They were on their way out up here on the mountain... |
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| We saw a number of Pink Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium acaule) along the trail. |
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| We made it back to the trailhead before the storms hit and decided to hike up to the summit building. It started raining as we got within sight of the tower. This view is looking more or less south from the summit just before the storms hit. |
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| View north toward Lake Chatuge just as the storms hit. We never made it up to the observation tower - it was too dangerous with the lightning. |