W4G SOTA Campout - October 19-22, 2017

When: October 19-22
Where: Sarah’s Creek Campground - Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest - Sarah3As Creek Campground

Ryan - WG4I (the activator formerly known as KK4OSG) had the great idea of putting together a SOTA camping weekend. We will be camping in the northeast corner of W4G in the middle of a number of easily accessible and seldom activated summits. Most of the summits are within a 30 minute drive from the campsite and a couple could even be hiked to from the camp, in theory at least. :wink: There are many other summits within a short drive including summits in W4C/US and W4C/WM. This will be a great opportunity to pick up some SOTA uniques/completes, swap stories/ideas and score some points. If you haven’t activated before or don’t have the necessary gear to activate with there will be plenty of opportunities to tag along with other activators. Please let Ryan or myself know if you are planning on attending.

Sarah’s Creek Campground is a developed campground, but there is no electricity or running water beyond the creek running through the campground. There are vault toilets for easy disposal of, um, care packages…. Sarah’s Creek is one of my favorite campgrounds and has my all-time favorite car camping campsite. There are many excellent campsites along the creeks. I will bring a quiet generator for battery recharging and some dutch ovens for cooking some tasty treats. If you need a break from activating, campfire libations and SOTA story swapping, you can try your luck fishing for trout in Sarah’s Creek, the West Fork of the Chattooga and the legendary Chattooga River - http://georgiawildlife.com/fishing/regulations.

These are the summit opportunities within even a 15 mile radius from the campground, but below the map are some details on nearby summits. Many require some basic off-trail hikes to reach the actual summit. These are mostly what I refer to as ‘up and done’ being nothing more than just the final climb with no navigational skills required other than ‘up’.

W4G/NG-049 - Pinnacle Knob - Multiples routes and I can provide info on shorter access from Warwoman Rd. Summit has nice outcrop and great views. Nice waterfall if hiking from Warwoman Road.

W4G/NG-024 - Rock Mtn - 1.7 mile hike along the Bartram Trail with 0.3 miles off-trail to the summit. Summit has a nice outcrop and great views. Access road requires high-clearance/4WD vehicle.

W4G/NG-015 - Oakey Mtn - Previous activations have been accessed from the NW (2.3 miles/1400’ EG), but I may explore a shorter, but mostly off-trail route from the trail head for the previous summit. Anyone wanting to experience some real off-trail hiking are welcome to join me.

W4G/NG-058 - Rainy Mtn - 2.2 miles/1251’ EG from Pool Creek Road along the Bartram Trail and off-trail hike to the summit. A bit longer access from Warwoman Rd along the Bartram trail is 3.5 miles/1900’ EG estimated with no off-trail hiking.

W4G/NG-069 - Pollywah Knob - Unactivated summit. Better get there before Ryan…

W4G/NG-043 - Hale Ridge - 1.57 miles/800’ EG with the last 0.4 miles off-trail.

W4G/NG-002 - Rabun Bald - Multiple routes possible, even from camp, but typical route is 1.53 miles/1034’ EG. In my biased opinion, Rabun Bald has the best views in Georgia with views of 4 states on a good day. Rabun Bald should have LOS to all the other nearby summits for easy 2m S2Ss.

W4G/NG-071 - Oakey Top - 1.8 miles/640’ EG hike. You can actually drive the first 1.1 miles along a Forest Service Road, but it is quite overgrown and you will get some scratches on your vehicle.

W4G/NG-066 - Oakey Top - Yep, another Oakey Top! One of the two summits accessible from Burrell’s Ford Rd/FS 646. 0.8 miles/650’ EG.

W4G/NG-061 - Rand Mtn - An obvious choice to pair with the previous summit along FS 646. 1 mile/500’ EG

Other summits in the area that I would recommend are Scaly Mtn, Wolf Knob, Blackrock Mtn, Glassy Mtn, John Mtn, Whiteside Mtn, Fishhawk Mtn and Joe Mtn.

2 Likes

Sure wish I could join you!!! Sounds like great SOTA fun!

Dave, AE9Q

Are the sites big enough to get an RV in? We can use our on-board water tank and battery, but was wondering if there is room for our rig or if you see RVs there. We have a 3/4 ton pickup pulling a 32 foot 5th wheel.

Thanks,
Ron Burns, KI4TN

You will be missed Dave, but I know you have slightly bigger plans in the works.

Hi Ronnie,

I have seen some smaller trailers in there, but not too sure about your setup. The initial grade off of Warwoman Rd is pretty steep (but short) and then there are some twisty, undulating turns that may pose a problem for a trailer of that length. It would probably be possible to come in the long way but I think the trailer length may be a bit big for the campsites as well. It is more of a backwoodsy kind of campground. But, Willis Knob Horse Campground is just down and across Warwoman Road. I bet they could accommodate your rig.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/conf/recarea/?recid=10506

Maybe call the Forest Service and they can help with details. Hope you and Liz can make it, even if you have to hang out with the horse people. :wink:

73, pat

Thanks, Pat. We’ll call the forest service and check into the horse camp area. Hopefully we can make it.

73, Ron

Sounds like fun. SOTA, Dutch Ovens, SOTA stories and campfire libations. I’ll be there with a big cabin tent, tarpology and some Jimmy Dean Cowpie Chili and Cornbread for dinner. Dean ~ K2JB

The W4G campout is coming up in just three weeks and we have a nice group planning to activate some summits. But it’s a big campground and there is plenty of room for more so come on out and join us. You will find me at my favorite campsite along Sarah’s Creek.

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Here are a couple of georeferenced PDFs of nearby summits and tracks. If you have Avenza Maps on your iOS or Android device, you can scan the QR code in the corner to download the maps to your device.

Map of summits near the campground
More summits to explore nearby

73 and hope y’all can join us for the weekend, pat - KI4SVM

Now we know why Pat is the #1 activator in W4C. With a vehicle like that, he makes his own trail to the top. I’ll come to the campout if I can drive your Monster Truck. Dean ~ K2JB

1 Like

I’m going to see if I can join you fellas on this jaunt…

Richard // N2GBR

1 Like

Dean: You better be there and of course you are welcome to take the mog for a spin if I bring it. I’ll just leave it in crawler mode where speed is measured in feet per hour and you can’t get out of eyesight!

Richard: I hope you can make it down. That would be awesome! Is it getting that hard to find uniques back home?

73, pat

Pat… yes and no…, 1. they’re all 2hrs + drive from my home and, 2. I like “proper” mountains… plus I haven’t been out camping much this year so all-round… the whole idea is good.

Hope I can swing it…
BTW… I don’t have a “high clearance” vehicle… BMW 5 series… HA ha… hope I can get near a trail-head?
Richard // N2GBR

You are a SOTA activator, I am sure you have driven that 5 series a few places it hasn’t belonged. :wink: But you shouldn’t have any issues with 90% of the summits and we can get you to the rest.

73, pat

Yes… I’m always busting Chris (W3CDW) chops as my Bimmer has more off-road miles than his lifted, 28" tires Jeep…

RJ

Work schedule has now killed my opportunity to join you fellas… it’s Budgets time of year and now I have to travel places the week before and the week after the planned weekend… leaving me no time to travel south… Have a good trip… I’ll watch for you on the bands… Richard // N2GBR

I am sorry that you won’t be able to make it, but I am already thinking about a sequel. Maybe a W4C campout in the spring. We will get you down here somehow…

73, pat

Pat, how about the time the police thought your Lincoln Town car was abandoned and they were going to tow it!

Haha! The Trail Limo has caused more than one interaction with law enforcement officers! But I guess it does look out of place back in the woods.

pat - KI4SVM
all of my vehicles are off-road vehicles…

Oh man that looks like fun and is not all that far away. Unfortunately I am already (over) committed that weekend and wont be able to make it up there.

I will try to chase as much as possible though!

I am sorry that you can’t make the campout Steve, but of course we need chasers too! :grin: Hope to get a chance to work you and who knows, we may do this camping trip thing again. There are tons of locations in W4G that are perfect for this sort of thing.

73, pat