Day 3, Payne Gap to Fall Branch

I ate breakfast in my tent. The rain began to lessen at 7:40 a.m. but continued for another hour as we packed our gear and left camp.

The rain finally stopped 15 minutes after we started our climb from Payne Gap.

Shortly after the rain stopped, rays of sunlight began to extend between broken clouds. We didn't get far up the climb before we could stop to remove our rain gear.

Leaves on the ground remained wet, however, and that made the trail slippery and the climb more difficult.

Though steep, the first climb was less than a mile to the top of a hill. On the way up, we entered a layer of clouds. This made any chance of a view impossible.

The trail then made a short drop down to a Forest Service road before beginning another climb. This one was also short but steep.

Humidity from this morning's rain made me sweaty on the climbs. The downhill sections provided a chance to cool off.

As on the first climb, clouds surrounded the top, which was at the summit of Deadennen Mountain. This time, the clouds were beginning to thin out.

In his now-out-of-print book Hiking the Benton MacKaye Trail, author Tim Homan suggests the name Deadennen may have come from a method used by white settlers to kill unwanted trees without felling them.

After cresting Wilscot Mountain, the trail headed down to Wilscot Gap. Their names may have come from a man named Will Scot, a settler with Native American and European heritage who lived in the area in the 1800s.

A town named Wilscot also stood not far from here for a time. It now only exists as spot on some old maps.

Georgia Highway 60 crossed the trail at Wilscot Gap. This was the second time the trail crossed that road.

I began to hear gunfire on the climb out of the gap and continued to hear it occasionally throughout the rest of the morning.

This land was at one time a hunting ground for the Cherokee who lived in a village near the gap. It's now apparently used by guys spending their Saturday afternoon shooting up bottles and cans.

After crossing the highway, the trail made the day's longest and steepest climb as it went up Tipton Mountain. After a short distance into the climb, it passed a cut in the trees for a power line. This gave the least-obstructed view of the day.

By this time, I had fallen behind Tengo and JA. The climb probably caused me to lose more time. I was sweating once again on this climb and even more so because the temperature was rising into the 70s.

The descent started easier because the trail followed an old logging road.

The footing improved again once I reached the bottom of the descent at Ledford Gap. From there, the trail followed a dirt road, but only for a short distance before turning to make yet another climb.

I almost caught up to Tengo on this climb, which only gained about 400 feet. I could see him ahead of me but couldn't make up the distance before he reached the top of Brawley Mountain.

I got to the top of the mountain a few minutes past noon. JA and Tengo were taking a break when I arrived. Instead of eating lunch, though, we only ate snacks. We were saving our appetites because we weren't far from Iron Bridge General Store and Café.

After a 30-minute break, we were beckoned on by thoughts of cheeseburgers. We tried to walk swiftly for the remaining 4.5 miles to the restaurant. The first section down to Garland Gap was sometimes steep.

The trail made another short climb, then dropped further to where it crossed two intersecting roads. One of those was Shallowford Bridge Road, which could have taken us to the restaurant. For better or worse, we remained instead on the BMT.

The "for worse" part of this section was a tedious series of short ups and downs. At least we weren't walking on a road, though there would be plenty of that ahead.

Weirdly, we passed what appeared to be two large teepees without their outer skin. Though undoubtedly not an example of Leave No Trace, they may have been standing on private property. It was hard to tell around here sometimes where the national forest boundary began and ended.

The final drop to the Toccoa River was also steep. A few switchbacks made the descent a little easier. The trail bottomed out where it met up again with Shallowford Bridge Road.

The river was the same one we crossed yesterday on the suspension bridge. We'll cross it again in a few days, though at that point, the river will have a different name. It is only called the Toccoa in Georgia. Once it flows into Tennessee, it becomes the Ocoee.

We next began the first of four miles of road walking. I feared we might lose Tengo here. He was taking great interest in the fishermen standing on the river bank. Tengo is an avid fisherman and is active in his local chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Nevertheless, the allure of cheeseburgers must have convinced him to keep going because he soon caught up.

To reach Iron Bridge General Store and Café, we first had to cross the river on Shallowford Bridge.

The bridge is more than 100 years old. Cars still drive over the bridge, but it is in serious need of replacement and maybe is beyond repair.

Residents have voiced a desire to keep it for foot traffic once a new one is built. A state transportation official said it may cost more than $1.5 million just to restore it as a footbridge, and at this point, the integrity of the foundation is unknown.

At least for our crossing, the bridge didn't fall into the river. The restaurant was directly on the other side.

A steady stream of customers came in and out of the restaurant. They were a mix of locals and tourists. We were the only customers to wear face masks, even though COVID-19 cases were on the rise again.

The store owners and staff were helpful and friendly. After retrieving our resupply boxes, we ordered cheeseburgers, then went outside to some picnic tables. As we waited for our food to be prepared, we packed the food from our resupply boxes and ate some of the lunch we skipped earlier.

It would have been possible to purchase what we needed at the small general store, so dropping off resupply boxes may have been unnecessary. Still, the options would have been limited and not ideal for backpacking.

As it was, we ended up with too much food. When our cheeseburgers were delivered, we discovered they were large.

There's no such thing as too much food during a long-distance hike that lasts several weeks. The third day of a hike is too soon for hiker hunger to kick in, though.

With full bellies, we resumed our walk. The BMT stayed on Asaka Road as it followed the river for another four-tenths of a mile before turning onto Stanley Creek Road.

The roads were narrow, mostly with no shoulder, but there wasn't much traffic. In all, this road section was 4.1 miles long.

We hadn't walked far before a light rain began to fall. It fell so lightly it was barely noticeable at first. We didn't bother to stop and put on our rain jackets.

The scenery on the road through the Georgia countryside was pretty. Still, walking on the asphalt road quickly became tiresome, especially for Tengo.