Day 7, Warwoman Creek to Martin Creek

The Blue Ridge Bartram Trail is marked with yellow blazes. They are 2-inch by 6-inch rectangles like the white blazes on the Appalachian Trail and the blue blazes on the Foothills Trail. Most of the blazes here were painted metal strips nailed to the side of trees.

The trail turned away from Warwoman Creek after less than a mile. We crossed a road at a spot called Warwoman Ford, and soon after that, we came upon some campsites. This was where Polecat and I first thought about camping yesterday before deciding it might be crowded with weekend campers.

This assumption turned out to be correct. We passed several campers on the other side of the road. A large, barking dog had to be held back by its owner as we walked by one site. Other campers were preparing to leave.

Once we were beyond the campsites, we didn't see any other people on the trail until late afternoon.

Just past Warwoman Ford, we saw the Chattooga River one last time. The trail then began an ascent. For the better part of the next six miles, the trail gained about 1,100 feet in elevation. There weren't many spots where this was a steep climb, but it was substantial enough to become tiresome.

Unlike the Foothills Trail, where every creek, branch, or gully seemed to have a bridge, streams on the Bartram Trail weren't always as easy to cross. The first time we discovered this was at Dick's Creek. It seemed we might have to ford across. The stream wasn't wide or deep, but we looked first for a way to avoid getting our feet wet.

A cluster of fallen trees a short distance downstream from the trail solved this problem, even though getting across was a little tricky.

Starting at Warwoman Ford, we began to see a feature of the Bartram Trail that isn't found on most backcountry trails. Instead of the usual signs at intersections made of wood or metal, some directions were chiseled into large boulders.

These were impressive and fit the landscape nicely, though the second one we saw proved why they aren't often used. It isn't easy to correct a typo or change the mileage when the trail is rerouted.

Polecat suggested we stop for lunch at a campsite near the top of our climb from Warwoman Ford. The extra effort of the climb up a slope of Rainy Mountain made me hungry, and I was grateful when I got there.

We didn't take a long time for the lunch break. The sky was overcast today, and I soon began to feel chilled.

After lunch, the trail made a long descent to Warwoman Dell. We stopped for water at a spring on the way down, then passed another stone direction marker at Green Gap.

We began to see day hikers as we approached the dell and crossed Warwoman Creek. A parking lot and picnic area were there, which had been built in the late 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC crew of 129 workers also built stone trout runs and spring houses.

Information signs described the area's history. One mentioned the story behind the Warwoman name, though implied it was a legend. There is some question about who that was, but I think there is enough evidence to say she was a real person.

Even though I said yesterday that Warwoman was a name given by Cherokee Indians to Nancy Hart, another woman may have held that title.

One possibility was Nanyehi, who later took the name Nancy Ward. She was a Cherokee woman who lived north of here in what is now Tennessee. She rose to prominence among the tribe for the bravery she showed in a battle against the Creek Nation, during which her husband was killed.

The title Warwoman fit Nanyehi because she sat with the war and peace chiefs at the Cherokee's ceremonial fire. She was the only woman given voting power in the tribe's general council and had absolute power to decide the fate of prisoners captured in battles.

Historians may never agree on who was Warwoman. Nevertheless, the stories of these strong women are fascinating and worthy to be retold.

Another sign we passed in the dell told of the Blue Ridge Railroad. A railroad already connected Charleston and Walhalla in South Carolina when plans were drawn up to extend tracks through here and connect to railroads in Knoxville, Louisville, and Cincinnati. The Civil War stopped construction on this ambitious project before any tracks were laid.

Although several attempts were made to restart construction following the war, no trains ever ran through the mountains and across the streams where I was walking. I wondered how much different this area would be if the railroad was successfully completed. It seemed likely that mining, logging, and farming would have been more economically feasible if trains became part of the landscape.

There were many downed trees on the climb, but nearly all had all been cleared from the trail. We didn't have any trouble getting to the campsite and arrived there about ten minutes before 5:00.

Sunshine appeared in the afternoon, and we still had enough of it to hike a few more miles. But according to my GPS track, there weren't any campsites in a reasonable distance ahead.

With the daylight that remained after I set up my tent, I looked for pinholes in my tent and covered them with repair tape.

One downside of a tent made of Dyneema Composite Fiber is it tends to develop small holes in the fabric from abrasion, stretching, and UV exposure. Another downside is the expense of the material.

Though expensive, tents made of DCF are strong and extremely lightweight, and they don't absorb water like nylon tents. Damage is easily repaired, which can extend the life. I think these positives make owning a DCF tent worthwhile.

As I finished dinner and prepared to go to sleep, I looked at the map to get an idea of what was ahead for us tomorrow. I didn't see much water on the trail, and there weren't many camping options. Still, the FarOut app wasn't available for this trail, so I only had the GPS track I downloaded from the internet. Our information came from waypoints another hiker had marked on the track and the Gaia app's base map.

I didn't hear any coyotes howling tonight. I also didn't hear any train whistles, which made me glad this part of Georgia continued to be an undeveloped forest that my generation and future generations could enjoy.