So with fall in full swing and the leaves well into the color change of the year, I thought it was about time for a scenic trip to enjoy the colors, and what better place then Green Ridge. Picking the date was a little up in the air for a while, but finally, everything came together on October 17th.
It was so thick you couldn’t see the ground under the cliff’s edge.
And for our journey into Mother Nature’s canvas of color were:
- Alex Hinson & Katie
- Bill Rea & Wife
- Tee Jay
- John Tompkins & son
- Kenny Gass + Friend
We met Kenny and his friend on the trail since they were already up there camping. We did the normal path to the Green Ridge trail loop. Despite the grey clouds above, the forest was on fire with color. All of the yellows, oranges, reds and browns gave us lovely view and a scenic ride throughout the day.
On the first leg of the trail we came across a fallen tree and a group of rangers out to chop it up and move it. This proved to be the only challenge of the day, considering it was a full grown pine that fell. The trails were nice and muddy and provided many deep mud pits for us to splash in, some more than others. We stopped for lunch at the normal spot under the power lines. We also made some really big splashes in the large and water puddle here. By now, we were all very dirty, but enjoying every bit of it. After lunch we continued on and proceeded to do the full loop around Green Ridge. One good thing was that it seemed that the cold and wet weather kept most of the smaller 4×4’s home that day meaning we had little traffic to worry about.
Several places along the loop and at the scenic overlooks where we stopped, we were greeted by a thick covering of fog and clouds. It was so thick you couldn’t see the ground under the cliff’s edge. At the log roll hill, the clouds seemed to have parted for just a bit giving us a limited, but beautiful view of the valley below. Fall colors sure look good when view on the side of a mountain. After taking in the sites, we headed down to the river crossings and sort of cleaned our vehicles off. The water was very low; I barely got the rims wet on my jeep.
Once done with that, we headed back to town to get John’s Jeep. Kenny and his buddy headed back to camp. Since John’s Jeep was still having alternator problems, we escorted him home to make sure he made it ok. All in all, it was a great day with good friends. The fall colors were amazing and everyone enjoyed the day. Can’t wait for the snow!
Trail report written by Alex Hinson. Pictures courtesy of Alex Hinson.