Post 900 Hike #159: Middle Prong, Indian Falls

In September my son Kirk drove up from Johns Creek GA to hike with me; we did Mt. Cammerer. Prior to Kirk bringing his wife Catherine and two daughters to celebrate Christmas with us; he advised me that he and Catherine would like to hike with me; assuming my wife Meredith would keep his daughters (4.5 & 7.5 yrs.), and their dog under control. My original plan was for us to hike the Rich Mtn Loop; I even gave them a copy of my last blog on these trails. However, during the night I decided to take them on a hike on the Middle Prong Trail to the Indian Falls Manway; I thought that a slightly shorter hike was desirable (not for my half-marathon runner daughter in-law but rather for my wife who would be responsible for their two daughters and dog, plus our Airedale Terrier Winston. Kirk and Catherine trusted my decision even though I could not give them specifics since that material resided in the room of their sleeping daughters.

We were on Middle Prong by 1000; I was somewhat surprised to note that Kirk was taking many pictures of the Middle Prong waterway adjacent to the trail; having done the 2.3 mi. segment eight times, the trail had not seemed that neat to me when in reality it is a very lovely trail.




When we got to the Panther Creek water crossing I told them a few hiking stories. Since I had not hiked the Indian Falls Manway for a couple of years and was not able to review my blogs relating to same (it is not on trail maps or in the Brown Book), I just knew that the manway was adjacent to a sharp switchback). Unfortunately it was a little further than I told them it would be. Nevertheless, when we arrived at the Falls they thought the trip was truly worth it; they took many pictures and we had a snack.



Retracing our steps was slightly easier for all the minimal slopes were now in essence "downhill".



My SUV was the only vehicle in the parking area at the Middle Prong trail head when we started at 0900; when we got back to it the number of vehicles numbered in the high teens.

Omron data: 7.3 mi. hiked, 15,952 steps (11,648 deemed aerobic--only steps counted were in bouts of 10 min. or longer), 571 kcal burned.

GPS data: 8.03 mi. hiked, 3.4 mph moving average speed, 930 ft. total assent (our max elevation on this hike was 3,193 ft). (NOTE: Omron-GPS disparity in part due to my failure to turn off my GPS prior to my driving 1-2 min from our parking space; thus the GPS distance hiked and the mph are slightly inflated.)

On the way home I selected the Back Porch as being a good place for them to try the Townsend cuisine. One had a barbecue and one a steak burger sandwich; I had a very delicious Reuben.