Vogel State Park

Back during the final weekend of August, during a four-day weekend, my buddy and I took a little road trip. First we headed down to Tampa, stopping at Little Manatee River State Park for the day, where we picked up a Florida State Park Annual Pass, and then that night I went to see Blake Shelton in concert. The following day we drove North, through Tallahassee and West until we reached the highest point in Florida, Britton Hill. On the return East, we stopped by Ponce De Leon Springs State Park and showed up minutes late at the Florida Caverns State Park for the final tour of the caverns. After stopping for dinner at Steak n Shake, a frequent dining experience, and a shower at a friend’s, we drove through the night into Georgia.

After a brief stop to sleep in a rest area, something my family and friends deemed ‘dangerous’, we continued driving early that morning through Atlanta before having the fuel pump in our car go out. After having three calls to AAA drop due to T-Mobile being the shittiest phone carrier ever, we finally got a tow to a nearby town and stopped by IHOP for breakfast. Once the car was fixed, we were back on the road and off to the highest point in Georgia, Brasstown Bald. It was an interesting drive up steep, winding mountain roads, looking out the side of the car down cliffs that drop down deeper than any drop-off in Florida.

On the trip back down the mountain, the smell of burning brakes filled the air as the car careened around steep turns. On the way up the mountain we had spotted various spots that we wanted to stop at on the way down. One location that I had noticed was Vogel State Park, which from what I had seen from the road was a huge lake with a hiking path around it. We entered the park and parked before taking photos of the lake. The park map showed the hiking path around the lake and up into the surrounding mountains along with a spot on the other side of the lake with a waterfall. After strolling around the lake and taking a detour down to see the waterfall, it was back to the other side of the lake and into the mountains.

According to the map, the hiking path led up the mountain, connected to the Blood Mountain Trail and over to the Appalachian Trail. The goal was to reach the Appalachian Trail and get back in four hours, around sundown. We were grossly unprepared for hiking – taking only Gatorade with us – so I was looking at two hours up and two hours down to be safe. The path we took up ended up being the longer end of a loop, but led past the summit and overlook point. After a quick stop there, we continued to the point where the Blood Mountain trail veered off. We were already an hour and forty-five minutes in, so we settled on fifteen minutes up and then turn around.

The sounds of thunder filled the air, but I wasn’t concerned about that as we weren’t anywhere close to tree-line. We turned around a minute short of our time and headed back down. With an assist from gravity and having hiked up this portion of the trail already, we made quick work on the way down, even jogging for a bit. Once we reached the loop we had hiked earlier, we took the other part of it, the shorter part unbeknownst to me at the time. We continued jogging down the flatter portions of the trail until we reached the park again, only about an hour after turning around.

I had been looking forward to stepping foot on the Appalachian Trail and experiencing my first white blaze. Instead, I was restricted to lime-green blazes on that day, but it was a cool experience for a Florida flat-lander. I’ve had an urge to hike part of the Appalachian Trail for a while and being so tantalizingly close without so much as a taste of its nectar has left a deeper longing for me to experience it.

After leaving Vogel State Park, we stopped with another group of friends for dinner before making our way South through part of the night. Another stop at a rest-stop for a longer night’s sleep than the last and we were off to Florida. Having most of Monday to play with, we stopped at Ichetucknee Springs State Park for a quick swim and then to De Leon Springs State Park (not to be confused with Ponce De Leon Springs from earlier) to check it out. And finally the weekend was over.