Let me just open up with the map of our tracklog for this hike and add that there was some "dispersed hiking" that happened early on and leave it at that. The total hike was just under 8 miles long but at what should have been the "half-way"point I had 4.5 miles on the GPS. The total trip could probably be made in just 8 miles without the detours we made.
Another note about this map- we started on one side of 281 (a nice two-lane paved road) at the parking lot and walked across that, we walked across 600G (a dirt road) but we did not cross 281 between the shelter and Devil's Den Falls. That little white line that runs up the map right in the middle we never saw in the real world I looked at the aerial photo in Google maps and didn't see a trace of a road there either.
First stop, about a mile from the Turnipseed Camp parking area, was Cheaha Falls.
Just up the hill about 500 feet is the Cheaha Shelter. There's a picnic table just to the right of the picture and this is where we broke out a quick lunch of rolled wraps, fudge cheese and ginger beer. (Two thumbs up for Cock 'N Bull ginger beer.)
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| Rather than re-type the information on the shelter... here it is |
The next mile and a half of trail (Chinnabee Silent Trail) takes you winding through the hills until you take a sharp left at what appears to be an old logging road. The path is a little less curvaceous and soon takes another sharp right turn after less than a half mile and from then on it's a straight shot to the falls in another 3/4 of a mile or so as the traill runs parallel to the creek (called Cheaha Creek by some sources and Coldwater Creek by others).
And here's Devil's Den Falls:
Thanks to our hiking buddies, hot cocoa happened. Mmmmmm cocoa...
More pictures are over here.
