One of my sons, his friend, my Labrador retriever Greta and I passed a fine time in the Bankhead Forest hammocking Saturday night. A friend had suggest Parker Falls, so I looked up the location of the trailhead on my Topo map, and off we went.
Well, the trailhead wasn't reflected accurately on the map, but we found it anyway and set off down what turned out to be a decent (easy to follow) trail through some thick evergreen woods. The first half of the hike was fairly level ground, then the going got considerably tougher descending into the canyon. Thankfully I had my hiking poles with me! All in all the trail was probably close to 2 miles long.
There were a couple of fire rings; we found decent trees for our 3 hammocks near the best of the fire rings and set up camp. The falls were not in view from the campsite, which kept the sound of the waterfall at a really nice level, kind of like waves on a beach would be.
This trip had a couple of purposes, the first being to actually start enjoying the Bankhead Forest, which is a cornucopia of canyons and waterfalls. It was also this son's first hammock outing, and he was most interested in how his ENO DN and Pro-Fly would work for him (very well indeed!!).
We carried very little water in. I brought a Platypus water filter and filtered the water flowing in Parker Branch. It was delicious!
The first part of the hike out this morning was pretty steep and challenging. I hadn't really noticed how steep it was on the way in yesterday afternoon.
Unfortunately no pictures this time, as we were all carrying extra gear to test. But it was a scenic location that I will return to photograph once the fall colors reach this area.
It was also a nice destination for a small group. Once we hit the trail, we had it all to ourselves.
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