The Georgia Traverse Part 4 | Finishing Our North Georgia Overland Adventure | Presented by Novsight

The Georgia Traverse series is brought to you by NovSight. NovSight, adventure is calling. Well, we're getting moving. It's about 9.15 a.m. And we absolutely 100% made the right call. Camping on the Holiday Inn. Weather forecast said severe storms were supposed to move in about 3 a.m. About 3 a.m. I woke up and nothing was going on and I started to be like, well, darn, we could've camped. And then about 5 a.m., a massive storm rolled through. Knocked out the power at the hotel. The power was out until we left just a few minutes ago. It's still out there. So it was a pretty epic storm. And yeah, we made the right call. We would've gotten absolutely demolished if we would've been on the campsite when that storm rolled through. But we're back on the road. We're heading back out on the Traverse. It is still raining pretty hard, but we're finishing it, rain or shine. As we started out the day, the mountain scenery was spectacular. But the signs of storm damage from the night before assured us that we had made the right decision staying in a hotel. The conditions as we left pavement and returned to the Traverse were wet and we weren't complaining. With the team now down to only two Jeeps, we had plenty of time to flip. The further we made our way down the trail, the more wet it became. This was going to be a good day. This is probably one of the best campsites I've seen on the Georgia Traverse. This place is epic. I mean, it's a soggy, muddy mess right now. So it would kind of be a pain in the butt to camp here now, but it's got Curly's Creek runs down here and then there's a point where they converge. And then you have a water crossing, what we're about to do. But this would be a great campsite for two, maybe even three rigs. I waypointed the campsite and the water crossing. So you know the drill. If you want the coordinates, head over to patreon.com slash Defiant Off-Road and I will post them up there within a few days of completing the trail. But this campsite is seriously amazing. Eventually the weather broke and the sun began to shine through, revealing the spectacular summer colors of the North Georgia Forest. With the previous night's storm, I was wondering if the trail would be blocked by fallen trees. Nature was about to answer my curiosity. We have our first downed tree and you would think that after my experience at New River Gorge, I'd learn my lesson and have a chainsaw with me, but I don't. I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh, wait a minute. He brought one. That's what we're going to do. So, yeah. Good to see you. All right. The lumberjack is about to get to work with his DeWalt tool because if we know anything about DeWalt, he sure is a tool. Thanks to Matt's preparedness, the trail is now clear. We haven't gone two minutes further down the trail and we've even got an even bigger one down. This is the part where I feel useless because Matt's out there doing most of the work. Having two bulging discs in my back, I'm kind of limited in what I can lift and with a bunch of snitches at my old job, who like to watch my YouTube and try to use everything I do against me. I kind of have to hang back and act as the hype man, but he's doing a great job. Finally got it cleared. Some locals showed up. Guy had a chainsaw also, and we got it cleared. He did a lot of cutting since Matt was back on the charger for the second time and we finally got it rolled down the trail. So we're going to get started. We've had a few vehicles line up behind us coming down the trail. Since we're shooting video, we're going to pull to the side, let them pass so we're not holding them up and then we're going to get back at it. Thanks for your help. Thanks for your help man. Yeah, y'all have a good one. Be safe. Yep. There's the rest of the Traverse and then there's Charlie's Creek and the Tallulah River Crossing. This shallow but incredibly fun water crossing is one of the highlights of the Georgia Traverse. All right, we just made the dramatic Creek Crossing. Hopefully that footage came out well. This is the point at which Matt and I were going to part ways and he's going to head home and I'm going to go get into whatever it is I'm going to get into because I don't have to be home until Thursday. So check out Simply Must Go. Head over to his channel, subscribe if you haven't already. It's been magnificent being on this trip with you. Yeah man, it's been awesome. I'm super glad we got to do this. I appreciate you inviting me and I wish the Overland Dads could have finished it with us but I totally get it. 15 hours back to Miami, I probably would have left a little early too. Any parting thoughts, Matt? It was an awesome trip. If you haven't done the Georgia Traverse, it's worth a shot. Absolutely. It was good to meet you and I hope to see you again. Matt and Jessica, they're heading back to their home in South Carolina. I'm all on solo now. I don't have to be back in Virginia until Thursday. So I'm going to see what I can get into for a couple of days but I'm solo now, there's only one thing left to do. No radio off, nobody to talk to now. Let's see what we can get into. The previous three days had been more fun than I can describe, but also hectic. Now that I was the last of our group still on the Traverse, I was able to relax and go at my own pace. I had such a good time this weekend. It was really nice to finally get to run a trail and hang out with Matt from Simply Must Go and meeting the gang from Overland Dads. Florida was great. I don't talk about personal stuff on social media a lot but I'm a fairly introverted person and 13 years in law enforcement definitely did not help that personality trait at all. And now that due to an on-duty injury, I may be closing that chapter and moving on to something else. I'm trying to, for lack of a better term, teach myself how to be a normal person again. And this weekend helped a lot as far as that goes. But being introverted, it's nice to finally be out solo by myself and just kind of recharge being around a lot of people for several days while fun. It was a little draining, but now it's nice and peaceful and I'm getting to relax. As I make my way from the trail and onto the rural back roads, it signals that this journey has reached its end. I think back on the past four days and the experience that it has been. The miles of trails, the interesting, the new friendships made, the helping hands and the amazing scenery. This was an adventure that I'll never forget. This was the Georgia Traverse.