NORTH GEORGIA: From BRASSTOWN BALD to DAHLONEGA - the BEST places to visit

I always used to think that nothing can go wrong as long as I travel in the mountains. Because the mountains is where I feel at home. But Northern Georgia and its scenic Blue Ridge Mountains had its own challenges waiting. Dense fog, adventurous water crossings, and the stunning ride that took me to Breastown Bolt, Helton Creek Falls, and to the most beautiful roads of the Chattahoochee National Forest, all the way to the town Dahlonega. Enjoy a road trip to Northern Georgia's best destinations. Today I'm starting the ride in the state Georgia. And the first stop before heading south will be the highest point of Georgia. Hello, Georgia. I arrived quite late yesterday and this is the first real day of riding. So I'm very curious because there are supposed to be some really nice mountains and even a little off-road stretch that I want to do. Before leaving the area, I wanted to visit the highest point of the state Georgia, the mountain Breastown Bolt. The native Cherokee people's name for Breastown Bolt is Enota. And it is located in the northeastern part of the state in the Blue Ridge Mountains and is supposed to have the best views of the whole state. On a clear day, it is possible to see the tall buildings of Atlanta 85 miles or 136 kilometers away from the summit. This is the road that leads to Breastown Bolt now to the highest mountain in Georgia and it started to rain. So I hope that will pass and I will still have some nice views up there. And actually I'm too lazy to stop and put on my rain gear. I hope I don't get too wet. Oh, so nice to be here under the trees. It's pretty fine because there's no rain. But when the trees are gone, it immediately starts to pour down again. Not so nice. Are you kidding me? Now I'm 0.3 miles from the top and there's just fog in front of me. What is this? And what about my views? Help! So this is like the saddest experience. You actually can't drive up. You have to take a shuttle up to the top and pay five dollars. And the whole system is down so I can't even pay the five dollars. Because I only have credit card and no cash. And the view I think is horrible anyway. So I decided to not do it even though I rode all the way up here now. But that's how it is sometimes. Weather makes it or breaks it. And now I have to put on rain gear. Yeah, I put rain gear on now. And I'm not going up. Now it's right up. Yeah, I bet. And now there is no view here. So I decided not to take the shuttle up. It could be nice. Imagine you break through this and then you have like this beautiful like... Oh yeah. Even though the system was down and I couldn't pay with credit card, the lovely staff of the shop still tried to find a solution and tried to help me to be able to reach the top. But I decided to believe in what destiny gave me. You can still go to the top and, you know, take the shuttle up even though you don't have any payment. We can give you an envelope if you want to mail the payment in later. I think I'm fine. I don't know about the view anyway. Yeah, well there is no view. Okay, let's get out of this fog here. Goodbye Brasthof Bolt. What a pity. But really nothing I can do. It as well doesn't feel as if it would clear up here anytime soon. But wait, maybe we can do something. I have an idea. Only need to find a place to stop again. So I just thought maybe I could fly the drone to get a better view and like reach above the fog. So we at least get like a little view of this landscape. So we will see if that works out. So down here there is at least no fog and it's actually quite nice to ride here even though the weather is not fantastic. But all these forests and small houses, I really like it. So I have some good news. The rain stopped and now I'm getting closer to the Halton Creek Road which is supposed to be a gravel road. So we will see how that is. So this morning I met a local who told me that there is this very nice place a little bit off road on a forest road called Halton Creek Falls. And that's where we're gonna go next even though it rains. Fingers crossed it's not gonna be too slippery. The Halton Creek Road is a service forest road and very well graded dirt. When starting I thought the ride would be a piece of cake until I reached a water crossing. So always look what's going on and if it's doable on the bike. There should even be no road. There's a lot of loose boulders. I crossed the river and followed the unknown rider who waited for me until we reached a second even deeper river crossing. Oh no, there is a second water crossing and this looks even steeper. And oh no, the guy is waiting for me on the other side. So I guess I can't chicken out now. But for the record if something happens I am not convinced about doing this. Thanks for waiting. Yeah, no problem. That was fun, right? I would have... I don't know if I would have done it alone. It just sucks when you like fall down with all your luggage. It's a heavy machine so I understand. Yeah, so if you go up to the paved road you can take a left and there's a nice like a outdoor called the Waliwasi store. A lot of motorcycles go there. Oh nice. And yeah, you're gonna go take it. If you take it right here, you take a left that curves all the way around goes into Suches and then you can take 60 down. Yeah, that's what I thought. Hey, nice to meet you. Hey, safe travels, huh? Thank you so much. Thank you for bringing me over these rivers. Man, I'm just the worst YouTuber on earth. I just did like two water crossings and I only managed to have like a side camera on where you can't even see much. It's such a pity but I have to admit I'm not gonna do them again because I now followed a motorcyclist while I was still scouting the first water crossing. And he came by and just drove through and I was like, if he can do it, I can do it too. And then I followed him and he was very nice and waited for me for the second one and then gave me a few more route suggestions for this day. It was time to explore the reason why I took this road, the Helton Creek Falls. Even if you are not a lover of waterfalls, the stop is definitely worth it because the short hike takes you through a lush mossy creek valley and fairytale forest. So how cool is this and how loud? Let's get out of here, hopefully with no surprises but I don't think so because this road here is as well the road where all the cars drive to the waterfall and I actually doubt that a car that is not high clearance could have done the second water crossing because that was quite steep. Very lovely ride here though. I'm very happy I did this little detour. I just decided to do another detour through the so-called Chattahoochee, I think it's called, national forest which is actually bringing me more north again but the motorcyclist that I followed through the creeks said it's a beautiful ride so I will do that. I hope the weather will be okay because there are a lot of clouds coming so maybe it means that I have to put on my rain gear soon again but fingers crossed. From highway 19, I turned off to route 180 direction Satchers and then I turned northwest on route 60 to Blue Ridge. So technical, this doesn't make a lot of sense what I'm doing now. This is definitely not the direction I'm supposed to go to. I'm supposed to go southeast and now I'm riding northwest but I can never resist a nice curvy fun ride through a forest and the guy suggested this road to me who I did the water crossings with so I just had to do it. The Chattahoochee National Forest may best be known as the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. The expansive forest area sprawls over 750,000 acres or 3,000 square kilometers of protected forest land in the North Georgia mountains. Indeed, one of the best times of visiting is not spring but autumn to enjoy the leaves turning from green to yellow and red. It's so funny. I think Americans are maybe the most chatty people ever. It's like literally you need to stand like five minutes at a petrol station and you will have like five new friends. It's so funny because Europeans, we're not like that at all. In Germany or Switzerland, you just travel and nobody would even talk to you but here, it's crazy. So I will prove it to you now. It's your rider. She wants to show me around because I have such a German accent. It's terrible, huh? No, I just have to check my route now. So what are you doing? Are you touring? Yeah, I'm driving cross-country from LA to Miami. Yeah, it's very nice. So you are a good ways across the country. Yeah, I'm nearly at my finish line now. Let's say it like this. Oh, it's not. It's a yamaha, yamaha, yamaha. And now, you can ride again. I would love to ride again. As a matter of fact, I tried to find a vintage Moto Guzzi. Thank you so much. All right, enjoy your day. Take care, bye. Take care. Thank you so much. All right, you be careful, okay? Yeah, I will. Have fun. Take care. So now I did all these detours and I'm finally really going south now. Today, I'm definitely going in circles. I followed highway 76 now and will turn off on route 52 to the town Dahlonega. I think it's called. And I'm basically really doing like, driving like in a circle. And didn't make many kilometers in the sense of going far. Everybody told me that this here is supposed to be a lovely town where people love to spend their weekends. Come from Atlanta and from all places in Georgia or as well from other states. And I actually would have liked to stay here but everything was booked. So I will just have a short look. Dahlonega is also called the heart of the Georgia mountains. Site of the first major US gold rush and the center of Georgia wine country, Dahlonega is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is a popular destination for weekend trips from Atlanta, which is only an hour drive. Some days, you just take a lot of detours. You take time to experience and to enjoy. Other days, the main goal is moving to cover distance to get closer to your destination. My next day was one of the second. So today I'm riding more or less like cross the state of Georgia. I'm going from here, still more in the north, to the coast or at least close to the coast. We will see how far I get. And yeah, that's the goal for today. Nothing could stop me in my attempt to get closer to the sea. Thank you for watching the ride through Georgia's mountains. Don't forget to subscribe my channel, give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment if you liked the ride. We are not done yet with the state Georgia though. The next episode will take us to Georgia's coast, St. Simons Island and the scenic town St. Mary's. Tune in next week to join this last episode before finally reaching Florida.