Toccoa River Swinging Bridge to Three Forks - BMT/DRT

Join me on this tough holiday hike from the Toccoa Swinging Bridge to Three Forks and back.  We'll be hiking the overlapping Benton MacKay and Duncan Ridge trails for most of this hike.

Starting at the parking area close to the Toccoa River we'll walk a short distance down to the river and cross over the swinging bridge.  Then it's uphill from the river over Little & Big John Dick mountains before descending down to Long Creek, intersecting the AT and continuing on to turn around at Three Forks.  After turning around we'll head 1 mile back up the AT to Long Creek falls for a creekside lunch.  We then retrace our path back to the cars.

Highlights include the Toccoa Swinging Bridge, Long Creek Falls, and beautiful mountain vistas through leafless winter trees.  Fun fact, the Toccoa Swinging Bridge is the longest swinging bridge east of the Mississippi at 270 ft long.

This is a challenging D6 hike of about 18 miles and 4000 ft elevation gain. You'll need prior D6 or high end D5 experience or the equivalent. You should be comfortable hiking at an average pace of 2.8 mph for up to 7 hours with minimum breaks.  If there are no previous D6 hikes in your profile or I have not hiked with you then please expect an email to assess your compatibility for the hike.

We will be parking at the end of the service road heading to the swinging bridge. The service road is about 3 miles with rocks and potholes. We may want to consolidate cars at route 60 and take the more offroad capable vehicles down to park at the swinging bridge.

Click here for trailhead location