October 24, 2015
Currahee Mountain, GA
Currahee Mountain near Toccoa, GA is where Camp Toccoa was located, and it was here that the first paratroopers trained to prepare for combat in WWII. One of the training routines was to run up and down this mountain - "three miles up - three miles down", as seen in "Band of Brothers" (which was not filmed here). A forest dirt/gravel road leads to the top, and you can hike, run, or drive it.
We drove up. A hike would have taken about 4 hours round trip which was not in my time budget that day. Accomplished with my 2011 Honda CRV 2WD which is not an off-road vehicle by any stretch of the imagination.
For those interested: Online it says that AWD is recommended, but the road is doable in dry conditions with a little bit of clearance and maybe FWD. I've been on worse, for sure! There were no deep ruts but quite a bit of unpleasant washboard effect and a couple of steeper stretches where the gravel got very slippery, causing a tire to spin and the VSA light to flicker. There are not many good places to turn around so I just kept going, keeping the momentum. Up on top, it's tight quarters; there are only 4-5 parking spaces and all but one were taken when I arrived - lucky.
Do not try this without AWD after a good rain. Also, the road can be closed off to AWD as well when conditions get too bad.
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