Lovely run from Highway 28 where it crosses the SC/GA border at the Chatooga River. This is the eastern terminus of the Bartram Trail, from which it stretches through the mountains of northern Georgia, then up into North Carolina where in ends near Franklin. Today's run was an out-and-back effort of about ten miles distance to Sandy Ford.

The trail was very runable, with virtually no technical sections, just a lot of undulation up and down when it ventured away from the river. It was a perfectly sunny day with temps between 39 and 56 degrees during the five hours it took to complete - two-and-a-half hours out and the same coming back. The color in leaves is running its course and will soon give way to winter's chilly reprieve.

I had the trail mostly to myself, with encounters of just five hikers and a bunch of fly fishermen near the bridge. My knee still showed signs of weakness for the first four miles or so before I was able to run freely. I would have gone further but was stopped by a stream crossing near Sandy Ford just past Dick's Falls that would have involved wading waist deep across five yards of mildly flowing water. Apparently the bridge had washed out and they had not rebuilt it yet. It was a good reason to turn around.