Gordon County High Point Trip Report
Horn Mtn (1,780+ ft)
Date: March 21, 2004
Author: Ken Oeser
We followed Mike Beavers' report at the start, but this is more straightforward hiking.
From Calhoun, GA go west on GA156 for a few miles until it curves south
to go around the southern edge of Horn Mountain. Just at the southern tip of
the mountain, turn right onto Everett Springs Road NE and drive about 2 miles to
an intersection with Rock Creek Road. Turn right onto Rock Creek Road and drive
north 3.3 miles to a sign for Johns Mountain WMA. Turn right onto gravel FR955
and go 0.9 mile, turn left onto FR955B. FR955 was gated here just past this
road. FR955B is a good gravel road, so we first followed it to the top of the
ridge, parked, and put our boots on. I pulled out the GPS and it said we were
3.65 miles from the highpoint!
We got back in the car and drove back down the hill and turned onto the correct,
more primitive road. To get to this road, drive up FR955B for 0.4 mile to a
left curve. Go straight onto the smaller road and drive 2.1 miles to a gravel
circle at its end, following a large switchback at 0.6 mile. This road is shown
on Topozone. My GPS showed a distance of only 0.65 mile to the highpoint from
this parking area, which was more to our liking. Elevation here is about 1,400 feet.
Hike northeast up the ridge on the right side of the parking area about 0.25
mile to the main ridge, then hike east along the ridge about 0.2 mile to the
county line, marked by the GPS saying you are there. Kevin's flagging says he
thinks the highest area is the same as we do, a hump with a tree on it before a
small saddle on the ridge. We hiked another few hundred feet up the ridge to
gain some distance and elevation.
Mike Beavers' report mentions that he followed another road, then came down the
ridge from the northeast, but we didn't check that since the gate blocked
farther travel on FR955.