Hard Labor Creek

Update (February 2019): After moving to the area, scouting this run, and looking at satellite imagery, it is evident that this run has been turned into a resevoir (Hard Labor Creek Resevoir) and is now dammed up. The only thing visible is the Browning Shoals downstream from the takeout bridge, with the dam on the upstream side of the bridge. I am not sure about access.

You would have to be hard up for something new before attempting this 15' wide, muddy, deadfall-infested slot through the woods. It is only runnable after MAJOR rain, which means there will be lots of better choices nearby. The access is poor; no public parking exists either at the put-in or take-out; you must leave your vehicles in the right-of-way near the bridges. You might possibly park at the historic church, a featureless white building about 1/4 mile south of the put-in bridge. The surrounding woods are thick, dark, forbidding, trailless and full of poison snakes and spiders. Also, since this is pretty far out in the redneck boonies, ride out there in your Deliverance-mobile so as to minimize the trauma and financial loss of senseless vandalism. That being said, there is one interesting set right under and beyond the take-out bridge, where the creek drops 40 or 50 vertical feet in a few hundred horizontal down the sort of sheer-faced granite slide found so often in this part of Georgia. You will have to carry a long way back up the steep bank to get to the bridge where you parked your car. The river-right bank is private property with the house and yard quite close by; ask permission first. River left is thick woods and steep slope; watch your step and have the snakebite kit handy. From I-20, take route 11 north to the town of Social Circle. Continue past the town and bear right to a 4-way stop; go straight through. The road is now called 'Social Circle-Fairplay Road'. Go approximately 4 miles and past Mount Paran Church Road; look for historic church on your left. It looks more like a

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