The explanation for this paucity in the record is the fact that I was traveling with my father, who does not enjoy traveling, certainly not hiking, and who was goading me into haste that day. C'est la famille.

To access the USGS marker at Brasstown Bald you have to ask one of the rangers to open the door for you; the one I encountered was happy to do so. The summit, owing to its turret and cedar shakes, resembles a hybrid airport control tower and Fire Island deck. The visitor's center gives you a little history of the mountain, including the fact that local families once took wagons to the summit and held hootenannies on the grassy "bald." You are also treated to a short orientation movie whose soundtrack features the theme song to "The Beverly Hillbillies." In the sonic glory that is old country music, they could do no better than Jerry Scoggins' and Flat and Scruggs's ersatz "Ballad of Jed Clampett"? Black gold and Texas tea do not a Georgian highpoint make.