A friend and I day-hiked this 15-mile section yesterday (Thursday), south to north.
The section begins with a moderate ascents and descents, broken by small stream crossings. Water is flowing good this wet February.
We stopped for a break at an ATV trailhead at mile 9. The trail them makes a remarkable PUD up and down a gravel road rather than traveling straight up Rock Creek. I'm not sure why, unless the aim is to leave the wildlife openings/old farm fields along the creek undisturbed. When the trail drops back down to the creek it crosses one of the wildlife openings. The crossing is poorly marked - aim for the lone black walnut tree in the field.
The trail travels up the creek (Baker Branch, I think) for quite a ways. The flat fields are maintained by USFS. This was once a substantial and remote farming community. The bottomland terrain makes it obvious why. You'd think you were in the Smokies.
At about mile 10 or 10.5, the trail turns up a cove and climbs steeply on what seems like an old wagon road. Under an unusually hot February son with no leaf cover in the hardwood forest, and after 10 miles of walking, this climb was tough. It's a steep as Tearbritches Trail in Cohutta Wilderness, though a mile rather than three miles. The climb finally tops out on Tatum Lead. Then you walk an old road that gently climbs the crest of the lead.
After reaching civilization (a house), the trail drops steeply down a grave road to a small gap where there's a double trail sign. We couldn't detect where the trail left the road so continued on, as the road made an abrupt turn to the left. The Pinhoti is often poorly marked, so we thought it simply followed the turn in the road. We were wrong. A mile later, we reached Highway 52 about a mile west of where we should have. The error added about 1.3 miles to the 15-mile trip. The 1.3-mile pavement walk was downhill, but pounding down pavement was taxing on tired feet and ankles.
Lots of water and good campsites on this section. We didn't see wildlife but it's here.
Overall, this is a lovely and remote section of trail that is delightful. For most of its length it's easy to moderate walking. But that uphill pull to Tatum Lead is the most difficult I've walked thus far in Georgia (I've done High Point in Lyerly, Highway 100, to Highway 52 on Fort Mountain, a total of something like 75 miles.