Kayaking Lake Nottely with Bill and Nancy

 

Blairsville, Georgia (High 89, low 68)

We have had some rain the past few days, but fortunately it didn’t ruin our kayaking plans.  Unfortunately, the temperatures this week are going to be pretty warm and even a prediction of 90 degrees one day.   We haven’t seen that high of temperature since we’ve been here. I hope the heat wave doesn’t last long.  Fortunately, we’re still having cool nights and we can open our windows overnight and enjoy cool mornings.

The weather forecast yesterday was a little iffy with  brief showers popping up here and there.  There was nothing severe and no lightning around.   We debated back and forth with Bill and Nancy, but we finally decided to drive out to Lake Nottely and if it was raining, we could at least see the pretty lake.

When we got there, it looked fine, so we inflated our kayaks and carried them down the steep embankment to the lake.  We launched by the swimming area, so there was some sand, but at the water line, we ended up in mucky red clay.

 

Lake Nottely is a beautiful mountain lake formed by another of the TVA built dams.  This dam is no where near as pretty as the Hiawassee Dam in nearby Murphy, NC.   If you missed that post, you can see it HERE.

The lake as just as pretty though, with the same deep turquoise and green colors.

With the exception of the beach area, the rest of the shorelines were very rocky.   Red clay and rocks.

I discovered some unusual pink rocks.  Al missed them and I’m not sure if Bill and Nancy saw them either as they were in a different area when I spotted them.

There were a lot of pretty islands to explore. 

There are not shortage of rocks in north Georgia.

Bill and Nancy

I thought this tree looked interesting with the mountains in the background.

Love the pretty clouds.

 

One minute it was cloudy, and the next it was sunny.

 

 

 

 

dueling photographers

 

Nancy really knows how to relax!  I had to laugh when she would tell Bill  “take me over there.”   It would be so much easier to take pictures if you had a chauffeur.    (hear that Al)

There were some beautiful homes along the lake.

This was a nice boathouse for the pontoon.  That is part of the dam in the background.

interesting trim around the deck.

Love the blue sky and white puffy clouds

 

There were a few boats pulling skiers, but overall the boat traffic was light.  I’m sure that would be different on the week-end. 

The water was amazingly warm.  I’m guessing it might have been 85 degrees….at least on the surface.   I could have actually gotten in and I don’t get in cold water.

 

The lake was very pretty and the scenery was amazing, but it confirmed to Al and I that we aren’t really lake people.   We very much prefer kayaking in the ocean or rivers, because there is more to see.

We might take the kayaks out again to see the fall foliage, but then again, it might be too chilly by then.   :)

We Hiked the Entire Appalachian Trail (width)

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 84, low 62)

 

Bill and Nancy headed out early yesterday for a full day hike up to Blood Mountain and the Appalachian Trail.   We are not in hiking shape to follow in their footsteps, but they told us about a short trailhead which led to the Appalachian Trail and up  Blood Mountain.

We drove over to the Byron Reece Trailhead and parked in the  parking lot, which was almost full by the time we got there. 

People left several walking sticks at the trial head, and in our opinion, they are pretty nice to have on this type of trail.

We started off with a nice easy trail with a gradual incline.  It was cool and shady and very enjoyable.

It got a little rocky and steeper as we went along.

Al worried a little about poison ivy, but I think most of the area was too shady for it to grow.  We hope.

We got to the intersection where the  Appalachian Trail and the Freeman Trail met, which is where Nancy and Bill were.  We walked a short way on the AT, and decided this was good enough for our first real hike in a while.  We haven’t been doing much hiking lately and we still had to get back down all those rocks we had climbed.    Hiking in the mountains is certainly different than what we’re used to in Florida.   We really need to get in better shape.  

 

 

The route back down wasn’t bad, but I did what Nancy called “butt hiking”  going back down some of those steep rock climbs.

 

After we did our hike, we decided to drive over to the Nottley Dam, which is here in Blairsville.   It’s a very nice lake, but the dam is not nearly as big or interesting as the Hiawassee Dam we visited the other day.

The lake is pretty with some nice islands.  We think we’ll take the kayaks over there one day soon.  Maybe with Bill and Nancy.  We might be able to keep up with them in kayaks.

How about the red clay beaches.

The water color is a  deep turquoise greenish color but the shallow water appears green like at these boat houses.

There are some pretty nice houses along the lake.

 

Yep, it looks like a nice paddle is in our future.

 

We got home, rested for a while, then met our friend Eileen who was taking us on another guided golf cart tour of some of the back roads she has discovered.

She is the one who showed us some really cool back roads the other night.  This tour, was on more public roads and not really my favorite.  

I kept wanting to turn around, but I was overruled!

We did see some pretty things though.  This 55 Chevy was a recent purchase of one of our neighbors.  It’s quite a beauty, isn’t it?   check out that shiny chrome bumper.

 

More soybean fields.

farms

I had been wanting to visit a particular old cemetery, where local aviator Micajah Dyer was buried.  We thought we would have to walk up there.

On the way back, Eileen asked if we wanted to go up the cemetery road.  I voted “no” because was steep, narrow, and rocky.  Once again, I was out voted, but as it turned out we hit the jackpot!

I will do a post in a few days about our discoveries there, but here is one interesting grave site we saw.  I’m guessing it’s pretty old.

Here is Al, gloating and saying “I told you so,” as I’m walking through the cemetery with a big smile on my face.

We saw several indications of bear activity, although no actual bears.

We saw corn husks laying in the road right across from a corn field.  We think the bear might have crossed just before we got there.

This next photo is what we think is a very fresh bear slide. You could see the claw marks.  Eileen heard noises up in the woods, so a bear may have been nearby.

No bear sightings yet, but they seem to be checking our the corn fields which have nice ripening corn.

Lake Hiawassee Dam

 

Blairsville, Georgia  (high 83, low 59)

 

Our plan for yesterday was to head up to Murphy, North Carolina and check out Lake Hiawassee Dam.  We’re going to rent a pontoon boat one of these days, and we’re trying to decide on which of the many lakes we want to explore by boat.

Nancy and Bill arrived Wednesday.  They were armed with the literature we gave them and were out exploring and looking for a place for a big hike on the Appalachian Trail.  They found just the right place, and are planning on spending the entire day hiking. 

Before we left, we puttered around the house for awhile, having our morning coffee and computer time, then off for a bike ride.   We hadn’t been on the bikes for a while and Dead Squirrel Hill beat me yesterday.  I just couldn’t get up that darn hill, but Al did!

 

We decided to have lunch at the beautiful Butternut Creek Golf Club.  They have a nice cafe with a beautiful outside dining area which overlooks the golf course.  It was a perfect day weather-wise with temps in the low 70’s at lunch time.

What a view.

There are a lot of dams and man made lakes in this part of the south, so there are no shortage of lakes.

Lake Hiawassee is in a more remote setting than most of the lakes we’ve been.  We wound around the mountains for quite awhile before we got to the lake.

The scenery was pretty.  How about this house built on the side of a cliff overlooking the lake?

We started at the marina so that we could check out the boats.

The water really was that color.

That is the marina you see in the background.  There are a bunch of boat slips.  I was curious if the boats stayed all winter and if the lake froze or not. 

I was told this part of the lake is deeper and doesn’t freeze, so most of the boats stay in the water all winter.  They have to be winterized.  That seemed funny to me because we’ve never had to winterize a boat.  :)  We actually had to “summerize” ours that we left in the Keys.

There are depths of up to 300 feet in this lake.  Wow.  This is all due to flooding when the dam was built by the Tennessee Valley Authority.   I’m not sure I like all these dams, but they certainly make for some beautiful lakes and recreational areas.

As we walked along the dock, we were amazed at how green the water was in the sun.

It was a pretty green and the water was pretty clear.

The lady at the marina said it was because of the red clay bottom.

There were some fish hanging out waiting to be fed, so she fed them early so that we could watch.

After we explored the marina and discovered that this lake had very little boat traffic, we decided this might be a great place to rent the pontoon boat.

 

We drove over to the dam and checked out the beautiful lake views.

The day couldn’t have been any more beautiful.

There was a map showing the many states and dams involved in the TVA project.

What a massive undertaking this was.  Did they have a master plan for the entire multi-state project, or did they just do a little at a time?  Where would you start?  What about all the people that were displaced?  What about all the animals that lost not only their homes, but probably their lives?

This  next photo was taken from the top of the dam.

Looking down, riverside.

It was a looong way down. 

Staircase for the workers to go down into the dam.

The view lakeside was incredible.

I would love to take a guided tour of one of these dams so that someone could explain how they work. 

I imagine we’ll be a get an interesting view of the dam from the water when we rent the boat.

 

We got home, visited a little with Nancy and Bill, then they went out for a walk and we went for a golf cart ride.  We offered them a ride, but Nancy had to get in her steps for the day.   She’s way more disciplined than we are!

We can’t wait to hear about their hike on Blood Mountain.

I think we’re going to do a less ambitious hike today ourselves.

Stay tuned.