Sunset Over the Mountains

 

Blairsville, GA ( high 55, low 28)  30% chance of snow

 

We had such beautiful weather last week. The skies were blue, temperatures in the upper 60’s and no wind.   That has changed abruptly, and we now have a chance of snow, tonight and tomorrow.  We’d like to see some snow, so that’s okay with us.

We  planned on leaving this Sunday, but not surprisingly, we just can’t seem to bring ourselves to drag ourselves away.  We love it here, and the color is still pretty nice.  We’re not as brave as Merikay and Craig, and prefer to drive through Atlanta on a Sunday, but I guess that won’t happen.

The other evening, we drove over to Brasstown Bald mountain to watch the sunset.  We’ve taken a lot of sunset pictures over the ocean, so we decided it was time to get some from the top of the mountain.

We weren’t the only ones there.

We chose to stay in the parking lot, instead of walking up the .6 mile paved trail, which goes straight up the mountain.  We had done it earlier in the day, and it was a tough one.  I think it was more due to lack of oxygen, but I could never seem to catch my breath.  They have a bus that takes you up, but they stop running at 5pm.  The pictures would have been much better, but it would have been a cold and dark hike back down after sunset.

 

We stood around and waited for the sun to go down.  It was getting pretty chilly.

The interesting cloud formations made for some nice photos.

 

 

 

It’s funny how the different light brought such different colors.

Soon, our sunsets will look more like this.

 

More Waterfalls, and Tornado Damage

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 81, low 58)

 

Happy Fall Y’all

Fall is my favorite time of the year here in the north Georgia mountains.   People around here really get into decorating for fall, me included.

Here is a picture of our fall decor. 

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here almost three months and that our time is winding down.   We have a lot of exploring to do before the end of the month.

On Monday, we went into town  and had lunch with Merikay and Craig.  We did a little exploring and then home for happy hour out on the deck.  One of these days, I will remember to get their picture.

Yesterday, we decided to do some hiking.  It took us a while to make up our mind where to go, but finally we decided on Desoto Falls.  We headed south on Blood Mountain aka hwy 129. 

There was a nice parking lot, with a very clean and well maintained restroom.   We found out why , later on.  I’ll get back to that story later.

We jumped out of the car, grabbed my camera, phone, Al’s backpack, and went over to read the sign showing  a map of the area.

Fortunately, Al , noticed a sign saying you could get in free with the Golden Age/geezer card.   It’s a good thing he saw that, because we hadn’t even thought about paying the normal  $3.00 parking fee.   We discussed whether or not anyone ever checked some of these remote parking to see if everybody paid.  I didn’t think so.

Then, Al started to laugh and ask me if I had forgotten anything?   I looked down and realized I still had on my sandals!  Duh.

After changing shoes, off we went to find the trail head and passed a nice remote campground.

a stream….of course

and finally to the trailhead.

Legend has it that a piece of armor was found near the falls that may have been from explorer Hernando Desoto.

You can go to the upper trail which is .75 mile or the lower which is .50 mile.  We decided to go to the upper trail first.

This next picture is a mushroom that almost looked like a small furry animal. 

It was an easy walk, with only short areas where you had to climb, and fortunately not too many acorns in your path.

The waterfall was a little sparse, and not one of the prettiest we’ve been to, but that’s  okay.  You can’t win them all.

Don’t you just love the people that feel the need to leave their name all over public grounds?

Thanks Greg Weaver from Wasilla, Alaska.  Glad to know you were there!

also glad to know Ashley Owen loves Wendi Strickland

 

We walked back down, and then did the lower falls.   That was a shorter hike, but more strenuous. 

The forest was pretty.

 

I’m always fascinated by the knobs in the trees.  This looks like a face of a bulldog to me.  See the crooked tooth?

see the resemblance?

When we got back to the parking lot, we noticed this fellow giving out a ticket to someone who has forgotten to pay their $3.  He took down all sorts of info, including the vin.

Phew….it’s a good thing we remembered to put our geezer pass, or this could have been us!   The ranger told us the ticket will cost these people $50!   Wowzer!   We wondered which of the people we met on the trail was getting this little surprised.  NOW, we see how they can have such a nice bathroom and parking area. 

 

After, we left Desoto Falls, we decided to head down the road to Little Ridge Creek Falls.  It’s in the Boggs Creek Wilderness area right off Hwy 129  (note to self…don’t bother going back)

 

We had our little trail guide which told us how to get to the trailhead.  Unfortunately, the directions in the book didn’t match what we saw in the park.

We came to a fork in the road.  One direction required you to drive over the stream, and the other had a blocked gate.  There was a forest service guy parked on the other side of the gate, so we asked him if he knew where the trail was located.  He didn’t but mentioned a tornado did a lot of damage there last year and things had changed.

He said we were welcome to walk down the gated road, but we couldn’t bring the truck.

We parked and walked a ways up the gravel road.  There was supposed to be 4 waterfalls.

We walked a ways and came across some pretty flowers and butterflies.

and lots of damage from the tornado.

 

It wasn’t the most interesting hike we’ve ever been on.

We finally reached what we think was the actual trail head, that we were supposed to have been able to drive to.  By this time, we had lost our enthusiasm for this hike,  so we headed back.

How about this tree knob?   Can you see the nose, eye and snaggle tooth on this face?

We ended up with about a 4 mile hike by this point, so we decided to call it a day.

 

  

Although it wasn’t the best day for waterfalls or hikes, we had a nice day, and I’m sure we’ll find something else to do today. 

A Walk in the Woods-and a Few Oops Moments

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 78, low 58)

 

The weather has been very nice, so on Wednesday, we decided to go on a slightly longer hike.   We have been gradually lengthening the distance of our hikes to build up our stamina.

We  ended up going back to Vogel State Park to finally  complete the  Bear Hair Gap Trail.   It’s listed as a moderate hike, and I guess by Georgia mountain standards, that’s correct, but it was certainly a challenging hike for us.

Even within the park and the park literature, there are different opinions on the length of this hike. It is somewhere around 3.5 miles, not counting the .8 mile nature trail to the actual Bear Hair Gap trail and the overlook trail. 

We are certainly not in as good of shape as Nancy and Bill, who walked 9 miles in these woods, and lived to tell about it.

Three miles in these mountains is probably equal to at least 15 miles of flat ground. 

This next picture is not even on the actual trail yet, but just the nature trail that leads to the main trail.

 

We stopped and picked up some buck-eyes.

It seemed like it was all uphill.

The acorns were thick and would become a big problem later on. Darn acorns.

 

UP, UP, UP.  We started at about 2400 foot elevation and ended up about 3200 feet.  The average grade was 12%, but there were 25% stretches too.

The deeper we got into the woods, the more acorns we saw.  They were constantly falling all around us.  We discussed needing a hard hat.

 

Acorns were falling all around us.  It was only a matter of time until one of them hit one of us.  We discussed how much it might hurt if it hit your head.

Soon, I found out when one hit my shoulder.  Ouch.

Darn acorns!

They were pretty large.

 

It was a pretty hike with some color along the way.

A few things we (I)  didn’t particularly want to see.   Al took the following photo.  :)

 

Not long after this, Al saw what he first thought was a branch.

It turned out to be a black snake which was about 4 feet long.  We scooted it down the side of the mountain, to what turned out to be the same direction the switch back had us go next.

We finally got to some mostly flat ground and thought we had reached the plateau shown on the trail map.

The flat ground didn’t last too long before we were going up again.

 

The overlook was pretty, but you couldn’t see much, except that there was another taller mountain in the background.

An interesting tree, but unfortunately many people decided they needed to carve their initials on the branches.

Once we got back onto the main trail, it seemed to get more difficult.  We thought it would be easier going downhill, but the trail became narrow, rocky and steep. The biggest issue was the acorns, which were like walking on ball bearings.  Very, very slippery.

Going down the side of a narrow mountain trail walking on ball bearings was not easy!   If you fell down, you might end up rolling for a loooong time.

We were walking very, very carefully but both of us kept slipping on those darn acorns, but no falls….….yet.

 

Finally, the inevitable happened and Al went down!   He landed hard between two cut tree branch narrowly missing being jabbed in the back by them.

I made sure he was okay, started to give him a hand up, but then realized a good little blogger like me should capture the moment for the blog.    :

He agreed to stay on the ground and pose for my picture. I quickly scooted backwards to snap a picture and don’t you know, I tripped on a tree root and I fell and also landed on the ground.  Darn root. Lesson one, don’t scoot backwards on a trail, and lesson two, don’t hurry.

Once he found out that I wasn’t hurt, he started laughing, and that is when I got my picture of him on the ground.

We sat there a few minutes and had a good laugh before we went on our way.

The acorns got thicker and thicker, and we had to really pay attention.  We both ended up slipping a few more times, but thankfully didn’t lose our balance again.

The trail became a lot more difficult on the way back down, with downed trees to cross.

Streams to cross (this is not my favorite way to cross a stream), but I had no choice.

large rocks to get around

This is truly a wilderness and the deeper we got into the forest, the more we realized how far away we were from any assistance, should we need any help.

 

We saw no bears but we saw this.     It was obviously from a bear and was right on the trail we were walking on.

Shortly after I saw that, I swear I heard a sound like a snort, kind of like a warning.  It sounded close.  Maybe my imagination was taking over, but that’s what it sounded like. 

We decided to stay a little closer together, and soon this is what we saw.  This one looked fresh.

We came across this and I joked it was the grave of a hiker who got too tired to make it back.  :)

finally

 

 

My phone tracker app said we had gone 5.29 miles and the pedometer said 5.30.   We felt like it was 25.

Boy did that hot tub feel good last night!