Boom, Boom, Bam, Rat a tat tat, KA-BOOM!

 

Blairsville, Georgia  (high 76, low 52)

 

Recently, we learned that there is an Army Ranger Mountain training camp in nearby Dahlonega, Georgia.  We were surprised to find out that civilians could actually go onto the post and into the training areas.

You are warned not to touch any of their training equipment.

It’s been a long time since either of us has been on a military base.  Since we were both Air Force “brats” we both kind of like being back on a military base.

We drove down to Dahlonega, via the Blood Mountain/highway 129 route.

We easily found the Army Ranger camp, and despite being told that we could go onto the post, it felt kind of strange driving up to the gate.

The camp was named after Frank D. Merrill, (Merrill's Marauders)

We stopped at the base gate.  It was nothing like most bases and just had a flimsy arm that could be raised or lowered.  The guard said we could go onto the post and look around, but to stay away from the area where the barracks were located.  That was fine, because I  remember guys in the barracks on  Guam standing on the balcony in their underwear.

From the moment we drove up to the gate, we heard loud booms.  Evidently they were doing some demolition work out in the field somewhere.  KA-BOOM!   KA-BOOM!

We  had permission to walk over to the “flight line.”  It was basically just a small field with a helicopter parked on it.

Nearby was a very moving fallen Ranger Memorial.

Robert Howard was the most decorated soldier in the Viet Nam War and nominated for the Medal of Honor three times.  He had an amazing career.

Click here to read more about Col. Howard.

Reading the stories about these guys, brought tears to my eyes.  One was 22 and was killed in Iraq on his 4th tour of duty.  Such a shame.

 

 

We drove around the very small army post for a few minutes.  This base/post was completely different from any other base we’ve been on.  It was messy, in need of grounds maintenance, and even had overflowing trash containers.  

I guess these guys are too busy trying to get through this portion of the Army Ranger training.

There wasn’t really much to see on this post. The usual PX, commissary  and barracks.

Ranger training starts in nearby Fort Benning, Ga.  The mountain portion of the training is here, then they do some water/swamp training in Florida at Eglin AFB in the panhandle. 

There are some trails and waterfalls in the woods around the post.  This is the area where they do their mountain training and have their “battles.”   You could certainly see that there were a lot of “boots on the ground” in this area.  

I could picture guys hunkering down hiding from the “enemy”

picture  from the web

The trail starts out very rocky, with large enough rocks that twisting an ankle is a very real possibility.

 

There were a lot of obstacles, which proved to be a challenge for Al.  Notice the rip in his pants?   He got caught on a little branch nub and tore his shorts.

No good Ranger in training would have had this problem.   :)

We walked a for a little while down the steep rocky trail and then came across a big clearing where some of the skills training was done.  

I sure wish we could have been there to witness some of the training.

All during this hike, we continually heard booms, rat a tat tat, rat a tat tat….ka-boom. It sounded like there was a big firefight.  There was a lot of training  going on somewhere very near.   We were told they use blanks. 

We weren’t sure what this building was used for.  Climbing, we think.

Learning to tie proper knots is pretty important, evidently.

We tried to guess what all of this was used for. They have Ranger competitions and open house days.  I guess that’s what the bleachers are for.

We didn’t find the repelling wall that we had been looking for, so we went back to the trail to head to the waterfalls.

There were signs everywhere that this was a field training area.

We were pretty high up at this point, with the stream far below.

This was another training exercise.  It’s a little hard to see, but that was a bridge over the ravine.

 

 

Al asked me if I wanted to walk over the bridge to the other side.   Of course NOT!

First, the Army was nice enough to allow you to be here and they asked to NOT touch any of their training equipment.

Secondly, although it doesn’t really show in the picture, you could not just step onto the bridge from the side of the ridge.   You would have to jump over to the bridge and then probably climb up.  NO thanks.

We kept hoping we’d see some of these guys, but unfortunately we didn’t.

(picture from the web)

Al found this turkey feather for our boy Baxter.  He was thrilled when we gave it to him, but unfortunately its lost now. I’m going to have to go on a feather hunt in the motor home today.

We discussed bears and decided with all the noise from the gun battles, no self respecting bear would be in these woods. 

Boom Boom, rat a tat tat…..   Those were the sounds we heard all day.   It’s not your normal hike in the woods, but it was actually very cool.  The sounds of freedom, I guess.

We were a little surprised to find this.  We figured that bear was probably running for his life. Ka-BOOM!

We ended up going back to the clearing again, after realizing we had missed the main waterfall.  We misread the map, I guess.

When we went back to the clearing and searched a little more, we finally discovered the repelling wall.

It’s hard to tell how high this is from the picture. 

Notice Al in the next picture?

The rock wall had a lot of hooks into the rocks.

Al walked up to the top of the wall.  It was a steep climb with ropes to assist.

repelling Ranger style

photo from the web

We finally found the waterfall.

You had to walk onto the bridge to get a good view.

 

We had a fun day exploring Army Ranger camp and felt a little more patriotic than usual, especially when we were leaving at 5pm.  We were just in time to hear the music from the daily flag lowering ceremony.  I remember so many times when that would happen when we lived on base on Guam.  Everyone would stop what they were doing, put their hands over their heart and wait for the music to stop.   It was always moving and yesterday was no exception.

 

We had a fun day at Ranger Camp, and with all the gunshots, and explosions, certainly not your normal hike in the woods, but very, very cool. 

 

hooah!

More Waterfalls, and an Alpine Village in the Georgia mountains

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 79, low 57)

 

When we visited Tallulah Gorge State Park back in August with Bill and Nancy, we were told that on certain week-ends they had water releases from the dam.  All the lakes and rivers around here are controlled by a series of dams.

At Tallulah, they have ascetic water releases on most week-ends in September an October.  In November, they have a couple of major releases for the whitewater rafting events.   We would love to see that, but we’re not sure we’ll still be here in November.

We decided to take a run down to Tallulah yesterday and see how different it was with more water running through the gorge.

Here is a photo from overlook 2 yesterday.

Here is the same spot back in August. 

This is the spillover from the dam yesterday.

You could really see the difference from August.

On the way to Tallulah, we stopped at another waterfall that we had heard about.

It’s in the little town of Toccoa Falls and the waterfalls is on the college campus.

It’s a short walk to the falls from the visitor center.

It’s another beautiful waterfall.    186 feet.

There were way too many people, but that’s what we get for going on a week-end.

In 1977, the dam that held the lake back broke, flooding the area below. It killed 39 people and injured 60.

Not a pleasant thought standing in the same area.

We discovered nearby Currahee Military Museum, and considered visiting, but decided to do it another day, as we were running out of time and still had another place to go.

 

Our other planned stop was to visit the nearby town called “Alpine Helen.”

They were having an arts and craft show to kick off the Oktoberfest celebration, which started yesterday (September),  and runs through November, I think. Oktoberfest???

It turned out to be a mistake, because there were such big crowds.   It reminded me a little of Key West.  There were lots of musicians playing, some street performers and of course lots of people.

Helen, is a pretty little town, but not really our cup of tea.  Still, if you’re up in this area, you should see Helen at least once.

 

 

I threw in a few pictures from last year, before the Oktoberfest crowds.  I had trouble getting decent pictures yesterday due to all the cars and people.

 

We found a place to park, and walked through the craft show, which was minimal.

We did enjoy listening to the different bands playing.

The busses continually ran through carrying tubes for the people who wanted to float down the river.

This is a cropped shot of this guy.  I swear he was holding a baby all wrapped up in a blanket.  He is the one laying down on his back on this float.  If it was a baby, it must have been a very young one.  He almost tipped over several time, when he came to the rapids.

 

This street performer was amazing.  He didn’t move a muscle until you put money in his bucket.

Apparently, he works out a lot!  :)

He had a friend that was all painted in gold. His hair shimmered in the sun and it was quite pretty, but the sun was not at the right angle so I never got a picture.

The horse drawn carriages were quite busy.   I felt a little sorry for the horses.

 

We managed to kill another day, left tired, and headed home via some squiggly mountain roads.

When we got home, we were surprised to find Merikay and Craig all tucked into their spot in River’s Edge.   We knew they were coming, but we weren’t expecting them until the 22nd.  It was a nice surprise.  We went over and introduced ourselves, and took them for a happy hour ride on the golf cart. 

Welcome to Rivers Edge Merikay and Craig!