Tallulah Gorge State Park - September 28-October 5

Monday, September 28 - We got all packed up, hitched up the pop-up and headed for Highlands, NC to Van Hook Glade Campground. One problem. It was closed for renovation until next spring. We had reservations at Tallulah Gorge State Park south of Clayton, Ga, so we decided to come early and take our chances getting a spot. We had no problem, and were set up by about 2:00 PM, including lunch. We took a nice hike on the North Rim Trail and to the interpretive center to confirm our reservations for the Saturday moonlight kayaking and Sunday moonlight hike. It is very beautiful here and reminds us of Cloudland Canyon, but has better waterfalls and river views. The weather is awesome, quite windy, but nice.

Tuesday, September 29 - We slept late, then took our coffee down to the lake and enjoyed the view while sipping. John fished for a while, but there was absolutely no action. We never even saw anything. Later, we did some exploring along the river and fished there too. John managed a couple small fish, but there doesn't seem to be any trout there. It is still quite cool and windy, but at least the sun is shining. We enjoyed pork chops and veggies on the grill for supper.

Wednesday, September 30 - We took our coffee back to our spot, but it was a little cool sitting there so we decided to hike the South Rim Trail. The views were spectacular, especially this time of the morning. This is a fairly easy hike. We were reminded of Cloudland Canyon, but we agreed that this was even more impressive, because of the river in the gorge and the very large waterfalls. In the afternoon, we drove along the Tallulah River and passed by Lake Rabun, Seed Lake, and Lake Burton, over to Moccasin Creek State Park. We fished from shore there and caught several bream. We also fished the special trout stream there, but came up empty. We ran into our friends we met there last year, John and Susan and their daughter Gretchen, who just happened to be there for the day.

Thursday, October 1 - Wow, October already. We enjoyed ourselves over at Moccasin Creek yesterday, we decided to go there again today. We fished awhile around the docks and piers and caught several bream. One was quite large, that John caught on a black gnat fly. We also drove a few miles from there and checked out Wildcat Creek. We tried fishing it, but it was difficult to fly cast, and the few pools that gave us a little room did not give us any fish. We stopped on the way home for pizza and a Wal-Mart stop in Clayton. Before calling it quits for the night, we stopped at the beach/picnic area and threw in for a while. John was surprised by a nice sized pickerel. He got it to shore, but it chewed the 3X tippet while trying to lift it on the bank. This explains why there are no bream around. These guys are voracious eaters and would not give smaller fish a chance.

Friday, October 2 - After an oatmeal breakfast, we went exploring, trying to find Lake Tugalo. We ended up finding the next lake in the chain, Yonah. It was a semi-passable gravel road down to the lake, so it took a long time. The lake was quite nice, and we were the only ones on it. We put in the kayaks and each caught bream, but even though there were some great looking spots, no bass. This lake is not as clear as others we have been on.

Saturday, October 3 - We enjoyed a great night's sleep on our new 2 1/2 inch memory foam mattress topper we got at Walmart. Today was a kick back and not do too much day, due to Joan not feeling very well. John cleaned the awning, but otherwise we just visited with new friends and stayed close to camp. We did do the moonlight kayak outing with a fairly large group of folks on the Tallulah Lake. It was very nice and we enjoyed it very much. We would do it again.



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