Track Rock Campground - Blairesville, Ga (Sept. 08 - Oct 06)

Monday, September 08 - We left Moccasin Creek SP at the usual time, 9:36 am, and arrived here at 10:35 am after driving 34.2 miles. It was a very pretty, although short, drive. If we didn't know we were at a private campground we would think this was in a national forest. Actually, there is national forest on three sides of this 300 acre property. It is really beautiful and the sites are well separated and private. It is very hilly and the sites are very shady. The staff is very nice and the facilities are immaculate. There is a riding stable on the property as well. After getting set up, walking around, and having dinner, we took the fly rods down to the lake and fished. After a couple of casts a thunderstorm came in and chased us back to the campsite. John had a small something on, but it got off. We'll try again in the morning. We are trying to figure out how to come back here again this fall before we head back to Florida.

Tuesday, September 09 – It rained off and on all night and has looked like rain all day. We snuck down to the lake a couple of times today between rains and fished, and John caught a very large bream. Two like him would have been dinner. We let him go, however. We have seen big bass, but they are not eating. John used a woolly bugger he tied, which we thought looked quite good in the water, but the bass did not agree. At least he didn’t lose this one. We talked to Debbie, one of the managers here about staying on, and she thought they could figure something out. There is so much to see and do in this area, we are thinking about staying three more weeks. Also, we really like the campground and are very comfortable here. Their website is:
http://www.trackrock.com/

Wednesday, September 10 – We could hear drops on the top of the camper all night, but it began clearing in the morning and our barometer moved upwards. We decided to make this a tour day and headed towards Helen. On the way we stopped at Unicoi State Park and checked out the campground and lake. The campground looked very nice with some very good sites that were spacious and set apart. They also have a nice beach and access for our kayaks by the dam. The fishing seems to be pretty good also. We stopped at the trading post and bought books on hiking waterfalls and trout fishing. We talked to the lady in the store (Virginia) and she said she was from the Tampa area. Upon further inquiry, we found out, she and her husband live two blocks from us in Florida. We then went into Helen and had lunch on the river at International Café. Very nice! We then stopped at the Visitors Center in Helen and picked up many brochures about the area. Finally, we stopped at Unicoi Outfitters and picked up some fly tying materials and some information about fishing in the area. He was not very positive about fishing the creeks (as we have experienced), due to the three-year drought that has taken its toll. He recommended Lake Unicoi and Lake Nottley.

Thursday, September 11 – We took a nice hike this morning after breakfast on a trail that climbs a ridge on the edge of the campground. This was a moderately difficult trail of about 1.5 miles and climbed about 700 feet in elevation. We saw turkeys and signs of bear (poop). After that, Joan began talking to the bears telling them to go away and that we were coming. Later in the afternoon, John tied two black woolly buggers with the materials we bought yesterday. Joan’s had an extra long tail and when we went down to fish, she casted a few times and landed a nice L.M. Bass. John was thrilled to have a fish caught on one of his flies. He will tie all of them with a 3 ½ inch tail in the future.

Friday, September 12 – After John called his daughter to wish her a happy birthday, we drove into Blairsville and stopped at the Historical Society where the concert would be in the evening and enjoyed the museum there. We then stopped at the Chamber of Commerce and got information about the area, then drove to Lake Nottley and Poteete Creek Campground to check them out. We were not very impressed with the campground. It is a county park that appears to have many permanent sites and would be hard to get a good one. The lake is nice and would be accessible to kayak at launches closer to Blairsville. We drove back into Blairsville and found Meets Community Park and hiked around along the Nottley River and then had lunch at Cook’s Restaurant. The burgers there were excellent, as was the service. We stopped at a five and dime store in town and John found materials to add to his fly tying collection including a bag of feathers, much cheaper than at a fly shop. In the evening, we went back to the Historical Society building for a gospel concert featuring Ken and Elaine Young. Ken has written many gospel songs and they were very enjoyable.

Saturday, September 13 – In keeping with tradition, today was stick around day. We have really needed to do some cleaning on the camper. Joan found some mildew above us on the bed ends from our three days of solid rain in the forest at Rock Creek. She was able with Clorox Cleanup and a lot of scrubbing to get rid of it. Meanwhile, John scrubbed the front and back where road stuff gets on the outside, and applied a coat of wax. There are a lot of barking dogs here this weekend. Folks left their dog in their camper for a few hours while they went into town for groceries and it barked the whole time they were gone. It seems as though places that have liberal dog policies get all the obnoxious dogs. We will be moving on Monday to another site further up on the hill. Hopefully, it will be quieter.

Sunday, September 14 – This morning we headed into Hiawassee and attended Hiawassee United Methodist Church. We went here last year when we camped at Jackrabbit Campground on Lake Chatuge. We stopped for breakfast on the way at Shoney’s, then attended Sunday School. The first person we encountered, Irene, remembered us from last year. She made us feel right at home. The SS class was wonderful, with meaningful sharing on the lesson. The service included both praise songs and hymns and was very appropriate to the pastor’s lesson. It was great to see Hope again, who is the lady who came down to our Florida church to do a concert. She has a wonderful testimony about how God intervened in her life through an abusive situation.

Monday, September 15 – This was moving day, despite a little rain in the night. We could have put it off, but decided to make the switch to site 26, which is further up the hill. There is a reunion group coming in this weekend and they have all of the pop-up/tent sites reserved. This is a full hookup site, so we have sewer too. We are enjoying the change of view, even though we didn’t change campgrounds. We have been fishing every day, but it turns into casting practice. We have the only two fish caught from this lake all week, however. We talked to a nice couple this morning (Wilbur and Rebecca) who have three children, who were very nice. They were here all weekend and left today. They live in Cleveland, which is not far from here. They were very interested in pop-up campers, so we showed them ours. They left us their unused firewood, which we really appreciate.

Tuesday, September 16 – It rained during the night and the morning was damp and rather dreary. We made a fire and sat by it most of the day and caught up with our reading, mostly area information that we have been collecting. We got a couple of drops of rain during the day, but never enough to make us give up our fireside seating. Even though the weather was less than ideal, it turned out to be a very enjoyable day.

Wednesday, September 17 – We got up late this morning and took our coffee walk around the campground, and then went down to the office and chatted with folks there until almost noon. Joan did some cleaning inside the camper while John brought back some more firewood that he found in another site. John then built a fire and Joan read by the fire while John tied a few flies. Late afternoon we took veggies we cooked on the RVQ down to a campground potluck. There was a good turnout there with excellent food. We especially liked the homemade pecan pie that a couple brought. John said that it was the best he has ever tasted. We had another evening of “casting practice” down by the lake. Even though we are not catching fish, we are both improving greatly. John measured his cast at 75 feet, and figured Joan must be casting about 60 feet.

Thursday, September 18 – Today was another stay close to camp day. We are trying to conserve gas, especially while the prices are up again. We will be doing some running around over the weekend, going to various local festivals and church, so we decided to enjoy the campfire and read about the area. Joan jotted down various activities while John read about trout streams in the area. John made up a fly consisting entirely of yarn that we purchased in Blairsville. He carefully separated the fibers and combed it out to be real fluffy and used that for the tail. It looked really good swimming in the water, but no bass did more than look at it. But then, they have treated store-bought flies the same way.

Friday, September 19 – We took our coffee down by the lake and practiced fly casting for awhile. We could see bass near shore on the far side, so John cast towards them, but they just swam away. Later John had one follow his yarn fly for about ten feet, but then was so close to shore that he swam away. Another bass came right up to the fly and gave it a good look-see, but he wouldn’t take it. We went to the office and talked to the host for a while. We got ourselves penciled in for next May and September here on the site we have now. After a late breakfast, we drove towards Blairsville and checked out a boat ramp on Lake Nottley. It looked real nice there, but was very windy. We will come back there and launch the kayaks when we have more time and its not so windy. We again practiced fly casting there, and can say we are steadily improving. We drove into Blairsville and had pizza for lunch (about 3:30) and then went to the old courthouse for the bluegrass concert. We stayed for a couple of hours and really enjoyed listening to three groups perform. When we got back to our campsite, we had been surrounded by other campers in for the weekend.

Saturday, September 20 – After breakfast, we drove over to Blue Ridge, Ga for their annual fall festival, which included an art show and fly fishing demonstrations, guides, and outfitters. We stopped at a store that sold everything “Bear” and found some decorative pillows to use on our dining slide when we are watching TV. We have been looking for these for a long time. The store is awesome with a definitely Christian message. We then got some pointers at the fly fishing demo and had the guides critique our form. They had only a few minor suggestions for improvement. We then went over to the outfitters and bought new Sage 4-piece, 7.5 ft. 4 weight fly rods that we have been looking for. These are excellent rods that were being sold at 40% off retail. We stopped and had ice cream before leaving and heading for a cookout at Hiawassee U.M. Church. We had a great time there and got a chance to talk with folks we had met there on Sunday. We are feeling more connected here all the time.

Sunday, September 21 – We got up early this morning (7:00AM) to beat the rush for showers. It was still quite dark. We headed into Hiawassee and stopped for buffet breakfast before going to church. Again, we enjoyed the service and are getting to know more people. After church we had lunch at Crossroads Restaurant with Irene and Bob. It was wonderful to get to know them better and share a meal with them. We practiced fly casting for about an hour when we got back to camp, and sat and read some of the information we got yesterday at the Blue Ridge Fair.

Monday, September 22 – Today was shopping day. We drove up into Murphy, NC to Walmart to stock up on much needed supplies. While we were there John picked up materials, like high density foam and feathers, from the craft department for fly tying. We also got a reel for one of the new rods (they only had one), line for both and backing. While we were there, Unicoi Outfitters called and told John that he won the free raffle for a half day of fishing for two on the Trout Trophy Waters that they manage on the Chattahoochee River just south of Helen, Ga. This will give us at least a chance at a trophy sized trout.

Tuesday, September 23 – We needed to find a reel for the other fly rod and a case that Walmart in Murphy didn’t have and John wanted to pick up fly tying materials that we also couldn’t get at Walmart, and we needed to pick up the other rod and the certificate for the trophy water fishing at Unicoi in Helen, so we made it a major outing. We started by heading into Hiawassee and stopping at Buckhead House. They had fly tying materials at 50% off and a fly rod case for 30% off. Next, we drove to Helen and stopped at Unicoi Outfitters. They had our certificate waiting for us and gave us hearty congratulations. They told us jokingly that they had fixed the drawing so we would win and we suspect that they very well may have, since we spent $$$$ at their booth. With tourism being down so much, we suspect that these places are hurting financially. Locals for the most part do not fly fish. They are putting fresh trout in the freezer. We then returned to the International Café in Helen and had lunch on the river again. We still had not found a reel (we didn’t want to pay the price that the outfitters were asking) so we drove into Dahlonega to the Walmart there and found one more in our price range. We then drove back towards Blairsville looking for a gas station that did not have bags over the pump handles, filled up at $3.99, and stopped for an ice cream cone. We got our Moose Tracks fix, and then returned home.

Wednesday, September 24 – Laundry day today. We then practiced with our new fly rods and had some trouble getting used to them. Again, we suspect this will take time. We helped set up for a luncheon reception because of the recent death of the man who originally started the campground here. In the evening we practiced again with our new rods with a little better success. No fish, however.

Thursday, September 25 – Brother, did we sleep in today. It got down to 42 degrees, and felt so good to stay under the covers. We had a fire today and Joan read information that we picked up in Murphy, NC while John tied some flies. We discovered that the flies we were using yesterday were to big for those lighter rods, so John tied a few smaller ones. It was nice staying around camp and enjoying a fire. We practiced fly casting again in the evening and the smaller flies worked great, except the material John used didn’t hold up well. Back to the drawing board.

Friday, September 26 – We had every intention of taking the kayaks out this morning, but the weatherman had other ideas by having it rain. Instead, we took a coffee walk and hung around until afternoon. We then went back to the Buckhead House so John could pick up some hooks that he figures he will need to tie smaller flies. Later, we went to the theater to watch a movie that the church helped sponsor. The name of it is “Fireproof,” which is a Christian movie about a couple who are contemplating divorce and how they work through it. It is really very well done and we highly recommend it even if your marriage is not in trouble. For more information, click: http://www.fireproofyourmarriage.com/ . Finally, we stopped and fly fished from shore on Lake Chatuge and (mostly Joan) caught many fairly small blue gill.

Saturday, September 27 – This morning we met a couple, Joy and Brian, from Chipley, Florida and talked to them for some time. They have camped in many of the same places we have and know of others for us to try. Today we drove back to Unicoi State Park for their Great Outdoor Days. They had opportunities for folks to canoe, try fly casting, and learn about snakes, falconry, police canine training, fly tying, and stream fishing for stocked trout. We really enjoyed it all, but John especially enjoyed talking to the fly tier, from Trout Unlimited. He also gets much of his supplies from Walmart Craft Department and other places. Joan especially enjoyed the K9 demonstration and the hawks, but not the snakes, so much. Later, we fly fished from the piers on Unicoi Lake and caught several bluegills each. John caught a few on small poppers he tied. That was fun. Before heading home, we had dinner at the Unicoi State Park Restaurant. They have a nice buffet there and of course we ate too much.

Sunday, September 28 – We enjoyed another great day at Hiawassee UMC this morning and went out for lunch afterwards with Hope (the music director who came to Florida to give a concert at our church), her husband John, her mother, and her sister, Dawn. The conversation was quite lively and fun. We then stopped and fished from shore on Lake Chatuge and caught several bluegill on the fly rods, then picked up a few groceries before heading home. We enjoyed a fire until well after dark, then went inside to catch up on computer stuff.

Monday, September 29 – We took a long coffee walk and then Joan put some chicken parts in the crock pot with BBQ sauce. Yum! We called our new friends Joy and Brian, who are now at Vogel State Park to see if they wanted to try the kayaks, but could not reach them. We decided to drive over and put the kayaks in anyway. We got there and found their campsite, but they were not there. When we went down to launch, we could not find the key that is supposed to be on the extra key ring that we keep in the truck, so we fished from shore. They must have had a major bug hatch there, as there were thousands of dead bugs floating on the water. Well, this really killed the bluegill fishing, so we rigged for bass. We saw some and got a few to follow the lure, but none hit. A storm came up, so we headed home. We drove through rain on the way back, but it only sprinkled lightly here at the campground. We fished again in the evening for a little while, but nothing. The popper that John was using was made with “permanent” glue, but sadly “permanent” did not mean “waterproof,” so it came apart.

Tuesday, September 30 – We took our coffee walk up on the hill to the campsites there and talked for quite a while with John and Jean who were sitting by their campfire. We compared notes on campgrounds we have visited and enjoyed our chat with them. We had breakfast, then sat by our fire and read and John tied a few more flies. We drove into Hiawassee and fished on the Chatuge from a town park and beach area. We caught several bluegills on flies that John tied and saw a few bass, but could not interest them. We then drove to Ken’s and Carol’s house for a chili dinner with several others from church. We had a very nice time visiting with them.

Wednesday, October 1 – Joan put a pork roast on the crock pot, and then came back to bed. When we finally got up, we took a very brisk coffee walk and returned to build a campfire. We enjoyed the warmth it offered today. We picked up a mess of chestnuts that were scattered around an empty campsite and John roasted them by the fire. He tried a couple, which were very good, but then noticed one that he opened was full of worms. Checking the rest of them revealed worms in nearly all. We decided to pass on “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.” We read today and John tied a few more flies in preparation for fishing the “Unicoi Outfitter’s Trophy Trout Waters” near Helen, Ga. on Friday. For dinner, we took the pork roast down to the weekly potluck supper. It was a big hit and made a good addition to the excellent offerings for the evening. We sat with John and Jan and enjoyed their company. John has a rather bizarre sense of humor which is fun.

Thursday, October 02 – It got quite frosty last night. It was in the low 40s when we finally extricated ourselves from bed. We were thankful for our little electric heater. We took our coffee walk, tightly holding onto the mugs for warmth and were able to talk to Bob (of Bob and Carolyn) who are the other hosts. We have talked to Carolyn, but had not had the chance to talk to Bob, except to say hi. They will be heading south in early November. Today was outside camper cleaning day. We also needed to get the fly rods ready for tomorrow’s trip to Unicoi. John tied a couple of popper flies to take the place of the ones that fell apart due to using non-waterproof glue. This time he used Gorilla Glue, which says 100% waterproof right on the bottle. You can’t beat that! We practiced fly casting down by the pond again. We’re continuing to improve.

Friday, October 03 – We got up early this morning (6:00 am) and 42 degrees, which this time of year seems like the middle of the night, to head over to Helen to take our opportunity to fish the “Trophy Waters.” It was still quite chilly when we started fishing at 8:30 and we became somewhat concerned when we were able to see fish, but not get them to eat anything. This pattern became the theme for the day and changing flies and techniques proved futile. We cannot begin to tell you how frustrating it can be to see hundreds of 2, 3, and 4 pound fish totally ignore anything we put in front of them. The high point of the day was seeing deer come to the water to get a drink. They obviously did not expect us to be there as they spooked and quickly ran away. Finally, John tied on a fly he tied as a joke that consisted of a gumball sized chartreuse pom-pom. The trout immediately stormed towards it and would just for an instant take it in their mouths, but spit it out before John had a chance to set the hook. After a few minutes, they quickly tired of this game, and our time on the water was over. We had fun, but must say that it was very disappointing not to catch anything. The only consolation was that it did not cost us anything except the gas to get there. It shows also that we have a lot to learn. To console ourselves, we stopped at International Café in Helen for a sandwich.

Saturday, October 04 – Today was a stick around day so we had a fire most of the day and enjoyed its warmth. John got some things ready to leave Monday like checking tires and fixing travel mirrors on the truck while Joan cleaned the inside of the screens. We had Bob and Carolyn (the other hosts) over for peach cobbler that John fixed on the RVQ. He thinks it was fairly good.
Sunday, October 05 – We got up early and got our showers before the other campers got a chance. We stopped for breakfast before church and had a great one at Mary’s Southern Grill. It was difficult to say good bye to all the wonderful people we got to know at Hiawassee UMC. It was nice to know, however, that we will be back in the spring. We came back to camp and did some more cleaning. The awning had not been done in a long time and really needed it. We had dinner, and then took one last hike around the campground. Surprisingly, although the tenting area was empty, the area on top of the hill was still full. Everything is just about ready to head out in the morning.



View Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/TrackRockCampgroundBlairesvilleGaSept0815#