Thursday, August 6 - We drove with some friends past Vogel State Park to Desoto Falls in the Chattahoochee National Forest. There are two falls (lower and upper), so we started out hiking the 3/4 miles to the upper falls. The trail there is beautiful as was the falls. We returned, had lunch, then headed to the lower falls, which oddly was more uphill, although it was only 1/4 miles. There was not a great amount of water, but beautiful anyway. We had a great outing.
View pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/DesotoFallsAugust6#
Friday, August 7 - There is an archaeological area not far from the campground that has petroglyphs of unknown origin. We rode with our friend Ron and hiked the short distance to the site. After viewing it, we went over to the other side of the road and hiked the Arkaquah Trail that ends up at Brasstown Bald. We lasted about 15 minutes when it got too hot. We are going to do this trail from the top down. It is 5.5 miles down.
For more information:
Monday, August 10 - We headed out with Fred & Judy to explore a few areas not too far from here. We turned on Mulky Gap Road towards the Cooper's Creek National Recreation Area in the Chattahoochee National Forest, and traveled mostly on gravel Forest Service fire roads that were in fairly good shape. We checked out Mulky Creek, which is too shallow to do much fishing now, and Cooper's Creek, which is much deeper. We ended up at Deep Hole Recreation Area, and stopped for a snack and we wade-fished it while Fred and Judy hiked around in the area. John caught one Rock Bass. This is a beautiful area with a nice rustic camp ground. We were going to visit the hatchery which is close by, but ran out of time. It will have to wait until next time.
View Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/CoopersCreek#
Tuesday, August 11 - Today, the group took off to Fires Creek National Recreation Area, near Hayesville, NC. There is a beautiful picnic/family area here that has areas to fish, hike, and swim/tube. It can get fairly crouded, and did while we were there, but the fish don't seem to mind the tubers or swimmers very much and Joan managed to catch five trout. One was about 9" and another 6" and the others smaller. John caught a couple of the smaller variety and lost several larger ones. We found black ant flies that John had tied worked best.
View pictures at:
Thursday, August 13 - We went into Blairsville and attended the Trout Unlimited meeting. They tied flies from 5-7 that John especially enjoyed watching and getting tips and the regular meeting followed.
Friday, August 14 - We drove about 35 miles to Horseshoe Bend County Park on the Toccoa River and wade fished. John caught two nice Rainbow Trout on a foam caddis fly. One really smacked the fly on the surface.
Saturday, August 15 - We went on an outing with 8 other members of the Trout Unlimited group to a private stretch of water on the Hiwassee River near Hayesville, NC. One of the men caught two nice size trout and two small ones. Joan and John caught the only other fish, but all (Joan's 5 and John's 2) were very small, native rainbows. This just shows that when they aren't biting, they aren't biting.
Tuesday, August 18 - We wanted to check out the dam on Lake Chatuge, so we took off after we got our haircuts and explored the northern portion of the lake. We found a couple of beautiful picnic/launching/fishing areas near the dam that are run by the TVA. We each caught some nice sized bream and enjoyed the scenery.
Thursday, August 20 - Today's outing was a trip around Notely Lake looking for places to launch the kayaks and fish. We found a few nice ones and caught some bream (mostly small ones) in the process. This is also a very beautiful lake that is not far from Trackrock.
Friday, August 21 - We kayaked with a group of nine on the Hiwassee River in North Carolina. This is a nice stretch of the river and enjoyed the company of these folks. The couple who organized this (Gene and Lynda) live in a house on the hill here at Trackrock. We plan on more outings in the future.
View Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/KayakingAugust212009#
Saturday, August 22 - Here is an article from the Trout Unlimited Forum about this activity we participated in today:
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| Hogsed |
This event gives kids (about 1000) the chance to be introduced to hunting/fishing experiences for free. Many companies support this day.
View pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/HogsedEducationDay#
Wednesday, August 26 - Grocery shopping in the morning and helping our friends Fred & Judy with their 5th wheel that developed a short that fried the breakaway brake switch and locked up their wheels before they left. We drove them to the rv store to get a replacement, had lunch on the way back, and replaced the switch. After they left, we explored the Notley River not too far from here and wet-waded (just water boots and shorts with no waders) about a half mile stretch of the river. We both caught creek chubs (small) and a few bream, but no trout. The water was quite warm, which is not the best trout water. The highlight was a buck deer that crashed through some brush and ended up about 30 feet away from us. Not sure who was the most surprised to see the other. By the time John got the camera out of its case and got it ready to shoot, the deer crashed back up the bank and disappeared.
Saturday, August 29 - Today we helped with a work day on Waters Creek in the Chestatee Wildlife Management Area doing creek bank maintenance. We went with N. Georgia Trout Unlimited Blairsville 692 Chapter. The purpose is to redirect water more to the center of the stream in areas that get a lot of bank erosion. We dug trenches to put large trees diagonally in the stream and moved a lot of river stones. Thankfully, there were about 30 people there to help. We had to drive about 2 miles back to this area down a remote road. After the work was done, we had a nice hamburger/hot dog lunch.
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