Close Call (Apr 27)

We spent the evening down in the laundry room that is below ground level watching radar and listening to emergency weather alerts. We took this one very seriously, since it was the same supercell that devastated Tuscaloosa, Al. It was huge and deadly. As you can see from the picture, it was a close call. Trackrock Campground is south of Blairsville, so that puts us on the picture just below the letters on the map. We thank God for protecting us and pray for those who were seriously affected by this monster storm.









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Waterfall Tour (April 23)

Visited today

De Soto Falls

Mountain Crossings Store at the top of Blood Mountain

Helton Falls

Vogel State Park

To view pictures click below:

https://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/WaterfallTourApr23#

Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness Area (Apr 18)

We met others from Mountain High Hikers at the rest stop in Andrews and then caravanned to the parking/picnic area at the trailhead. We hiked the memorial loop and poplar loop which together are about two miles. The poplar loop has some of the largest Tulip Poplars on the east and would take three men stretching their arms to reach around them. There has never been logging here. The wildflowers were spectacular. Many of the hemlocks have died from Wooly Adelgid infestation and were presenting a hazard, so to preserve the natural feel of the place, instead of sawing them, the blew off the tops at about head height with sticks of dynamite. It made it look like a tornado had passed thru.
After the hike, we returned to the picnic area and had lunch. The group then went on another hike, but we had enough for our first hike of the season, so we left to check out Snowbird Creek, which is nearby, and try some fishing. We drove back several miles on Snowbird Creek Road and passed a NF campground. We passed a hatchery truck with two men stocking the creek. By the time we got to the end of the road, we could see where they were putting the fish, so after they left we tried to catch them. We each lost more than we caught, but we each caught a nice trout, with Joan catching the larger one. We went thru trying most of our flies and found that the would at first take, then refuse a fly after they had seen it a few times.
Click this picture to go to photo album.










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Whitetail Ridge COE - LaGrange, Ga (Apr 7-9)

It was a mostly pleasant 194 mile drive today with little wind but many more hills. Traffic was light on Rt. 27, but we hit a little construction on I-185 and again on 109 here in LaGrange. The temp here now is perfect with just a light breeze. We misjudged how busy it is here with kids out of school and barely got a site. Thank you Lord.
We fished from shore and Joan started things off with a bream on a brown bead-head wooly bugger. John got a slow start on the same fly, but then caught a bigger bream on a smaller chartreuse bead-head nymph.

Friday - It was very cloudy when we got up and whenever we thought about launching the kayaks, it got very dark and looked like rain. We settled for shore fishing and catching what we decided are pumpkinseed. They are yellow and green and very pretty fish.

Saturday - We found out this morning that a budget agreement has been reached and we don't have to pack up early. Good news!
The weather looks like a repeat of yesterday, but we got a break long enough that we thought we could launch the kayaks for a couple hours of fishing. It was perfect on the water, but even though we used proven flies in proven spots, we came up empty. One bright spot was that John tried his new anchor arrangement with great results. It also helps in determining water depths.

Seminole SP - Donalsonville, Ga (Apr 4-6)

It was a rather windy 168 miles of driving today, but thankfully, mostly a tailwind. This is a beautiful park and we have a site on the water. The sites are very large and clean, with mature pine trees and mostly grass.

Tuesday - It was quite cool and breezy today so we hiked the Gopher Tortoise Trail. It travels thru a longleaf pine woods. We saw many bluebirds, but no tortoises. We ended the day with a nice fire. Thanks to our neighbor for leaving early and leaving us firewood.

Wednesday - We drove into Bainbridge today and met friends, Pete and Sybil, who live in the area, for lunch at Golden Corral. When we got back, we finally were able to launch the kayaks and do some fishing. We knew it would be slow, since we have not seen any action or fish, but we ended up catching two nice perch and a large bream. We had the best results with a small, brown woolly bugger fishing in the channels.









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