Hiking Brasstown Bald, and Water Falls

Helton Creek Falls, Brasstown Bald, Helen, and Playgrounds Galore - Here we come! Wish there was more time to spend today, but alas we must return to flatlands tomorrow morning. See you next camping trip! Pappy.

This was a go, go day. Up early and headed to Brasstown Bald (which you might know is the highest elevation in GA. We huffed and puffed our way up the trail to the summit. What a wonderful day it was. We were told by a old gentleman who volunteered at this park that there was a really nice waterfall not too far from Vogel State Park. He called it Helton Water Falls. So, what could we do, but check out Vogel and then head over to Helton Falls.

Vogel is a really nice park although a little small for the size of our rigs. The kids however found what was really important - The Playground! It really doesn't take much does it:)

Next it was off to Helton Falls. This is a little known hide away waterfall that was located at the end of a very, very narrow dirt mud road. Very bumpy and very fun (don't ask Grammy). Check out the photos and you can almost feel how cold this mountain water is.

A Camping Birthday Party for Grammy

March 16th, Grammy, Hannah & I headed up to Unicoi State Park near Helen, GA to camp with Butch & Bonnie & grandkids and celebrate Brenda's birthday.... and our 40th wedding anniversary which will be on Sunday March 20th. What a deal!!

Brenda mentioned that I was getting a little "snooty" camping at Unicoi in our 5th wheel for our 40th - since we celebrated our 20th anniversary in the middle of the Okeefenokee Swamp. What can I say except that I tend to be a little more extravagant in my "older age". Do I have a great wife, or what! I love you Honey!

Of course we had to travel to BabyLandGeneralHospital to check out the Cabbage Patch Kids, ect. This place has done really well since they opened 35+ years ago. Only now, their "Kids" are made in China:(

Hannah adopted an appropriate "Kid" and named her, uh, well you'll have to ask Hannah for the child's name. They all had fun and they it was time to head back to camp and other "camp activities" - as Hannah likes to say.

Hannah Clair, Hannah Marie, Dustin, and Tristen hanging out in a convenient tree in the park.

If it looks like they're having fun - your right!

More to follow in days to come. Pappy

Crooked River State Park

Brice aboard the USS "Ground Hog".

Mandy, Brice, Bonnie, and Brenda listening out for any wild things to come out of the jungle:)

Bonnie, Brenda, and Mandy ferrying over to Cumberland Island. It 'twas a little chilly on deck.

Mandy spotted this gator taking a snooze after making a mad dash into and out of cannel. It's mating season in the Okeefenokee:)

Well it's been one month since I've blogged about our trip to Crooked River State Park. This place is wondrous. Kings Bay Submarine Base is located adjacent to the park, and although we didn't tour the Base, Brice did find a land-locked sub that he just had to climb on.

Cumberland Island is just across the river -bay which is accessible only by ferry twice a day. The ferry departs from St.Mary's and it's just a 45 minute ride across. Braxton's BSA Troop made the trip on Thursday and we went over on Friday. A walking self guided tour of the ruins of the old Carnegie Estate was an interesting adventure - particularly while walking through the narrow foot paths of jungle like foliage . Wild horses and other wild creatures abound on the island and when we heard something running toward us through the thick jungle it got the "lady-folks" a little on edge. All went well though and the rain held off most of the time.

The Okeefenokee Swamp was just down the road apiece so we boarded one of their tour boats and visited about 50 alligators in the swamp. All of them were very peaceful and meant us no harm, but Mandy was startled by the one pictured here. It seems that this was the beginning of mating season and some of them started bellowing. This one let out a bellow and ran into the water where he made some more menacing growls and made the water jump. Then, as quickly as he went into the water - he came back out and began taking his sunbath. Mandy excitedly told us every detail .... several times:)

On Thursday, we watched the Shuttle Discovery blast off for it's last voyage. We watched it from the beach at Fort Clinch State Park, FLA. It wasn't a whole lot to see except for a sparkler in the sky and a very very long plume of smoke. What can you expect from 100 miles away! Still, pretty neat!

The day before we left to come home, we contacted some old high school friends in Jacksonville, FL. Lloyd and Vera Able both graduated from Baker High School which has now been torn down and we haven't seen them since the 20th reunion. Anyway we couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit them since we were so close to Jacksonville. Those of you who don't know the Ables would enjoy their company. They traveled the world while Lloyd was in the Navy, and they had many adventures to talk about. Even though you may never have met them, you may have seen some of Lloyd's work. In the motion picture "Top Gun", Lloyd was one of the Navy Pilots flying the dog fighting scenes. In the closing credits, you can find him listed as LTCMD Lloyd "BOZO" Able. Very Cool! Who says I don't know important people:)!

That's all for now folks .... next trip.... Unicoi State Park, Helen, GA.

February Camping in South GA

Well, we have been so looking forward to this week. Our first camping trip of 2011. We'll pull out tomorrow morning heading for Crooked River State Park near St. Mary's, GA. When we planned this trip in December we didn't know what kind of weather to expect - after all, it snowed on Christmas day and then again on January 10th. We prepared for COLD weather, but the weatherman says next week will be beautiful. We hope so!

Mandy and the G-boys will join us at the park and spend the week camping with us. Should be a blast and we can hardly wait till morning breaks so we can get on the road again! Chow for now. Pappy.

DeSoto State Park - Ft. Payne, AL

On October 25th Grammy and I packed up and pulled the Montana out, headed to NE Alabama - Ft. Payne to be exact. We had made plans to meet up with Jack/Sherry White, John/Judy White, Butch/Bonnie Lenoir and Cookie & Karl. All of our camping buddies have been going in different directions and this park was the perfect location for us all to get together for an autumn vacation amounst the fall colors. Little did we know that NE AL. had been going through a drought which resulted in some pretty drab colors. Oh well, that's what happens when a trip is planned a year in advance - it's kind'a like a box of chocolates...

This was actually the third time that we've stayed at DeSoto - its just a really neat place to camp with as many hiking trails that you could want. There are many water falls, but the drought also took a toll on them ... just trickles.

The weather fully cooperated with us. It only rained one day and the rest of the week was beautifully cool - with camp fires every night. (What's the fun in camping if you don't have a fire where casual visits turn into sessions re solving the world's problems?) Some nights were filled with B.S. and Karl's jokes and others were just plane B.S.

Yum, yum...

steaks, chops, burgers, and sausage.

Nothing like fire grilled anything

on an open fire!

Of course we took the Little River Canyon scenic park drive and picnicked on the river bank. Even with dull colors, this place is awe inspiring.

The river is usually flowing

over the huge boulders

Big rock,

little peeps...

So - we also drove over another state park named "Buck's Pocket". A very small park at the

bottom of a valley between very high mountain peaks. Nice park - but not a place that I'd take the Montana. Getting it to the park would be one issue but pulling it out... would be impossible.

Notice the sign caption: "haven for defeated politicians".

A nice park drive - but not advisable for camping rigs

At the end of the week our friends, Lou & Carmon Dekmar and Steve & Lynn Heaton, joined us at Ft. Payne. They found a cozy log cabin close to the park and spent the weekend hiking with us and taking in the sights. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed the time spent together - and I know that we enjoyed them and the omelets that Lou cooked - it's kinda become a tradition while on these retreats. I'm already looking forward to next year's autumn adventure.

Well, that's about it for this camping post. It was one of the more enjoyable trips that Grammy and I've taken this year - good weather, good food, no camper problems, and oh yea, good friends.

..... until next time,

Chow

Getting back to Jekyll Island

When we arrived on Sept 16 the love bugs had not attacked but the mosquitoes sure did and they were a bother all week. No big problem though - just spray down and try to ignore. The Derums joined us the same day and we set up camp sites. We happened to plan our dates just right because the next day the "Shrimp & Grits" festival cranked into action. Mandy, Braxton, and Brice joined us Friday evening and we feasted at the festival's preview. Wow, really good food and music and crafts to take in. I think that Karl even took some left overs back to Light'ning the wiener dog.

Saturday night we hooked up with our GBI/GSP friends at the world famous Buccaneer seafood restaurant about 30 miles north of Jekyll. This gave Karl the golden opportunity to tell his jokes to a new crowd (thank you lord). This week the Peace Officers Association of GA held it's annual conference at Jekyll Is and I attended some training classes while the rest of the crew hiked, explored, biked, ate, and listed to some more of Karl's jokes...

A couple of days later our other good camping buddies, Butch & Bonnie Lenoir, joined us and brought some more fun with them. Between Butch's and Karl's stories, and Bonnie's cooking we were really set for the week. With a low country shrimp boil on one night and a blue crab steamed meal the next, we kept culinary skills honed and our bellies full!

The rest of the week was spent swapping stories and rig skills, biking and exploring the beaches. Karl taught Braxton and Brice how to play 5 card stud and they ended up winning all of his and Cookie's chips! Of course I played it safe and just watched the sharks circled the table.

If you ever travel to Jekyll Island be sure to visit the GA Sea Turtle Center/Hospital. Very interesting. You can even adopt an injured turtle. Once healed, the center straps a tracking device on it and you can follow it via computer/internet as it travels the oceans. Pretty neat. Mandy and the boys adopted a 100 lb turtle named Phantom. It is expected to be returned to the sea in the next month and then they can follow it as it swims the Atlantic. Very cool.

Jekyll Island camping had been on our calendar since last spring and we knew it would be another fun week. Having our camping buddies with us made it even more enjoyable. And of course with Mandy and the boys with us, there's always another adventure around every corner.

(If you want to see a full set of pics and the other love bugs on the beach you can go to my face book profile.)

By the way, these days are not for trade for anything...

Pappy

Catching up this blog

Last post was in June on our Gulf Coast trip - since then we've been to MISTLETOE STATE PARK near Thomson-Augusta, YOGY BEAR KID'S PARK near Breman, TALLULAH GORGE STATE PARK at Tallulah Falls (and white water rafting on the wild Chattooga River. This week we've been at JEKYLL ISLAND CAMP GROUND. Here's a few pics from the River to catch up.

(I've been waiting for way toooo long to up load these two lonely pics - the wi-fi in this park is way slow and I'm giving up for now) Catch you later.