I just got back from a few days up in the mountains of northern GA, centering around the town of Helen. Among my adventures was some serious geocaching in the state parks there, and outside of them. I am really, really liking this activity because it is taking us to places I'd really never get to. I'll never be able to thank my son, David, enough for getting me started with this activity. Finding the cache is good, but it's the new things we see that I'm really keen on. It's nice to walk the trails in the forests and such but getting off of them is a new experience for sure. My biggest 'lesson' this time was to make sure my shoes are waterproof. Walking through tall grass fields before the sun has had a chance to burn the heavy dew off is wet! I made it a point to take care of that this morning! I came across snakes a couple of time and hardly screamed... much. My particular 'hate' is walking into the spider webs that are stretching between the trees or brush. I really hate those!
Somewhere inside of Unicoi State Park. Go ahead... click on the photo... it's REALLY thick out there and that's the trail!
Another adventures took me to a cemetery that was just incredibly beautiful and peaceful and definitely off the beaten path. The place was located perhaps a mile or two down a one-car-wide gravel road... a little stream on one side and kind of a hill on the other making me constantly wonder what the heck I was going to do if a vehicle approached from in front of me. Luckily, I didn't need to face that challenge. This gravel road meandered back and forth a bit, kind of following the little stream I guess, and then dead-ended at the cemetery. It was immediately apparent that this was one wonderful place. The cache was NOT in the cemetery but was right on the edge of it. The find was perhaps my easiest find yet but that's not the point... I was drawn to this place by this geocaching activity and realized that I had seen something I never would have seen if I weren't doing this.
This is the end of the road... the Lawrence Cemetery. You can see the name if you click on the photo.
Once through the gate this is the scene. I don't know how wide the spread was on that big oak tree in the middle of this picture but believe me, it was massive.
We did respectfully walk amongst the grave markers. Found one from the 1700's and there may have been more but I didn't read, and couldn't read, them all. Many from the 1800's. It's still an active cemetery because behind where I was standing to take this shot was a new marker from 2005. Within the cemetery are obvious 'family' areas as well. If I was going to be buried this is the place I'd want to be but I don't know that Yankees are allowed :)
Another new adventure for me was riding a tube down the Chattahoochee river that flows around and through Helen. Since home I've looked at the map and it seems that the river starts just north of where we were. Trust me... this was not the wide/deep/fast river that continues on down through Georgia. This was the Chattahoochee river at its lazy, benign self :) I guess there were some white-water or rapid areas that managed to bring some water into the tube and onto me but for the most part it was just a lazy, tranquil, fun bit of floating along and watching the sights along the banks.
The last new adventure was my having a black bear approach to within 5-6 feet of me. Oh yeah... I'm talking walking with the wild animals here! Was I out in the forest? Nope. I was standing off to the side of the ice-cream store in Helen! Helen is a very small town, maybe 5 blocks long and 2 blocks wide, and the forest does come right up to the edge of it on all sides so I guess bears wandering the town is nothing new to the locals. Well, I'm not a local! I may have done my first real double-take... that's how I remember it. The family was watching some rabbits that were in kind of a yard attached to the ice-cream store. Some of the rabbits ran under the picket fence to my left. I looked left to see where they were going and then turned back. As I did, I realized that I thought I just saw a bear walking down the sidewalk towards me and it was about 25 feet away. No way. Really? Check again. When I turned back to double-check what I saw, the bear was about 10 feet away and still walking toward me. Oh yeah... time to go! In retrospect, I was so proud of myself. I didn't even crap my pants :) As I turned away and walked toward the gate into the yard yelling "It's a bear... it's a bear" the other people came out of the yard to see the thing, blocking my retreat but causing the bear to about face and head through the parking lot probably back to the forest to get away from the commotion.
So, that's this stage in life and I'm kind of enjoying it :)
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