Gallowbraid
Adventurist
When your daughter takes a week off work and says she wants to go camping/fishing the only reasonable thing to do is request the week off and oblige immediately! The beginning of the week had us taking care of errands around town and then we loaded the truck and struck out for our normal stomping grounds around the Tallulah River outside of Tate City GA.
On the way up with stopped at Popcorn overlook to take in a view that, while familiar, never grows old.
This overlook is actually recommended as one of the best spots in North Georgia for stargazing given it's distance from any major town / light pollution. I have yet to get up here to use it for that purpose.
The sun was just starting to dip below the hills as we drove down Tallulah River road toward the campgrounds. It made for nice lightning on the river.
In a sign of the times the first two campgrounds along the road (Tallulah River Campground and Tate Branch) were both completely full of a mixture of tent campers and large RV's with generators humming away. This would become a theme during our trip unfortunately. We proceeded to the furthest campground out, Sandy Bottoms, and found we had the place to ourselves for the night! We picked a prime site on the river and setup hammocks and the Guide Gear tent.
We spent some time tracking down dry wood for a fire and after processing it had an evening of cooking and father / daughter bonding while discussing the world.
The next morning we packed up camp as other campers rolled in. It was evident this campground would not be ours alone for a second night. We decided we'd spend the morning fishing and then push further north into North Carolina. The weather forecast had been for slightly overcast skies in the morning giving way to sun in the afternoon. That wasn't quite right as it rained on us for most of the morning as we unsuccessfully drowned bait in the river. Wet from the rain and without a fish to show for it we jumped in the truck and headed toward Clayton GA. Just outside of Clayton we stopped to check out Warwoman Dell and the Warwoman WMA.
We took in the history of the place and made a short hike down to a waterfall that was slightly visible from the road and then completely obscured by mountain laurel after we hiked down to it. We did find some nice cascades though and had a good time. While hiking in this area I noticed a tent setup with a tarp for a rain fly. As we came back up from the waterfall we were approached by the inhabitant of the tent. He was a scruffy looking fellow who was obviously living long term out here in the WMA. He suggested that we see another water fall and gave us directions. His directions would have led us deeper into the woods along the river where no visible trail was present and put us roughly 1/2 a mile from the road / truck. It would have also put him and his tent between us and the truck. Keeping the river between us and this gentleman I thanked him for his directions and kept a close eye on him as he headed back to his tent. We then made the river crossing a circled back to the truck. He might have been a perfectly nice fella and had positive intentions but I wasn't going to take the chance. The whole encounter just felt off.
After reading that last sign I wanted to do some follow up research on stocking rivers by carrying fish in packs. I found that it's still done throughout the US in many remote areas. Nearby in Red River Gorge volunteers take on the task of carrying fish in backpacks miles into the backcountry to stock rivers. Very cool and something I might look into doing at some point. I'd love to find more information on the packs they used back then for this purpose.
On the way up with stopped at Popcorn overlook to take in a view that, while familiar, never grows old.
This overlook is actually recommended as one of the best spots in North Georgia for stargazing given it's distance from any major town / light pollution. I have yet to get up here to use it for that purpose.
The sun was just starting to dip below the hills as we drove down Tallulah River road toward the campgrounds. It made for nice lightning on the river.
In a sign of the times the first two campgrounds along the road (Tallulah River Campground and Tate Branch) were both completely full of a mixture of tent campers and large RV's with generators humming away. This would become a theme during our trip unfortunately. We proceeded to the furthest campground out, Sandy Bottoms, and found we had the place to ourselves for the night! We picked a prime site on the river and setup hammocks and the Guide Gear tent.
We spent some time tracking down dry wood for a fire and after processing it had an evening of cooking and father / daughter bonding while discussing the world.
The next morning we packed up camp as other campers rolled in. It was evident this campground would not be ours alone for a second night. We decided we'd spend the morning fishing and then push further north into North Carolina. The weather forecast had been for slightly overcast skies in the morning giving way to sun in the afternoon. That wasn't quite right as it rained on us for most of the morning as we unsuccessfully drowned bait in the river. Wet from the rain and without a fish to show for it we jumped in the truck and headed toward Clayton GA. Just outside of Clayton we stopped to check out Warwoman Dell and the Warwoman WMA.
We took in the history of the place and made a short hike down to a waterfall that was slightly visible from the road and then completely obscured by mountain laurel after we hiked down to it. We did find some nice cascades though and had a good time. While hiking in this area I noticed a tent setup with a tarp for a rain fly. As we came back up from the waterfall we were approached by the inhabitant of the tent. He was a scruffy looking fellow who was obviously living long term out here in the WMA. He suggested that we see another water fall and gave us directions. His directions would have led us deeper into the woods along the river where no visible trail was present and put us roughly 1/2 a mile from the road / truck. It would have also put him and his tent between us and the truck. Keeping the river between us and this gentleman I thanked him for his directions and kept a close eye on him as he headed back to his tent. We then made the river crossing a circled back to the truck. He might have been a perfectly nice fella and had positive intentions but I wasn't going to take the chance. The whole encounter just felt off.
After reading that last sign I wanted to do some follow up research on stocking rivers by carrying fish in packs. I found that it's still done throughout the US in many remote areas. Nearby in Red River Gorge volunteers take on the task of carrying fish in backpacks miles into the backcountry to stock rivers. Very cool and something I might look into doing at some point. I'd love to find more information on the packs they used back then for this purpose.
