End of the Year Trip.

[Gam]

I usually take a moto camping trip after Christmas whether it's a good idea or not.  I always wind up with Clay because he doesn't care if it is a good idea or not either. This year the weather looked warm enough to head to the North Georgia mountains.  Rode pleasant dirt in lower elevations the first day. This is is a nice, dispersed camping area, it has an outhouse, but that's all. No one there but us.


You have to carry your stuff to camp, parking is on the other side of the bridge.


So that night Clay asked me if there were bears around here? "Dude, the name of this place is Bear Creek.".  I told him about finding cans with bear tooth holes in them around there and about a guy that lived in the woods for a couple of years, one ridge over. So, we were already moderately creeped out when the sparkles began. Clay says : " Are those lightning Bugs?".  We discuss it and when we concluded that Lightning Bugs would not be out this time of year and the sparkles didn't blink like Lightning Bugs, we decided to investigate further.  The problem was, as you approached them, they would disappear, but reappear further away.  I decided that they were your Common Woodland Fairies, just screwing around with us. Clay thought they were some kind of reflection. (On a completely clouded and moonless night?).  Whatever, it led to a great deal of conjecture before turning in for the night. Given the possibility of bears and the probability of Woodland Fairies, I was hypervigilant.  Dead leaves falling on the tent and wind flapping the vestibule gave visions of a bear deciding whether it was worth ripping into my tent and dragging me off.  Then something ran across my chest, it had too much heft to be a bug. I raised up and blindly smacked around the tent. Later, it ran across the top of my head, I couldn't find it. For a while, things remained quiet.  I figured that it must have found a nice spot to sleep.  Then it ran across my face, and I found the mouse. Probably better than a Woodland Fairy.  I escorted him out. He chewed a hole in the no see um netting of my tent, don't know if he did it to break in or trying to escape. It was quite a while before I fell asleep. You cross this creek to get to and from the parking lot. Deeper than it looks, it will wake you up when leaving in the morning.


We paid a visit to the Lloyd's Mountain Fire Department.


Headed up Potato Patch Mountain.  A couple of 100 yards beyond this overlook we were in pea soup fog.


Cold wind whipped rain through the fog along the ridge. We stopped at Dyer Cemetery to put on more layers and eat something. The Dyers were a pioneer family who lived in the area before it became a National Forest. The family still keeps up the cemetery.


Down the mountain and a winding route which led to the underpass of  HW 515 at Cherry Log. We rode a lot dirt and backcountry roads and set up camp on Noontootla Creek. 


Around 4:00 a.m. the bottom fell out of the sky. We packed up wet that morning and rode a bunch more dirt in the rain, wind and fog before hitting pavement to head home.

[Merkur Man]

Looks like you had an awesome time. The Christmas lights were a nice touch.
I would like to visit that church some day.
Thanks' for sharing.

[Guidedawg]

Thank you for sharing!  It looks like things were a big soggy, but fun.