Fall Colors of the Smokies

Well this time we loaded up the Xterra and headed through Alabama to the Smokies to check out the beautiful fall color changes in October. To avoid the traffic in the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest, Tara and I took a tour of Southeastern Tennessee and North Georgia but first we had a WSP (if you don't know what it stands for then look it up) concert to attend in the Ham of Alabama, that is, Birmingham. After jamming out to WSP for the first time in years, I knew I was backed to being on the fanwagon with them because their new guitarist, Jimmy Herring, kicks ass and takes names. Here's a pic of some of the others that attended the concert with us: Josh, Thomas, and Matt. I gave 'em all roses from my Mother's garden and they handed them out to select women (and maybe men) of their choice, even though they should have saved them to help get a ride on the ride home when they had to push the car a couple of miles after running out of gas.

After leaving the Ham, we went up through Chattanoooooga to Ocoee, TN to have some lunch and check out the beautiful Ocoee lake and river. Ball and I had went rafting down the river last year with Josh and I thought it would be great to show Tara. There were some kayakers going down the river even though the chilly October water makes a cold ride.
The road going by the Ocoee is a very scary road due to its many hairpin turns and 18-wheelers that travel it. This is why the bikers love this road with the exception of the 18-wheelers. As you go up this road we traveled to the Olympic section on the Upper Ocoee and checked out the Olympic center for a bit. Here's a pic of the bridge that they built for the Olympics back in 1996:
They built a one mile section of class four and five rapids that can really rock your boat and leave a scare when rafting. People can stand next to these rapids and take pictures of you losing it and being ejected by the river, but the water was not turned on when we went through (so no action). We stopped to eat a picnic lunch at the commercial site although we were not supposed to but what the hell, the river was not turned on.
We took this road into North Carolina and then down into Georgia where we caught some great color changes and headed to Unicoi State Park that is very close to our destination of Helen, GA where Octoberfest was going on. Here's a pic of Tara walking in some flowers on the way there:
Right when we got to Unicoi State Park the campgrounds were crowded, and after a couple days of rain the campsites slowly became vacant. These sites had more amenities than home: washer/dryer, shower, and sink, and included a very nice campsite. But after a couple days of rain, the air mattress saved our butts and everything else from getting wet since the tent was in a sink hole and we were in about two inches of water.

So it was time to take on Helen, GA to see what's up with the Oktoberfest in this town. When we arrived we knew this quaint town could not hold us too long and we better be on our P's and Q's to not get in trouble. Here's a shot of what the town looked like from a park where we had lunch and drank a bottle of wine: This town is interesting during the festival and boring after 10 p.m. Tara caught one guy at the bar playing music from a laptop and acting like he was making it from his guitar, and the bartender at the same bar put shots of vodka into our beers to charge us an even $20, craziness. We stayed at Unicoi just down the road, and during the rainy period we had time to visit Athens, GA. This town has cool vibes with some great small shops full of heady stuff, and a book about the great trees of the world that Tara gave me for Christmas. They had plenty of vege restaurants to choose from and we headed back to Unicoi after a drink or two.

The next day was one I really enjoyed, since the clouds cleared out and we could visit some other outside venues. Here's a pic of the gorgeous Unicoi lake and a pic of some great fall color changes:

This road took us down to Vogel State Park where AT (Appalachian Trail) passes through and you can access Blood Mountain and its Shelter. This park's lake was picture perfect as well and is shown below along with a winding road to the AT.

The hike was 4-5 miles up hill (both ways) and great scenery all around the top of the mountain. A log book was present at the shelter up top and we wrote some things in there about who knows what; there were lady bugs all around us and we learned that lady bugs actually bite people to my surprise. Here's a view from the top and Tara peaking out of the Shelter (one of the oldest on the AT):



Check out the view from the video below!!


So we hiked down to the car and barely had time to make it to Brasstown Bald that is the highest point in GA. You drive up to the top and we had to run another 1/2 mile to catch a beautiful sunset as seen below:

After running up that hill and hiking the AT we were exhausted and went to stay our last night at Unicoi. We got the word that Marley Lou was sick and we needed to go and take care of her.
On the way back it was raining and Tara had time to get some homework done and I ran across a confusing sign and didn't know what sign to follow?



We had a great time and couldn't ask for more. After we got back to Natchez, Marley got to feeling better and we took her to the balloon races but that's another blog.

Hope your having fun where ever you at, I know I am!!!!

Todd