Lula Lake

I've not been keeping up, but we've still kept busy peregrinating! Since the last post, Susan and I have explored some private property along Bear Creek, which forms the north arm of Sitton's Gulch or Cloudland Canyon. We've camped on Spring Creek, near the Hiwassee, and then hiked up 3 miles of the John Muir trail, north of the Hiwassee Powerhouse. After seeing the pictures, the boys wanted to go too, so I went back with them the following weekend. I'll try to post entries on those trips soon.

But, yesterday, we went to Lula Lake.

view north from main bridge

LLLT ("Lula Lake Land Trust") has 2 open weekends each month, and yesterday was one of them. We've been working with a group of about 6 Boy Scouts to get their hiking merit badges, for which they need five 10-mile hikes plus a 20-miler. Originally, we'd planned to take 2 or 3 Scouts with us, besides Cameron. But -- fortunately, as it turned out -- they all had last minute conflicts, so it was just Cameron, Susan and me.

Yesterday - Saturday - was supposed to be pretty, but because the day started off cloudy and foggy, we delayed going up, and didn't arrive till 10:15 or so. The property administrator was there, so naturally Susan and Cameron had to endure 20 minutes of my questions and his answers, before we could start. One of our goals was to explore the property for future visits, since Lula Lake is always available to Scouts, unless there is a conflict with a scheduled event.

We set off from the parking area, crossing a foot bridge over Rock Creek.


Scout built bridge


looking south along Rock Creek

Interestingly, this bridge was built as a Scout Eagle project, reusing some old foundations. The result was MUCH more impressive and useful than the typical walking-trail-behind-the-church that has become so common.

As soon as we crossed the bridge, we immediately encountered a fundamental feature of the trails at Lula Lake: they mostly go UP or DOWN. Along the old rail track, the trails go ALONG, but mostly, they're going UP or DOWN. Our legs weren't warmed up yet, but that changed quite quickly!



Before we finished the 10 miles Cameron needed, we'd climbed over 1700' in altitude! To accomplish this, we'd go up 200' then go back down, and then go up 300' and then back down and then up 150' and then back down . . . and so on. Our trusty GPS kept us posted on how far we'd gone, both horizontally and vertically. We've been hiking with an excess of gear -- packs weighing 13 - 17 pounds -- in order to get ourselves ready for 'hike-in' and backpacking trips coming later. By the end of the day, our tails were dragging a bit. Fortunately, we had no blisters, just tired feet, legs and rumps. This morning, Cameron's a little sore, but otherwise fine. Susan and I have feet that feel a bit 'used', and legs that feel 'worked out', but for a couple of oldsters in their 50's we're not complaining!


steep trail down (and back UP) to falls


Cameron getting damp

However, we're grateful that it worked out that none of the other Scouts were able to come. At present, there're are only 1 or 2 Scouts in the troop, besides Cameron, that could have made the hike without having problems . . . and they weren't the boys scheduled to go. We're going to have to do some 5-milers there, before we take them on 10 mile hike there!

I asked Cameron which parts of the hike he liked best, and he replied, "The parts before I got tired!" The hike from the falls, up to the bluff was pretty steep, gaining about 250' in altitude in about 1000' of distance! We've got a ways to go, before we're ready for backpacking in the Smokies.

Still it's a great place for hiking and exploring, and we expect we'll be spending quite a bit of time there, over the next couple of years.

Ben



toward falls, along old railway cut - there're caves in them rocks!

About Rocktown . . .

Over the years, Rocktown has been one of our favorite spots to visit.



We first found it over 15 years ago, after seeing it mentioned in a book about North Georgia's natural history. At that time, the roads in and on Pigeon Mountain were terrible, jeep roads really . . . and we weren't in a jeep. As we struggled to find it, Susan became concerned that we would become stuck in a very remote location. (This has been a recurring theme on some of our natural explorations, but so far, it's never happened. She has, however, heard stories my sister tells of a somewhat legendary trip up impassible roads in the Tellico Mountains, in search of Stratton Bald.)



We did finally arrive and found a small sign with the single word, "Rocktown", and nothing else. When we first begin making our way to Rocktown, we almost never saw anyone else there. More recently, climbers have 'discovered' the location, and often fill the parking lot on weekends. Even so, because of Rocktown's hundreds of crooks and crannies, it's still possible to spend the day and hardly see anyone else.

Over the years, we've found that some people seem to expect "Nature" to come with handrails: Rocktown most definitely does not. We've always avoided taking guests with young children, unless they had good control of their children's behavior. Children love Rocktown, if for no other reason than because it's the largest 'playground climbing equipment' they'll ever see.



But, there are numerous locations at Rocktown where you can be walking along on what appears to be level ground, and suddenly find yourself looking down a 20' or even 40' drop. Obviously, children -- or teenagers -- that are running around in an uncontrolled manner are putting themselves at a huge risk.


You also have to watch out for snakes. This is mostly a problem in spring or fall. The rocks are mostly too hot in summer, and too cold in winter for snakes. But, in spring and fall, sunny rocks are a good place for snakes to warm up. We've seen non-venomous snakes, mostly black or rat snakes, several times, but have never seen venomous snakes ourselves. However, copperheads are common in the area. So, you need to look before you grab or step. But that's true almost anywhere in the North Georgia woods. Susan nearly stepped on a copperhead in the Chickamauga Battlefield a couple of years ago.


I then proceeded to make her even more nervous, by taking pictures! But this was in the Chickamauga Battlefield, NOT at Rocktown. Being cautiously alert* is appropriate pretty much every where in the woods. After all, no matter what some people expect, Nature does NOT come with handrails!

*Between the two of us, we've got this down: Susan's cautious, and I'm alert! ;-)

Stuff we've seen recently . . .

Some folks, including some Scouts, have expressed interested in things we've seen recently in the Battlefield.

Yesterday, I saw these turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), just north of Wilder's Tower:

Thinking about crossing the road . . .


Ok, I'm going!


And, the rest of the family follows, oh so gracefully.


Now you see them; now you don't!


Two days before, we saw a pair of fawns (Odocoileus virginianus) in a field near Thedford Ford. A nearby thunderstorm was causing a strong wind from the south, and we were approaching from the north, so the fawns couldn't smell us, and probably couldn't hear us over the wind noise. One ducked back into the tall grass on the left of the photo, but the other continued crossing, finally freezing when we were about 10 feet away. After a few moments of trying to decide whether we were a threat, and how to respond if we were, it dashed off to the right.



There are more things to see in the woods, than anyone can possibly see. But we continue to be amazed, amused, and even mystified by all that we see. And we are delighted, again and again, by the opening of our eyes to see more and more of what's happening around us. Here are two mysteries, one avian and one of a six-legged kind, for you to puzzle out.

Here's the avian mystery, seen along the trail south of the Hunt graveyard:



And, here's the other, a photo of 3 day old horse poop, along with a family clue:

The clue is Scarabaeinae.

Sometimes, things in the woods come home with us, at least for a while. Here's Uh-oh, our pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) and refugee from the windstorm around the first of May:

He was about 3 weeks old when we discovered him; his nest mate was already dead and he was starving. We tried releasing him a week ago, in an area about 200 yards from his nest site. He was initially very enthusiastic about his new home. Unfortunately, his local relatives -- probably including his parents -- were not so enthusiastic about him. He quickly decided that he wanted to be near us again, preferably on a tree within 10 feet or else on our shoulder, so we had to bring him back with us.

Currently, he's living in woods near us, but coming in for nightly feedings of banana and ground beef, after grazing daily on whatever ants he finds.

More later . . .

Bird feathers & Spiders

For 4 years now, my wife and I have been on the avoiding-back-pain exercise plan. If we walk, my back's fine. If we don't, it begins to hurt after about 3 days of inactivity.

Now, this plan works for me, because the pain makes it easy to stay motivated. Lots of things that motivate other people don't motivate me. But I find it only takes a little pain, before I'm scrambling around to avoid any more!

Unfortunately, I also find walking around a track to be a pain, too.

I think I always suspected this, but after about 6 months of walking the 2 mile track around East Ridge's very nice Camp Jordan park, I was experiencing pain. Not the physical kind of course, but the monotony of going around the    s-a-m-e    t-r-a-c-k    a-g-a-i-n    a-n-d    a-g-a-i-n    wears me out, and not in a good way.

So, we began walking and talking and thinking in the Battlefield. After four years of walking and talking and thinking, we've seen some things we find interesting and significant. We've learned what a "buck snort" is -- or for that matter, a 'doe snort'-- and why they do it.* We have two prized wonderfully stiff Flicker tail feathers . . . and we know (now!) why they are so stiff.

We've seen things that are slightly horrible, but still amazing, like spiky butt spiders:

More info on Micrathena gracilis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spined_Micrathena

And, we've decided to start keep notes, showing pictures, and telling tales both old and new.

Ben

* And now, we've solved the mystery of why anyone would have named that town west of Nashville, "Bucksnort".
(Map of Bucksnort)