Yesterdays Adventures..

Hey everyone, here is a little update on what I did yesterday. It was my first day of adventuring where I was able to try out my hiking shoes (thanks Dave) and to visit a small local town called Helen, just down the road. Helen is a German themed town, where all of the buildings look like some kind of Swiss Alps architecture or something. It is a tourist type of environment there and there is a crapload of places to drink booze, gift shops and all kinds of strange things.. There was a Live Tarantula museum which seems odd and at the beginning of town there is a place called something like ” The New Babies Hospital” which is where they produce the Cabbage Patch Kid dolls, for anyone that knows what those are…lol. There are lots of wood carving shops here and I visited some in order to get some ideas and tips of how tho achieve certain things in carving. here is a picture of a Pegasus that I thought was cool, except for the price of $1100.00, but what craftsmanship..
After I left Helen, I stopped at a place called BlackBeard’s Rock Shop. They have all kinds of cool stones and crystals and art glass etc.  The girl there was super friendly and quite knowledgeable about what she was selling. I purchased a small Amethyst cluster, a tiny but beautiful clear quartz cluster, a desert rose, a piece of this ruby colored art glass and a white marble with a smiley face painted on it. The smiley was created by the girl who worked there (Sabrina). It’s just a white marble with a face  painted on it, but she said she designed them so that when she saw someone that was sad, you could just ask them to open their hand and drop it in there, with the intention to bring an inevitable smile to their day. I loved the idea….

Here is the funniest thing that happened while in the rock shop. I was standing in front of this glass curio cabinet which had many beautiful and more expensive crystals in it, when all of a sudden I felt something brush my hair. I looked up and saw nothing but a small hole in the ceiling. A hole cut out at some point in the wood paneling to install and electrical outlet apparently. I figured it was just a draft coming from it. When I looked away, it happened again. This time I looked only to find a gray cats arm pawing me through the hole….lol.. Sabrina the shopkeeper came over smiling and told me that Blackbeard wanted to say hello.. This cat just wanted me to pet it through the hole, it was hilarious. It would place its’ back over the hole where he liked to be scratched, so I obliged.. I snapped a couple of pictures of him, but only this one came out…

After leaving there I headed back to Enota my current home base.

I decided to do some hiking into the wilderness to see the waterfalls and such. First I headed towards a trail called “Jacks Trail”. It was supposed to lead to an observation platform that was about 1oo yards above the base of the 400 foot waterfall on the property. When I reached the end of the trail, I could see that the low water levels didn’t allow for much of a show. it was still beautiful though. Especially since it was so remote and away from everything. I took a few picture with my digi-cam and also my 35mm camera. I was informed by the employees before leaving to this waterfall, that this one could not be viewed from the base like the smaller 200 foot falls could be. Well I decided to make my way down the natural mountainside to see if I could make it there. The whole time I was watching and listening for bears, as there is a clear warning about them at the beginning of the trail which reads:

CAUTION: ” There is fresh bear sign all along this trail. Be aware of your surroundings and make noise, talking, etc, if you choose to hike.”

After a zig zagging hike down the extremely steep hill (I estimate a 65 degree angle), I arrived at the creek. I followed the water towards the falls by hopping rock to rock and climbing the many downed trees which lay resting there. I saw many beautiful spider webs of different types. Mushrooms of many colors, mosses and plants and various rocks. I had made it to the base of the falls. Where I sat for awhile quietly pondering the beauty and innocence of that place. There wasn’t much too see as the low water level left something to be desired, but I managed to snap a few pictures and a quick video from where I was sitting, which was on a giant moss covered tree that lay across the falls base…. I know the videos and pictures do not show the true scale of these things, but believe me they are bigger than they look….

On the return trip to camp I stopped at a small pond which gathered at the top of a tiny man made wall which slowed the flow of the creek. It poured over into a tiny waterfall of stone steps. The pond had these amazingly beautiful spotted trout swimming in it so I took a few pics..

After making my way back to the camp, I immediately detoured to the other trail which led to the 200 foot waterfall of Gurley Creek. I wanted to cool down from the hike and boy did I ever. That water is cold!!!!! But so clean and refreshing. This is the same waterfall that I used as a test yesterday…I cut the video at a minute and 40 seconds because about 20 people showed up as I was starting to play.. I will return again!!

As night fell, I sat at the fire until late evening. I was feeling a little lonely last night after seeing all of the other campers with their loved ones and families, but I drowned myself in a thermos full of hot orange spice tea and made my first dinner over the open fire. It was beef barley soup and brown rice. Not bad at all really…

So that was my day. It ended when the temperature dropped by 30 degrees and I ran off to climb into my sleeping bags and blankets…… Well this post took a long time to make, gee it’s 2 hours later and I’m still sitting here in the old parking lot in the town of Hiawassee’s McDonald’s.  Many thanks go out to Miccy Dee’s and to Monte Alban Mexican Resteraunt for use of their internet services..

Be well people and thank you all for the comments and views. It helps keep the loneliness at bay……. Steve (Mic) Michaud.

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