After our LONG trek last weakened we decided to head back to Lake Conasauga but for a whole lot less strenuous trip! No near death experiences this weekend, but a great weekend of short hikes, exploration and relaxation!! I headed up to the campground right after school and Phyllis wasn’t too far behind! After a beautiful drive and a 15 degree drop in temperature, I reached the Lake Conasauga Campground! It was already nearly full, but I found a great campsite on the upper ring and even though we weren’t as close to the lake, it was a beautiful area and a very quiet spot! With all the people in the campground, it was a nice spot to relax! I began to set up camp and after Phyllis arrived we had a nice hamburger dinner and then sat around a warm fire! It was so cool, almost cold! I can’t wait for the chill of fall and this was a great taste of it! Lows in the low 50s and highs in the mid-70s! We had a great night’s sleep in our big tent! We have used a very small back packing tent for the last few trips and actually being able to stand up in a tent was nice! Other than one noisy group across the campground, sleep was wonderful in the cold night air!
We woke up early, had a hot bacon and egg breakfast around a nice fire, then headed down to a small lake in the middle of the mountain we had checked out last weekend! Lake Murray is in the middle of nothing and when we got there we had the entire lake to ourselves! We started a hike around the lake and even though the trail disappeared in places, we worked our way around some swampy areas and followed the trail! We saw some amazing mushrooms and a large beaver dam along with beautiful woods! The one funny part of the trip was the spider webs! While I have truly grown to love the wilderness, I still do NOT like spiders, especially if I can’t see them first! This trail is not heavily used and in almost every tree spider webs crossed the trail! Since I was leading the way, I hit every one of them! I let out a high pitched squeal almost every time and behind me, Phyllis was laughing the whole way! I did NOT think it was that funny! After circling the lake and the beaver pond, we had a picnic lunch by the lake and then headed back up the mountain for some trail exploring for future hikes, then back to the camp! Phyllis laid down in the lounge chair beside a big fire I lit to create coals for some other activities, and she was shortly fast asleep! I think last week was still exhausting her, so this was a good rest! While she napped, I worked on a Dutch over recipe and some muffins in a stove that Ariana bought for me! They both turned out pretty good and just need some tweaking for the future when we have the kids with us! I put some potatoes and corn on the fire for dinner and then grilled us some steaks! We had a great dinner and then a stroll around the lake! After that, we enjoyed another night around the fire! One of the funniest moments also became a NEAR-DEATH Experience for me! Phyllis had walked back to the car to get something and said she saw something with a tail dead near the car. (Turned out to be a salamander!) She called me back to look at it and when she bent over to try to find it, I goosed her in the side and she screamed and wheeled around on me! She let out a stream of words I can’t repeat here and almost killed me! I was laughing so hard, I almost fell down! SHE WAS NOT!! After stalking back to the fire, I followed her and commenced apologizing, but it was only so effective between my attempts to hold in my laughter! Of course, she forgave me! We don’t stay mad, and that was funny! I don’t care who you are!! Off to bed and an even cooler, wonderful night of sleep!
Sunday morning, we packed up camp and headed out! We wanted to find a trailhead on the other side of the Cohutta, but the road directly to it is closed, so we had to go out to Ellijay, come back in at Blue Ridge and find the trail where I’m going to be volunteering next weekend cleaning and clearing trails. We found that trail head and a couple others, then found the Jack’s River Campground and some small falls on a short trail! After that, we hit the road home and after stopping at the Peach Orchard for some fresh peaches, we made our way back! Another amazing weekend, but much less adrenaline inducing hiking and a lot more rest! I love every moment wife my beautiful, sweet wife, Phyllis, even when she is jumping on me for scaring her! I look forward to many more!