More Fall in North Georgia

This image from the Bartram Trail by Annette Gelbrich shows some excellent color in Rabun County at higher elevations and plenty of leaf change to come. It was taken on the weekend of October 24, 2009. The leaves at the top of Brasstown Bald were gone by October 22, although the drive to the top still had some excellent reds and yellows.

To the west, GA Highway 52 from Ellijay to Fort Mountain was in full color on the weekend of October 24 as well. Its a beautiful and easy scenic drive with multiple pull-offs for the peepers.

Fort Mountain has a scenic overview (near the CCC tower). While nearby trees are in full color, the valleys nearby are only at 25-50%.

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Fall is in the air

I just finished a 5-day stay at Enota Mountain Retreat in Blairsville, Georgia and the fall colors are moderate to good. Just before we arrived a rain storm passed through, followed by fairly high winds (gusts to 30 mph). This blew a lot of the early fall color off the trees. The good news is that only about half the trees had begun to change at 2000-3000 feet, so there is still plenty of leaf change to see. Below 2000 feet it seems the fall will run a little later than normal with the best weekend probably being the last weekend of the month for the northern counties and the first week of Atlanta for counties closer to Atlanta.



We stopped by Cucina Rustica in Morganton for some of the best Italian food in the Southeast United States this past Thursday. This restaurant has become a standard on our trips to North Georgia. It will be a feature in an upcoming issue of About North Georgia.

We also visited some of the lesser known CCC works in the North Georgia mountains and plan to continue this journey in the near future.

Seems like the drought is really over

Finally, Georgia seems to be catching up on the rainfall it lost over the last eight years. I just wasn't expecting it to come in a couple of months, September and October 2009. Lake Lanier is near full levels (of course, Lanier is not a good way to judge a drought since the levels are controlled by the Corps of Engineers). The Chattahoochee River flooded badly in September and portions are flooding with this October. The ground is saturated and its actually fun to do the fall planting, if you can get a day without rain.

The rain brings back memories of months were rainfall totals were less than 1 inch and dire predictions of weather change because of global warming. Of course, 2008 was the first year that the average temperature fell in 10 years. I'm not sure but it seems this year is unusually cold so 2009 may be the second drop. The good thing about this rain and the cooler weather coming behind it is that there will be a positive effect on the leaf season. If you haven't planned a trip to the mountains, this is a good time to go. Plenty of fall events abound, our favorites being the Apple Festival and the Sorghum Festival.

Noise, Noise, Noise

Have you notice how noisy its getting in our North Georgia? Even when hiking a trail where it seems impossible to here traffic noise, it seems to be right around the corner. I was hiking Desoto Falls Trail the other day and had to listen to the noise of cars and bikes until I finally came to the Falls, about a mile and a half from the start of the trail.

I think Georgia needs to pass a noise ordinance.