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Camping Thoughts in Summer 2019

by Jan Bradley
06/09/22
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Thoughts while camping -- Summer, 2019 

Watching Eddie dunking his sweaty self in the creek, it looked like he was baptizing somebody, then as I watched, a hawk sprang from the close edge of the creek and flapped across just in front of him.  It was a somewhat Biblical scene, in a North Georgia kind of way.

As I am lying crossways in the hammock, in the shade, near the creek, the breeze whispers caressingly across me, the shade is delicious and there is bird drama near the hawk nest across the creek.  Some crows are likely invading the hawk's airspace.  People are fishing all up and down the creek and children play in the water.  We haven't seen anybody catch anything, so the Fish Hatchery truck that went through the campground a day or two ago was likely a decoy and not evidence of stocking the creek. (Eddie's theory)

I came upon a dead (headless, so yes, dead) copperhead in the road near the garbage bins.  Of all the snakes I've seen in these mountains over the years, this is my first copperhead.  Makes me more determined than ever to keep my tent zipped securely at all times.

I'm hearing distant (or perhaps not-so-distant) thunder, even though the sun is shining brightly here and the deep blue sky is studded with only puffy white, non-threatening clouds.  There it is again, the thunder.  Yesterday, at Eddie's sister's house, there was a downpour (not really a frog-strangler, but heavy enough) but there was no evidence that it rained even a drop here at the campground.  We are about 1.5-2 hours away from her house.  Scattered showers for sure.

This campground is so much quieter than Desoto Falls, where we camped for 40 years.  DF is on a major artery between Dahlonega and Blairsville, and semis travel it all hours of the day and night, exercising their jake-brake freedom as they pass.  Also many, many demented crotch-rocket (motorcycle) riders zoom past with an enormous noise that echoes through the mountains.  Where we are now, Coopers Creek, is far off the beaten path; 5 miles of both paved and dirt road, and so quiet it is soothing to the nerves. All I can hear is the creek laughing to itself, the crickets gently talking in their way, and birds singing.  An occasional breeze whispers through, and children laugh as they splash in the creek. There are fewer campsites here at CC, and only a few on the creek, but we are loving every minute of being here.

It's so very green and lovely here.  We are camping in the Summer, as opposed to the Fall when we usually camp for 2 weeks, and it's very different.  It gets warm (79-80°F) in the afternoon, everything is green and mountain laurels are in bloom everywhere. We hear far more birds than in the Fall, and see way more deer.  We have had 7 deer sightings since we've been here, and we almost never see deer in the Fall.  Probably because it's deer hunting season then and the deer are laying low. In contrast, we have seen no turkeys at all this trip, and they are usually thick on the ground in the Fall.

 Our first deer sighting came as we were driving back from the store during broad daylight on our first day of camping.  We came around a turn on the paved section going to the campground, and a small, spotted fawn shot out of the woods on the left side of the road and dashed across in front of us.  Eddie swerved, the fawn squalled and the deer mother ran across the road behind the truck in hot pursuit.  I could just hear her yelling at her baby, "Don't you run away from me!  How many times have I told you to look both ways before you cross the street?"

When we run across the rumble strips in the middle of the road (North Georgia has them) it makes a sound that Eddie likens to a foghorn moving through the mountains.