Monday, July 27th
Happy 16th Birthday to my nephew, Adam!
Sooo tired tonight!
This morning, we got up and had breakfast and everyone showed up over here as we were finishing up. We agreed to meet at the visitor center in Helen, GA and split up. We cleaned up here and finished loading the van and headed out, arriving a couple hours later in Helen, pulling in just behind the other 2 families! I have no idea what we all did on the way, but we got there at the same time.
Having looked over our options, we decided to check out Helen Tubing and just do the water park because we saw on the drive through town that the river was very low and it looked more like folks were water hiking more than tubing. After some discussion, Suzette and her crew along with Britney stayed at the water park and the rest of us opted out-it was a GREAT deal for an all-day thing with tubing and playing at the park, but it was already past 2 and dark clouds were rolling in and I wanted to see Brasstown Bald more than anything else, so the money would not have been well-spent for the 2 hours or so we could stay and play.
Our two families drove over to Anna Ruby Falls to hike the .5 miles up to the falls. We fed the trout while waiting on the deck for everyone to use the bathroom before the hike and I saw a slightly drunk biker woman try to burn a tick off her leg with a lit cigarette. It instantly quashed any lingering doubt that staying to swim would have been the more fun thing to do for the afternoon. We saw 2 copperheads and the waterfalls at the end of the trail and loads of uphill on the way. I was quite hot today, I sweated right through my swim top that I still had on and had to stop and change.
We met up with Suzette again-they had left the water park because thunder had rolled in. We all headed to Brasstown Bald-the highest point in Georgia. We got there and the tram had stopped running for the day and the .6 mile uphill climb knocked Bobby and Gina out of going, so they headed off and we headed up. Suzette had defected from the group en route to get gas, but I knew she was out for the climb, her knees have been hurting her.
That was QUITE the climb. I was gasping for air at one point and swallowed a bug. The rhododendron were in bloom, I was quite surprised by that, they are an early summer bloomer. The trail was steep, I had to keep stopping to catch my breath!
At the top, we could only go up on the platform and not to the very top of the tower as I had hoped. It was still a fantastic view and the platform went all the way around the tower, we could see in every direction and it was ALL green tree-covered mountains and little scattered lakes.
We walked back down-slowly. I took lots of mushroom pictures and the trail was so steep I was walking very carefully. Not even half-way down, I heard lots of yelling kids and thought a youth group had pulled in to picnic at the parking lot overlook, but when I got down, I realized it was Jake, Chandler and Emily-Suzette had finally arrived after driving several miles off in another direction on a quest to see every tree in Georgia. Yes, our 3 children combined made the same amount of noise as a busload of teenagers.
They headed back to camp and we followed after a few minutes. We decided to stop and eat in town before coming back up, I was tired and wrangling the camp cooking did not appeal to me as much as some hot and salty fries did!
Back here, we had showers and changed into clean clothes. Everyone brushed teeth and the kids and Matt are sacked out snoozing already. I am close behind!
