A little walk at Cochran Mill Nature Center

You can click on the pictures to see them full screen.  I loved the reflection of the trees in the water.

It was a beautiful day and we decided to check out a place about 25 minutes from our home. Such a quiet 4 mile walk.  We only saw one young couple on the trail.

I liked the green color on this roon and the beetle was green too.






















A very small waterfall due to the drought in Georgia.

The Seed Sprouts

In May 2012 we went back to Len Foote Hike Inn and helped in the kitchen/dining room.

It was so very green on this visit with lots in bloom, birds chirping, squirrels making their chatting noises and beautiful weather to hike.

 Lady slippers - so beautiful !

After breakfast duties we left the Hike Inn for the day and headed for the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain. We needed to return by 5 PM in order to help with dinner.

 This squirrel was really chattering; he didn't like my presence.

 We're off to Springer Mountain as the Brown Thrasher watches over little ones.

                                                      It really was this green !

                                  What's this ?  Signs to a shelter, water, and privy ....

                                                      Black Gap Shelter

         Cables to hang food bag to keep safe from bears -- kind of frightening....

                                   There was a high road and a low road to the privy

 A look at a privy from a distance ... took a close up view but I'll leave that to your imagination !  Bring your own tp ...

                                                            Going up Springer Mountain.....

      "Pace Setter"  waits for me; this was quite a climb and the weather was warm.

    

                                                              Just about there ...

        I don't know what "Pace Setter" expected but he said "Is this all there is ?"

                             It was a clear day and the view from Springer was spectacular

 The white blaze marks the direction of the Appalachian Trail. My helpful trekking poles have saved me from falling many times and what a blessing going down hill because they take some stress off my knees.
There's a metal box in the side of the rock for hikers to sign the log as they begin/end a thru-hike

     Headed back to the Hike Inn; bugs were driving us crazy and we didn't tarry.

We stopped at Black Gap Shelter and I tested my home made cat food can alcohol stove by preparing a Mountain House freeze dried meal of beef stroganoff. That's an aluminum foil wind screen wrapped around the pot and you can't see the little alcohol stove.

 My cat food can alcohol stove boiled water in about 5 minutes and we enjoyed a rehydrated Beef Strognaoff Mountain House meal in a bag. We met a young man (Joe) from Chicago at this shelter; he had stopped for a little break before heading to Springer. He planned to thru-hike to Maine.  Man, did he have a huge backpack. He waited to see if my stove boiled water and then showed me his little stove.  I've read that hikers like to talk about their gear ....

 This was the site of a small plane crash many years ago where several members of a family died.

                                     This view welcomed us back to the Hike Inn.

I showered and washed my clothes in the sink (to see how the Dr. Bronner's soap would work), hung them on the railing to dry and sat in this chair for a short while before heading to the kitchen for supper duty. 

After dinner, I decided to stay for Wade's slide presentation of his AT thru-hike. Watching and listening for the second time, I was not bored.  He fielded questions at the end. I asked if he had seen any "old codgers" attempting a thru-hike and he said "yes; there were some."  The seed begins to sprout !

The Seed

Amicalola Falls from the top

Trail head

We're off .....

For Valentines Day 2012 we went to Amicalola Falls State Park to volunteer at Len Foote Hike Inn. It was our third hike but our first time to serve as volunteers in the kitchen/dining room. After dinner, Wade Chandler, Lodge Manager, gave a slide presentation on his thru-hike of the AT in 2008. It was very interesting and at the time I thought it would be fun if I were younger. He didn't show any pictures of "older" hikers. Looking back, I think the seed to hike the Appalachian Trail was planted that night.

It started raining around supper time and the temperature dropped. When we awoke the next morning, it was a cold and snowy and this little bird was having breakfast.

 After finishing our breakfast duties, we headed for Springer Mountain.  I didn't take my camera cause it was so wet.  Ice on tree branches was dripping and hunks of ice kept falling from the branches. We were only out about 2 hours; it was slippery and we didn't want to fall.

 But the icicles on the branches were beautiful; they were rectangular shaped around the branches.  It looked like a fairy land in places.