August in the shadow of Blood Mountain

Several years ago, Kate, Cindy and I drove up to North Georgia and spent a weekend in a vacation cabin owned by Bill and Sharon Day. We left Griffin in the late afternoon and drove up in the mountains, arriving at the cabin south of Blairsville around 9:00 o'clock at night. The weather was wet and dark for August. We got our luggage into the house and went to bed rather early.

The next morning, we awoke to more rain and gray skies. After Kate and I took a short walk around the neighborhood, Cindy, Kate and I hopped in the car and headed out to look around. We ended up driving to Blairsville, stopping at a little general store called the Sunshine Store, which was situated at the intersection of the main road between Dahlonega and Blairsville and the county road which led to the cabin. The store had a variety of vegetables, particularly some heirloom tomatoes which looked pretty good. We didn't buy much at the store, but came back later and bought some tomatoes and stone ground grits and other grains.

Driving up toward Blairsville, we encountered a roadside vegetable stand, with some of the most unusual tomatoes we had ever seen. Brandywine tomatoes which were deep red with yellow stripes and Cherokee Purples, which were a deep, deep purple color. We bought a wide variety of tomatoes and other vegetables and took them home to the cabin. That night, I had a hamburger with a thick slice of one of the heirloom tomatoes and ended up wishing I had left off the beef. You really needed good choice grilled hamburger meat to match the flavor of the tomatoes. If you could find beef which would match it at all.

After driving up to Blairsville, where we found nothing of much interest in the rain, we headed back and found some odd places along the way. There was an interesting development with homemade buildings on the side of the road, with one of the more unusual stores, completely covered up with wood carvings of different sizes, shapes and varieties. Inside, the place was covered up with junk to buy. It turned out to be an interesting place to while away some rainy hours in North Georgia.

After we left the stores, we headed back toward the cabin, but bypassed the road to the cabin to look around Vogel State Park and the Appalachian Trail Store along the highway. Both were really interesting. Cindy wanted to stay at Vogel some time, but Vogel is one of the more busy state parks in Georgia. They have a nice lake and cabins along the lake. It looked like a nice place to stay for a weekend.

Later, we headed up to the store on the Appalachian Trail. I really enjoy hiking stores and this was one of the best. We knocked around the store for awhile, then we took pictures of Cindy walking on the Appalachian Trial, since she was the only member of the family who hadn't done a little trail hiking in the area. We also took pictures of the view from along and around the store. It was covered with hemlocks, native firs, pine and other evergreens and provided a wonderful view of the valleys below the height of the campstore.

The next morning, weather permitting, Kate and I intended to hike up Blood Mountain. Fortunately, the weather that morning was dry and sunny, so Kate and I headed up to the parking spaces for dayhikers on Blood Mountain. Hiking up, we saw quite a few day hikers, several with dogs. Despite having to stop several times for rests along the trails, we made it to the top of the mountain in around forty five minutes. At the top, we inspected the shelter for hikers, took each others' pictures with trail signs, and called Cindy from on top of the mountain. There were several times when the trail up the mountain led us through and above the clouds. There was a specific spot where the trail took us across an open rockface on the side of the mountain, where the clouds blew cold air through us and we walked up towards the shelter.

Despite the time of year, the weather was quite chilly up on top of the mountain. The top of the mountain was covered with evergreen trees. The environment was quite delightful.

After rooting around the summit of the mountain for awhile, we headed back down to our car. The trip down was quite quick. We boarded the car at the bottom of the mountain, headed over to the trail store and knocked around in there for awhile. I later bought a book about day hikes on the Appalachian Trail and found that the trek up Blood Mountain was one of the more popular hikes on the trail, but was supposed to take around an hour and a half. So we did alright, I think.

After heading back to the cabin, Kate and I ate lunch and took a nap. What a delightful day. What a truly memorable weekend.

I wish we could go back sometime when those tomatoes were available. Stone ground grits and heirloom tomatoes. Hard to beat.