Alpine Mountain Crawl 2014! Helen, GA

Wow! this past weekend my daughter Elizabeth and I went to Helen, GA for the first of many to come Alpine Mountain Crawl for jeeps. We arrived mid morning Saturday and registration had been stopped at 550 jeeps/ vehicles. We were able to help on a Trail Ride to Charlie's Creek which has been one of my favorites and Elizabeth's too. We then went to a bon fire outside of town and got to catch up with many friends and make a few new ones as well. I was able to shoot a few photos and also some video's of the ride and riding through town and seeing a lot of jeeps, some with personality, some jeep buggies made for serious rock crawling, and a few that appears they could take on the Baja race. I wish looking back at it I had more time for more photo's and video but it was so much fun and a bit overwhelming to see all that went on. The organizers did an outstanding job! there were most of the Jeep clubs from around Georgia and Alabama. I think there may have been a few from South Carolina and Tennessee as well. I for one am excited about next years Alpine Mountain Crawl.

Christmas Eve ride with several friends on Trey Mountain outside Helen, GA.

Just downloaded these photos from December 24, 2013, Here are some shots from Trey Mountain road, hope you guys enjoys.

Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee

Good evening friends, sorry it's been about a week since my last post. I have been looking at some new trails to go explore and waiting for my co-pilot to be here when I do. My daughter loves to go ride the easy trails, find waterfalls and take some photos of our adventures. So this weekend should be interesting needless to say. As spring closes in on us here in Georgia I will be torn between the jeep or the motorcycle. I may include some of my motorcycle rides in this blog as well since the main purpose is to share my adventures and places I visit for other gypsy souls as well. One place that I was able to explore last summer on the Harley was Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee, It is a state park located in Pikeville TN. The ride up was beautiful once you get through
Hixson TN, I have traveled this route many times going to Cookeville TN. for work. The falls are incredible and the state park is huge with camping sites, fishing several hiking trails ranging from easy to omg I need life flight, lol. Here are a few photos of the Falls and lake there, if you are ever wanting a nice little road trip for the day or weekend go check it out! you wont be disappointed at all.

 Got off work today put the top down and went for a nice ride home then jumped on the Harley and went for another nice relaxing ride

February 12 and 13th was a two interesting days here in Metro Atlanta as well north Georgia. Old man winter blessed us with snow, freezing rain, ice and a beautiful jeepers paradise.

Here are a few pics of the snow and ice from around Atlanta.and a short video.

Flatland Rd Suches GA and Two fire service roads 107 and 39

After our disappointing trip to Dawson Forest WMA we decided to roll a little farther north and to the west part of the Georgia Mountains. In a small quaint little town known as Suches Ga which is know to motorcyclist and the home of "Two Wheels Only" motorcycle camp and some good fishing at Dockery lake that has several campsites around the lake, we took Wolf Pen Gap Rd aka hwy 180. Flatland's Rd is located in the beautiful Chattahoochee National Forest, with access to the Appalachian Trail (Woody Gap) and not far from Vogel State Park. We arrived onto flatland road and our first adventure was to be able to travel up creek for a short distance and climb the bank onto a plateau where we followed the trail up through the canyon top of a hill with a pretty decent grade. If it's raining there is a good chance you will probably want to use 4wd it can become very slick and it has several ruts that have been washed out and several spots of light rock obstacles. I have posted several videos in this blog from the Go-Pro 3+silver. I just purchased this camera and tried it out in several different locations in and out of the jeep as well on my good friends "Doc's" hood. I've kept the videos short and tried to show the different elevations and some of the terrain. After our drive through Flatland's Rd we continued onto Vogel State Park where we decided to have lunch and get out and stretch our legs.

 I've learned over many trips of exploration that this fat boy does better knowing the cooler is loaded with food, also you never know when you will come up on that one spot that screams stop and look while there this would be a good place for a sammich! 

You can never go wrong with a ham sammich, pringles, beautiful girl friend and good friends. 

After a brief and chilly lunch we were off to explore Fire service road 107 which is actually West Wolf Creek Rd. The trail started off like all fire roads, trees, gravel and more trees. As we started our decent into the Chattahoochee Forest the scenery became more beautiful and we started driving along Wolf Creek, As we driving Thao ( the boss) spotted a black bear as we all came to a stop we lost the bear over the ridge, well just about 100 yards later I spotted an owl! I don't know what type of owl maybe a Barred Owl, but it was sitting so regal perched on a limb above the creek waiting for its lunch to come along.

We continued on through West wolf Creek road and the scenery became a vision splendor! There are several spots to camp along side the river and numerous hiking trails. Well the road came back to pavement like all trails do and we continued onto Fire rd 39. 

Well Fire road 39 is on Wolf Pen Gap road and is off the parking area halfway through. This road was in good shape you can tell it has been traveled and maintained somewhat, as we started our climb to the top the fog started to roll in and it was hard to see the scenery off to the left looking back down into the valley as we made a left turn the fog was gone and instantly clear. As we neared the summit of the mountain we could look down onto the valley and see the fog that we had driven through. 

This was at the top of Road 39, the fog would come and go but the ride was still very enjoyable and beautiful. After several miles and about 30 minuets the Question was asked where does this go? We all assumed that the road would dead end or come out somewhere! but where? when? do I have enough food? 

Well as any curious explorer would do we saw a side road and said mmm? where does this lead and we did what any group of curious people would do ! we turned. Well we found this beautiful little cascade and I was burning off some energy and thought I'd get that pic of Turtle stretching her legs. We got back to riding after a brief moment to get out of the jeep and we continued on our journey, Finally got that one beloved antenna bar to pop up and was able to get Google maps to give me an idea of where we might be! well we were the blue dot in the sea of green known as the Chattahoochee Forest then lost signal hahah. Fire service road 39 (Duncan Ridge Road) comes out in the Cooper Creek WMA. My friend Steven luckily showed me the Coopers Creek area week before so when we crossed Mulkey Gap Rd I sorta had an Idea where we were, thanks Steven. 

We stopped for a moment and I was able to coax her out of the warm jeep for a selfie then she went back in to being warm in the jeep. I would like to get back out to Coppers Crekk Wma and spend a full day there to do some more exploring, Steven showed me a cemetery that has tombstone dating back to the 1800's and is still visited by the families. The next adventure is going to be close to home as we prepare for what we call in the south a snow storm/ice storm cant wait for this to hit and have the opportunity with the Georgia Jeepers to provide help to those who need it, being pulled back onto the roads to delivering nurses and doctors to the hospitals and assisting people to get home. 

Dawson Forest WMA ride from 02/10/14

Well Thao and I met up with Brian, Becky and Karey in Dawsonville and went to explore Georgia's area 51! Well the site was very Interesting the buildings were fenced off and you could see and feel a little nostalgia there at the site. We set off to comb a 10,000 acre Wma and were disappointed to see that majority of the roads were closed. He decide to head out Shiloh Creek rd, the best part of Shiloh Creek Rd was the water crossing of the beautiful Etowah River, I was able to get a video of Karey and Myself crossing. I was hoping to be able to say we saw 3 eyed deer, little green men and the mother-ship of visiting aliens but not this trip. We left Dawson forest and we continued north the Flatland's Rd and found some Fire service roads that none of us had explored before after a quick and chilly picnic at Vogel State park.

Make your own Parking spot!

Just gotta love a jeep all parking places full? well make your own! lol!!!

Georgia's Area 51 aka Air Force Plant 67

Today is one day closer to running some trails with some great friends. We have decided to go creep around Georgia's very own Area 51! Dawson Forest WMA ( Wildlife Management Area) has a pretty amazing history to it. It is a 10,000 acre WMA that was once home to Lockheed Aeronautics till 1971. This was an open air Nuclear facility yes I did say an Open air Nuclear site!!!! yikes!. This sight was open to test the affects of nuclear weapons and power on aircraft. The site had several buildings on it and a narrow gauge track for a rail system to service the campus. The city of Atlanta acquired the land in case the needed to do expansion to the Atlanta Airport, City of Atlanta has ask the Forest service and Department of Natural Resources to maintain and manage the land. Well also this week I purchased a Go Pro 3+ Silver so I am really looking forward to getting some great video of Turtle in action and some pictures of the remains of Georgia's Area 51. Oh spoiler alert the State of Georgia still does radiation testing so hopefully we wont come back glowing, but I am looking forward to hopefully seeing the buck's that have two sets of antlers or the 3 eyed wildlife lol.
Here's a link for more information, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Nuclear_Aircraft_Laboratory

Splishing and splashing

Out with my friend and brother who took some great shots of turtle doing what she does best! making a splash.