Return to Vogel State Park

Vogel State Park is a nice, easy ride from nearby Morganton Point, the US Forestry Campground where we spent the last week. Blairsville has a new intersection to ease turning onto southbound US 129 headed toward Georgia’s flagship state park. It’s a nice eleven or so miles further until you make the right-hand turn into the park itself.

Luckily, the uphill side is two lanes wide at that point, so there is plenty of room to make the turn if no one is waiting at the stop sign trying to get out. Pulling back out of the park across the two lanes of traffic that appears at times to be rocket propelled is a different story. Famous Neels Gap is at the crest of Blood Mountain, you may have caught a glimpse of it the recent movie, A Walk in the Woods. It’s where many first-time Appalachian Trail hikers quit after the first day.

The low stone wall entrance is confining enough, and if two big camping rigs meet further down the two lane twisty sections of the access road, traffic stops while the two gingerly try to get past each other. That doesn’t deter little sedans from speeding blindly in to or out of the park, however. The narrow, curvy access road is in dire need of speed bumps. Once you are in the park, or shire, as Ilse calls it, it is a whole different world.

But things are not as they were. Or, more correctly, some things are exactly as they were. Recent repairs have been made to many of the tent and pop-up camping areas known as the red loop, but not to the main RV area. The camp site roads are still circa 1950, and the now decrepit toilet/shower facilities are from the same era. We saw mowers and edgers and clean-up crews constantly around the cabin area – there are 36 cabins available – the entire two weeks we were there. They’ve even added a second putt-putt golf course. Little attention seems to be paid to the camping area, however. 

With constant reservations pouring in for the RV camp sites, Georgia State Park Service seems to have little motivation to spend money for a product that sells itself. It is still one of the most relaxing settings we’ve camped at. We spent the next two weeks at Vogel, including the no-vacancy, three-day Labor Day Weekend. The park’s location is just 35 or so miles south of Murphy, North Carolina, and just a few miles from Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s highest mountain.

We discovered nearby Alexander’s, a unique department store out in the country, while trying to find where my devious GPS had taken us while searching for a landmark. I did a GPS map update before we started this trip, but this was the third time we were literally taken out to pasture by the GPS’s directions. I always keep maps for backup, such as when I have no cell phone coverage, but here a state road map simply isn’t detailed enough. There is no substitute like local knowledge: find someone local and have them Google your destination. In the digital world I’d stick a smiley face emoji here
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The sales girls at Alexander’s went out of their way to sign into the Internet and look up our destination. They headed us in the right direction, but we first spent thirty minutes wandering around the two floors of clothing, furniture and outdoor sports gear. Curiosity overwhelmed me at the checkout counter as I stood behind an Asian woman who was buying two sets of snake gaiters. What, I asked, are snake gaiters? 

Edible? Don't ask me, but it is a mushroom

“Oh,” she answered, “We wear these while we hunt for mushrooms. They are like chaps for your lower legs. Mushrooms are coming into season now, and when we hike the Appalachian Trail, we go off the side trails looking for mushrooms and we like to be protected from snakes.” She pulled out her smart phone and started scrolling through a massive photo index of mushrooms. All of the text on her screens were written in Chinese.

“Here,” she said, pointing to a detailed photo of a mushroom “This is what I found this week. It is called ‘Chicken of the Woods’ and very delicious.”

You just never know who you will meet when your GPS takes you to never-never land.

We bid adieu to Kawliga, the wooden indian who stands guard to the outdoor sports section, and Elvis, who serenades shoppers looking for furniture, and headed to Blairsville for the best Cuban meal I’ve had in years. Dan’s Cuban grill in Blairsville is run by expats from Miami, and the Palomillo steak, smothered in long, skinny French fries and grilled onions, brought back memories from years ago.

For the southern traditionalist, there is “Jim’s Smokin’ Q,” whose motto, “You can smell our butts for miles!” is a definite eye catcher. It’s only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and we lucked out when our neighbors, Hill and Maryanne from Cocoa Beach, asked us to join them for lunch. It’s right on the road from the park to Blairsville. Best barbeque I’ve had in a long, long time.

We were visited at our campsite by our daughter and granddaughter who drove up from Athens for a wonderful afternoon, and by the very couple who started us on this RV experience, Richard and Arlene. Richard and Arlene camped in an adjacent site for three days, giving us the chance to catch up on our families, ruin our diets, and solve the world’s political problems.

It was anticlimactic after everyone left, and we spent the last several days doing the laundry and just catching up on social media. There is spotty cellphone coverage at the campground, although there is free Wi-Fi everywhere near the cabins or the visitor center, We drove down to the visitor center daily the last few days just to catch up on e-mail and social media, which we found we didn’t miss as much as we did in Asheville where we had no in-park coverage of either cellphone or Wi-Fi.

We found the road noise from the nearby mountain highway to be an occasional distraction during the day, but weekends had us wondering if we had camped next to Road Atlanta by mistake. While we thoroughly enjoyed our two week stay this year, we looked forward to our next campground.

Next: Bolding Mill – Another first, at:

http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2016/09/bolding-mill-campground.html

Vogel State Park - Going Away Gift

Tonight is our last night in Vogel State Park, our favorite state park in Georgia. Located eleven or so miles south of Blairsville at the edge of the Chattahoochee National Forest, there are bear warnings posted conspicuously everywhere around the campground. 

Campers are warned not to leave food or containers where bears can get to them, but many people seem to pay little attention to the signs. Our camping neighbors have told us about bears we just missed seeing twice in the two weeks we've been camping here. One bear drug a camper's cooler to the nearby creek sometime last Saturday night and helped itself to a $50 dollar dinner of ribs. Another bear walked across our campground at dusk as a blue grass band played gospel music on the lakeside pavilion not far away. While we heard excited stories about the bears from our camping neighbors, we unfortunately did not see any.

Exactly forty-two minutes ago, at 8:10pm in the fading evening light at dusk, we got our going away gift from Vogel as we walked across the parking lot in front of the visitor center. A full grown black bear slowly sauntered out from behind the split rail fence around the pear tree in front of us, not thirty feet away. It had been helping itself to the tree full of pears. Ilse could hardly speak as she hoarsely whispered, “Bear! Bear!” It only glanced back at us briefly as it strolled across the pavement onto the grass verge and casually walked toward the rental cabin on the side of the hill. The bear could not care less about us or our dog. 

Taz, our Golden Retriever was momentarily shocked as well, but couldn't contain himself and began barking wildly, just of course, as I tried to get a photograph. The bear began to hustle up the hill, then stopped once to turn around and stand on its hind legs as if to smell the air. Then it dropped to all fours and disappeared into the darkness behind the rental cottage. 

If Taz hadn't barked I might have gotten a better photographs. I got three, quick photos, all blurry, indistinct shots that require a page or so of detailed explanation to pinpoint the bear, but it was a unique moment we won't soon forget. Now I can apply my bear decal to the side of the camping trailer and feel like we earned it. A great going away gift at a great park. We will be back.

Really, there is a bear behind the tree... 

NEXT: Not all surprises are fun, at Manatee Springs State Park, at:

http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2015/09/manatee-springs-state-park.html

Vogel State park - Pouring In

Pouring in. Not the rain, the campers. It's Thursday evening and the beat-the-weekend-crowd crowd - no, that is not a typo-  is pouring in. It's raining again as well, – it's rained every day since we got here on Monday – but the stream of campers is more impressive than the water flowing down the middle of the loop road. RV's of every shape and size pull through the loops of Vogel State Park looking for the best possible camp site. The bigger units like the Class A and larger Class C's have to drop their towed cars before entering the shire, sorry, the campground, and those campers use the smaller vehicles to reconnoiter the camping loops while the mother-ships wait behind patiently. I would imagine it's hard to distinguish camp sites in the rain but many of the campers are repeat visitors and know exactly which of the 68 sites they are looking for. The weekend crowd is going to be disappointed they didn't get here earlier.

Vogel has somewhere around 300,000 visitors a year, but how many are campers and how many rent one of the 33 cabins isn't clear, but after spending four days here, almost solid rain not-withstanding, we see why this park is so popular with RVers. This loop filled up quickly and many RV's make the cul-de-sac turn at the end of the road and head back past us hoping the remaining available sites aren't the worst ones in the park. We retire to the trailer and fix dinner when the rains once again start and darkness slowly falls on the campground. A few late arrivals still drive through searching for open sites.

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Hungry tree attacks slow moving rock...

Friday morning breaks dry and cool and several campers up the road from us who were here when we arrived, break camp and head out, probably to avoid the weekend crush. Ilse and I decide to explore one of the trails at the end of our loop while walking Taz, our Golden Retriever, and take an excursion into the woods on a well-worn path that isn't well marked. The recent rains have left their mark on the trails as the paths are well rutted. We follow a trail that wanders around the base of Blood Mountain, then drops back into the campground about a mile a way. Great hiking trails here, and we'll do this one again on Monday after the crowd heads home.

Most of the newly vacated sites are soon occupied by new arrivals as very few sites remain open for long. A steady stream of campers towing trailers make the futile trip looking for sites.

Soon, a throng of onlookers watch as Don and Wendy struggle through the campground with their 42 foot long, three axle trailer looking for an open site, and after making the excruciatingly tight turn at the end of the loop, finally back into the last remaining site on our loop just below the camp shower facility. There isn't any free space left on their campsite after they get settled; the front bumper of his pickup truck is right against the roadway. The Vogel campground dates from the 1930's when trailers and campers were smaller, and while some of the sites are suitable for newer, bigger units, the roads and bridges are confined and narrow by most modern, commercial campground standards. There isn't much clearance on many of the tight turns and curves. Still, they are happy to be here, and plan on enjoying the coming weekend.

In a case of irony that couldn't be scripted, Don and Wendy have to park next to an eighteen foot long Casita, one of the smallest travel trailers on the market and definitely the smallest camper in the campground. Our dear friends Richard and Arlene, who got us interested in camping in the first place, also have a Casita, so I had to take one of those comparison photos of the two units side by side. Two different views on Rving, and each has its own merits.

An 18 foot Casita is dwarfed by a 42 foot Fuzion - Each has its merits...  and drawbacks

Good weather is forecast for the weekend and we are supposed to get a break from the rain. There's live music scheduled by the lakefront tomorrow evening, all we have to do is bring lawn chairs. School started in Georgia two weeks ago, so most of the campers here during the week are older, mostly retired couples, almost always with their pets. Weekend campers usually are younger, working people with kids, but there are few children here so far. The campfires all smell like hickory, and the only water we hear is from the creek behind us. All in all, life is good in the shire.

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Saturday morning is when the park staff earn every penny they're paid. The weekend warriors are here in force and every conceivable question about the park or situation that requires immediate attention takes place now. We walk down to the visitors center to pick up a hiking trail map and watch in horror as an elderly fellow backs up in the parking lot, after looking as best he could, into a family with young children and a dog on a leash that wander unconsciously behind his car. No one is hurt, but we are reminded why we like empty campgrounds.

Lord of the Rings, anyone?

People are standing in the visitor center elbow to elbow. The weekend crowds are here, enjoying the lake and the hiking trails. Almost everyone seems to have a dog, but they are all leashed, and so far, well behaved. The kids aren't leashed, but for the most part, they're having a good time and except for an occasional pack of young bicycle riders frantically pedaling past, you wouldn't notice. For a full campground, it is relatively peaceful.

Ilse and I walk around the small but pretty lake – some would call it a large pond – and walk down the short spillway trail at the far end and are quite taken back by the beautiful waterfall at the bottom of the trail. A woman taking photos from the wooden deck lookout accidentally drops her walking stick into the creek below and her companion dutifully climbs down the rocks to retrieve it for her. He clambers over the rocks and avoids falling in, and successfully retrieves the hiker's aid. Another young woman watching with us on the deck volunteers to take our photo with the waterfall as a backdrop. Our first photo of the trip with the three of us.

The rains hold off for a second day so we decide to take advantage of the good weather and set up our screen room. We take the formidable looking collection of fabric and aluminum poles out of its bag and wonder how did we do it last time? No problem, after unfolding a few legs or arms or what ever, it begins to look like the picture on the outside of the box, and within just a few, trouble-free minutes, it is set up and ready for use. We position the screen room just behind the camper, then set up the gas grill and open another bottle of wine. We sit and watch as the curious crowds wander by, and by early afternoon, we are pretty much left alone. The campground is full but it is relatively quiet up here at our end of the park. Time to grill the chicken and kick back. Ilse is already deep into a book she has been trying to read for several days, and we still have over a week to go. Come Monday we will have the park to ourselves once again. Vogel gets great marks from us, a park we will return to in the future.

NEXT: The Last Train to Clarksville, at:

http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-last-train-to-clarksville.html

Higher Up - Vogel State Park

After spending a week with our daughter and her family near Athens, Georgia, we resume our 2015 camping trip. We head north to Vogel State Park, near Blairsville, Georgia. This will be our first stay at Vogel, one of Georgia's premier state parks, in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. We've stayed at nearby Unicoi and Amicalola State Parks in the past and enjoyed not only the parks, but the surrounding mountains as well. We saw our first Black Bear just west of Ellijay while staying at Woodring Branch Campground at Carter's Lake.

We take a round-about detour off the direct route of US 129 at Gainesville, headed west instead of toward Ellijay, not only to avoid the left turn off of northbound highway 129 into the Vogel Sate Park entrance, but also to avoid the climb up the mountain from the south as well. Amicalola State Park, where we stayed several years ago, is just a few miles off our detour route to Ellijay, and it seems there are more Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee license plates on the road than Georgia plates. We enjoy the ride through Blueridge, sharing the highway with the traffic headed north from Atlanta. This is a busy highway, but a stress-free ride. We can't check in until after 3:00 in the afternoon so the trip becomes a sightseeing tour as well. We finally turn off the four-lane, divided highway in Blairsville, not far from the North Carolina state line, circle around the court house and head south on Highway 129 toward Vogel State park. It seems odd as we traveled north on 129 to get to Gainesville. We doubled our mileage instead of driving straight up US 129 from Athens, but the trip was worth it.

It's drizzling when I check in at the Vogel office a little after three in the afternoon on a wet, overcast day, and confirm our seven day reservation. Ilse and Taz sit in the car and wait as I check in. I called the office here a week ago from Stephen Foster State Park at the other end of the state after I tried to make on-line reservations through ReserveAmerica.com but couldn't find a way to apply the 20 percent discount Georgia offers campers over the age of 62. No problem, I was advised by a sweet, Georgia accent, just make the minimum deposit required on line to hold your reservation and the park ranger will apply any discounts when you check in at the desk and pay the balance. I did and it worked perfectly. I ask about campsites on the lake, and Lisa tells me there are no lakefront sites, but some campsites do butt against the creek. A male voice from somewhere in the back office laughs, “If this rain keeps up, they'll all be lake front.” He then adds, “32 and 51 on the creek are open, I was just up there. Just clip your yellow guest card on the post in front of the site you want.”

The Georgia State park system doesn't reserve individual camp sites so it is first come, first served. If they have 50 sites, they take 50 reservations and that's it until someone checks out. The sites are limited by size, though, so you will be assigned a color that corresponds to all the campsites suitable for your unit. Here at Vogel there are only two colors, red and yellow. The red sites are for small, van type campers, or units less than 25 feet in length. The access road to those sites has a warning about the narrow, twisty loop road.

After you check in at the visitor's center, you drive through the campground to find a spot you like – or, as we have found out, which of the few sites are empty – and back your camper in, or if you're lucky, pull through. Theoretically, you should be able to clip your guest card – it has your name and departure date written on it – to any empty spot just in case you have to go around the loop again. When it's busy, you can't be choosey because the guy behind you might pick the site you just passed and you won't get a second chance at it. Kind of like squatter's rights.

By the time I slosh back to the Toyota on the far side of the parking lot, it is pouring. It is coming down in the proverbial buckets. I have no choice but to slowly drive to the dump station as we have full black and gray water tanks from staying at our daughter's place. Not dumping there may help ensure our welcome next time we go back. We have to dump both tanks before we set up the camper, so I dig around in the arm of the Toyota's console for one of the 99 cent polyethylene rain coats I keep for just this type of weather, and after only one tour around the campground, find the dump station and I dutifully empty both trailer holding tanks in the pouring rain. No problem, I haven't had to setup or break camp in the rain since Rays Town Lake several years ago.

We slowly drive past site 32 and decide to pass; it is part of a communal ring of sites and the nearby creek is no benefit as it is on the opposite side of the camper from the camper door and the awning. Probably great for family reunions, but a little too cozy for us. We press on and immediately like site 51; no standing water in the site and it is a little staggered, or tiered, like Unicoi State Park. Ilse dons a poncho and using our little 2-way radios, backs me in to the site without problem. It is the first time I've backed the trailer up completely blind, I couldn't see a thing behind me from the rain and fogged up windows. We retire in just a matter of minutes to the trailer to open a bottle of wine, both still reasonably dry. No reason to get completely soaked, at least not yet.

We wait out the rain, and during a lull, I hook up the electrical and water connections and unhitch the Toyota. Our campground power box is right in front of our site, so we need our 15 amp extension electrical cord to extend our standard power cable, and a second water hose to hook up to the water supply. The box is too far way for the standard length cables and hoses. It is the first time since we stayed at Tioga we've needed either the extra electrical cable or the second water hose. Always nice to have both in case of emergencies.

From what we've seen so far, Vogel State park is a beautiful campground. We've heard nothing but good things about Vogel State Park, one of the oldest state parks in the Georgia system. While cellphone coverage is limited, Wi-Fi is available at the office and no sign-in is required. Hopefully we'll be so busy we won't need it. At just under 2,900 feet high in the mountains, temperatures tends to run a little cooler than just a few miles south of here. It's only 70 degrees as we relax, cook spaghetti and listen to the rain. The whole campground has packed it in for the evening as misty light fades into indistinct shapes and shadows. Rainwater runs down the road and off the camping sites into the creek just behind us. It is peaceful in the shire.

NEXT: Pouring in, at:

http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2015/08/pouring-in.html