Lizs Comes South

“I fetched her at William B. Hartsfield/Maynard Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Radiator Repair just last night.

Reunited!

We'uns (including Belle and Giz) are heading for N. GA's Cohutta Wilderness after the p.m. rush hour subsides in ATL this evening.

We plan to car camp at Lake Conasauga tonight, then hit the trail for a two-niter tomorrow a.m.

I'll show her Cohutta Mountain, Jacks River, Conasauga River, Panther Creek/Falls, and Panther Bluff by Sunday. The totally gnarly, rock hopping and scramblin' Panther Creek Trail (2000 ft. gain over, like, three miles) will be saved for last. Then it's off to burgers and beers enroute back thru ATL.

I'm hoping the laural, rhododendrum, azaleas, etc, will be in bloom.

I'm hoping, too, that our little drought-ette hasn't brought the bears out. If so, maybe they'll mistake peeps and dogs for hunters, and give us a wide berth.

We'll do a report...”

“I never knew she was of that persuasion”

“Woooo Hooo...y'all have a GREAT time ;)

COMPLETE trip report and pics.....hehehehehe”

“Yep -- Panther Creek's a buttkicker. Maybe the 'drought-lette' will make the stream crossing less like swimming lessons.

The last time I was there it'd rained for three days straight and the Conasauga was a swim fer Sure!”

“Hey I would like to knwo if the flowers are in bloom also, Last time I hiked Ga. it was June and all the mountain laurel and flazeing azeleas were in top bloom it was wonderful. You ladies have a great weekend!”

“Sounds fun. Enjoy the rain that's coming thru”

“I wouldn't call gojo a 'lady', LOL.

Sarabelle is certainly a lady and lizs can be when she wants to. ;-)”

“Look out for the red rocket, lizs.”

“Wonder how many beer caches they will make for this trip? ;-)

They were dang good at it at Ocala and even gave me a beer!”

“Well shet muh mouf and don't that take all.”

“Sorry ,,, gojo
geezzee got to know who's who sometime.”

“Two comments.

1. Should the thread title be "lizs GOES south"???!!

2. Lizs . .Surrender the PINK (thingy)”

“4. "lizs cums south"?”

“lee edges up to the line.
Nigal runs right through it and keeps going.... ;-)”

“Guess we know what kind of movies Nigal watches!”

“Hey hey hey! It wasn't until just last weekend that I saw my first porno movie. And yes, I looked good back then!”

“RTOFLMAO @ nigal!!!

Liz's Ya'll have a Good Ole' Time and give GIZ and Belle a good Ole' Scratchin' for all us TTer's!”

“Seems like we'll be privy to the odor levels of someone's south end, compliments of Belle.”

“Latex is your friend...and it can only save a life, if it is worn.

Have a great time...oh yeah, and your WELCOME!!!”

“Welp... the plan went south, too.

We entered Cohutta via the Tearbritches Trail. It rapidly ascends Big Bald in about 1/2 mile, then plummets into the bowels of the 30,000 acre wilderness. It drops 2100 feet to the Conasauga River in three miles. We were debating smoke signaling a helicopter to pluck us out.

That was Friday. We hiked out on Saturday via the Conasauga and Chesnut Lead trails. Gixmeaux and I did a one mile roadwalk to fetch the Mighty Mighty Tacoma while Liz and Sarabelle stayed back at the CL trailhead and did whatever it is girls do when the guys are away.

I was somewhat surprised that the Conasauga Trail crosses it's namesake 20 times betwixt T'britches and CL trails. Though we had had some rain, the river wasn't floody. Liz, with her poles, and the other two four-leggers managed the crossings in fine fashion.

I was proud of Giz's fearlessness of the water - seein's how he all but refused to get his feet wet during Montanapalooza... his first hike. It seems I wept once or twice.

Belle, natch, plowed into the frothy flow with all deliberate speed.

The Chesnut Lead is uphill every step, but not nearly as steep as the Tearbritches. The route added a couple miles (three for me and G), but was a worthwhile endeavor.

Take it away, Liz...”

“LOL! Wow, what a thread!!! The sheeyat really hits the fan when a person is gone. >8-O

Note to gojo>> even though the freakin' airport was a mob scene, there were no bumps to be had. Even with the... errr... nudge into line... I only made the boarding gate with 10 minutes to spare.

Oh and I had to stop at the Burnsville REI on the way home.

;-P

Perimeter REI in Atlanta Sunday and Burnsville REI in the Twin Cities Monday. (I spent more than $3.50 this time>> but only got a few Mt. House lasagna meals, plus a NEW reflector for the candle lantern that reflects on the >SIDE< instead of on top... or maybe a person could use both)

Yes, I'll have many, MANY more details later. Gojo left out my "chili" impression on the first crossing of the Conasauga. heheheee”

“If you put on both reflectors you get a laser beam, LOL

So how deep was the Conasauga? Ankle-deep? Knee-deep?

I'm wondering now if maybe there was a drought the first two times we were there... We just rock-hopped and didn't even get our boots wet.”

“Oh crap!
lizs has a set of yellow waddies! ;-)”

“Where we crossed, trying to avoid holes -- DOH! -- the deepest we had to go through was knee deep.

NO YELLOW WADDLES (or whatever that clem girl called them - who also thinks gojo is a girl -- LOL!) Wet hiking boots and socks. Had my Tevas along, but didn't how it would be hiking a bunch in them. Had on my Gore Tex hiking boots, liner socks, Smart Wool socks and knee-high gaiters and shorts. The gaiters seemed to really help keep water out -- UNTIL it went over the tops! lol”

“Hi lizs!

Lizs goes south, gojo stays south, they end up meeting east by west :)”

“Here ya go:

”

“OK, my "version" of events yet to come, but here are the INCRIMINATING PHOTOS!!! lololol

Georgia trip photos: Backpacking and more

P.S. Stovestomper>> the "chili incident" refers to the Buffalo River trip of December 2002. (Lets see if he shows up to claim knowledge of what I'm sure he'd say is the alleged incident... OR if he "has no recollection" of it! LOL!)”

“Nice pictures. What is the Illinois Monument? I couldn't read the fine print in the info picture.”

“P.S. Stovestomper>> the "chili incident" refers to the Buffalo River trip of December 2002. (Lets see if he shows up to claim knowledge of what I'm sure he'd say is the alleged incident... OR if he "has no recollection" of it! LOL!)"
lizs

as the only actual witness to said incident, i think i'll sleep with one eye open....”

“long johns? Yea I believe that.

Why does lizs make such a big deal about walking over an ankle deep stream?

Now lizs knows when people tell you to 'turn at the big chicken' when giving directions.

Gojo - Dang fine looking 'barn'.”

“I was at the northern terminus of US 41 in Copper Harbor(?), Keweenaw #&%!$ular, MI a couple years ago. I asked the mom and pop of a local store where the "Big Chicken" was. They replied that I missed that turn a few thousand miles ago...

BTW, I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus travelling down Hwy 41 (after being conceived at a Pat Boone concert).

Liz -
Nice pictures! Especially the "Artsy Fartsy" one.

BTW - I don't remember no long johns... LOL!

I'm wearing my hiking boots now. I notice a certain stinkiness about this corner of the library... I need to give them a spray or two, I reckon.

I'm glad we opted to do the tourist stuff instead another night in Cohutta. I was long overdue for a visit to Kennesaw Mountain - where the Blue Bellies got a goooood dose of the "what fer" from them barefoot boys from GA, TN, AR, TX, etc. In fact, that's where Sherman was so badly defeated, he surrendered to an old local woman... I think.

Seriously, though - I was a bit moved (as always) by the brutality of it all. The action at and near "The Dead Angle" (IL monument location) was especially awful and heroic and humanitarian all at the same time.

I had a great weekend.
Thanks for everything, Lizs!”

“#&%!$ula"

LOL!”

“peninsula”

“"stick out" ;-P”

“hahaha...
touche!”

“I got to the Atlanta airport early Wed. night. Gojo soon arrived and off we went, making sure to stop for yummies on the way to his place.

On Thursday, I’d figured out things to do if he needed to work. Originally, I’d hoped we could both go to Lost Cove this weekend, a place gojo described as “magical.” But work made it an uncertainty. Anyhoo, I ended up having to hit gojo’s regular library stop for Trail Talk to write a story I had yet to finish for the next edition of one of our papers… (and he posted this LOVELY freakin’ thread… lol)

We ate things I’d never heard of (well, certainly never SEEN) in his “hometown” café, like fried green tomatoes, batter fried okra, speckled butter beans, etc, etc. Then I even helped a wee little bit at his latest construction site.

We started packing around 5 p.m. since he was at the last minute able to get Friday off. After visits by friends, family, neighborhood crack hos, etc. (lol!) we got left maybe 7-ish or 7:30 p.m. After a stop to eat at a new Three Dollar Café and WalMart for goods, we hit the campsite at Lake Conasauga to car camp around midnight. (This was AFTER gojo went out of his way for like 20 miles on, in essence, rotten 4 WD roads, to test my ability to keep fried foods and alcohol mixtures down. Can you say, “Hey, I need fresh air and would you slow down!!” ???!)

We tried to set up right by the lake, but it was too windy. Moved a bit away and still had a great lakeside view, minus the wind. On Friday, some guy next to us used a lead weight to throw ropes over trees to set up tarps covering at least 200 square feet of his campsite. We thought the Big Top was comin' to town!!! LOL!

After my incessant whining to want to see a view – and we were close to what I think was Brass Bald or Big Bald or something – and a trailhead close to us that went over it, well despite the CLOUDS, we went to the Tearbritches Trailhead to go down, down, down into a burning ring of fire… errr… the Cohutta Wilderness. The trail was a freakin’ beeyatch!

The mountain wasn’t really “bald,” not that we could have seen anything. It went straight down; forget switchbacks. And it went down 2,100 ft. in three miles. UGH! My quads and other selected muscles have only just today (Tuesday) started to feel normal again.

At the bottom, I expected a grassy valley, but it was a lush almost tropical paradise, much different from the coldness on top. We went beyond the junction of Tearbritches Creek and the Conasauga River to set up camp by the river. So soothing with the water gurgling over the rocks – but the tree frogs almost drove me nuts. Lol! I read in info that the tree frogs were very important to the Cherokee when they lived in that same land. (And mostly on the north side of the GA/TN line, this same wilderness becomes Big Frog Wilderness.)

Nice time. I cleaned up in river, including washing clothes. Gojo thought I was a dolt, cuz my clothes wouldn't dry in those conditions. Oh well. OK, so they didn’t dry! LOL! We didn’t either on Saturday till much later. It sprinkled overnight Friday.

I whined, not wanting to go back up that beeyatch Tearbritches Trail, suggesting we try the Conasauga River Trail, which connects to the Chestnut Lead Trail. It came out on a forest road around 1 mile from the Tearbritches trailhead, so could be finished off with a roadwalk and elevation gain of at least 500 ft. (but I think more!)

To be continued....”

“lizs, flower #2 looks like an iris.I tried to e-mail you at your oneota address. I'm not sure if you still use it.

gojo, so, who's this gismo character? What a cutey! I guess the dog is a combination of breeds?Did you get him/her at the pound?”

“Hey lips, write me at lisapbia@yahoo.com

I MOVED to Minnie-Soda!”

“lizs, Minnie-Soda? I've got to e-mail you & find out why you moved there! I thought only polar bears lived there, lol.”

“lizs, thanks for emailing the bigger picture. I thought I knew some Civil War history, but I didn't remember this battle.”

“My hubsand Gissmaeioux is a Ferrat Terrorer.

He had a mama and daddy on the nother side of ower rode but he brung me a ded terkey for a sprize and we was mayreed and he is my hubsand now at ower hous. That was lats Winds Day or what never.”

“BWT -
Them was good pikters Miss Lissy.

I am verry perty and Gissmaeioux is verry hamsom.”

“Why you two should have seen the shots I DIDN'T POST! ;-)

BOL!”

“BWT -
The nother time at Sowf The Kota we seen some parry rats so my daddy made the truk stop.

(we awreddy seen a coyota!)

we walked aroun some and the parry rats sayed "O MY GOODYS! THER IS A BWAK FOOT FERRAT!" and rund the nother way.

I sayed "where is a ferrat?" and the daddy parry rat sayed "over ther!" and I sayed "wher?" and he sayed "over ther!" and I sayed "wher?" and he sayed "over THER!!"

Then I sayed "ah ah ah! you are VERRY CRAZY! That aint no ferrat, that is my hubsand Gissmaeiuox!" BOL!”

“BOL!

aaah the stories of Sarabelle... also fun to hear in person. ;-)”

“So . . . Lizs likes that doggy's style . . .”

“LMAO @ Lee!!

Its been a while since you've posted, Sarabelle, and I have to get used to your "language" again. Had to re-read a few of those lines!”

“No doubt, the sarabelle stories are fun. It helps if people know she's a canine. Prosecutor didn't know that at Yellow River...

Sowf The Kota - took me a minute there. :)”

“Lee, I hear Gissmaeioux REALLY likes that doggy's style.

LMAO!”

“Smelly girl (and Liz?)

Y'all thought that was funny? Hmmmm.

After seven years of teaching high school, I'd expect somewhat higher caliber humor from an adult...

Or is lee a teen?”