Saturday, October 12 Fort Mountain, Elijay Apple Parade, Pocket Camping

 Saturday, October 12

 50 degrees this morning and some more nice reflections in the lake.  Air is clean and crisp - wish we could bottle it and take it home.  

After breakfast, we wind down the mountains a bit to Fort Mountain State Park.  We see a few deer and wild turkeys on our way out.  

It is called Fort Mountain because of an ancient 855' stone wall that was built near the peak. They think it was built by early Indians for defensive fortification. 

We hike the trail up to the fire tower.  The wall is pretty much a swath of fallen rock and rubble. The trail is busy, with a few pretty overlooks.  There are a few signs of upcoming Fall color.

This centipede was crossing the trail.  Didn't count the legs, but there sure were a lot!

 We climbed a stone fire tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's.  It was hit by lightening and the top rebuilt.  

Next, we head into the town of Ellijay and two festivals - the Apple Arts Festival is in town, with various booths and tents along with shops. And a larger Apple Festival which is on fair grounds outside of town. We find a nice parking area in town and Greg looks for a place to pay.  A local smiles and says it's free, this isn't Blue Ridge.

 

Folks are lining up to watch the parade, so we join the crowd.

 It is your basic small town parade with the local school marching band, flag twirlers and such.  A few floats,  vehicles, policemen, and people giving out coupons and candy.  Short and sweet. 

 Afterwards, we go through the crafts area and Greg gets a coffee.  There is a shuttle bus that runs to the other festival, but we decide to drive there. 

 Mistake.  Bumper-to-bumper traffic inches along and the parking area is filled so they are directing people to remote lots where you can get a shuttle.  Guess we're getting crotchety in our old age, but it is all too much, so we inch our way out of town and stop at a small Mexican bakery where we get yummy breakfast treats for not much dinero! Strawberry and cream cheese on a flaky, buttery pastry!

We've decided to head back to Pocket Rec Area where we stayed a few nights ago. There are a few more campers this time (weekend) but still only about half full.    Lots of families with kids riding bikes and being kids.

 Greg makes a good fire and also cooks burgers on the grill.  We will start heading west tomorrow, so we look through our books and such for things to do en route in Alabama.