Once we had had our fill of Asheville (and snow) it was time to make our way south to Georgia. We hadn't made too many plans for GA, other than wanting to go to Savannah, so up until our last night in Asheville plans were still very much in the air. As REM was my all-time-most-favorite-bands-ever-ever-ever in high school and college I felt it was my duty to go through Athens.
We decided to go Athens en route to Savannah and camp one night in the Oconee National Forest at the
Oconee River Campground, slightly southeast of Athens. We arrived in Athens and to our sheer delight the thermometer read 60º!!!! We were so excited we could hardly contain ourselves - so we calmed our nerves by sipping sangria at a restaurant's sidewalk patio.
As far as quintessential college towns go Athens is pretty darn cute, not to mention fun. (Did I mention it was 60º?) It has a funky little artist edge to it, and some beautiful architecture. We were enjoying ourselves so we decided to stay two nights in Athens.
We made our way to the Campground to discover that we were the only ones camping there and it was a barebones - no running water, just an outhouse (what do you expect for $5?). I am not sure of the rules of National Forests but there seemed to be a lot of people using the river to hunt water fowl. Is that allowed? During our first night of camping I learned I have seen way too many horror movies: our evening by the campfire was fun, but I was vaguely convinced that there was a maniac in the woods (most likely wearing a mask of sorts). The campground is right next to a big farm and we learned that cows make some dramatic nocturnal moos.
We awoke the next morning to 32º weather (luckily we have cold weather sleeping bags) so we decided a leisurely camp site breakfast was out and it was back to Athens to warm up at a restaurant. We had breakfast at the
Five Star Day Cafe . Coffee was a little pricey but the food was good! I had their version of southern, vegetarian eggs benedict: poached eggs over friend green tomatoes and biscuits with white gravy. Damn, it was good. Sean wanted to go to the local
Methodist church's Sunday service so that was our first stop after breakfast. The service was nice, the church was pretty and the people were welcoming. We then split up for the day: I continued exploring the city while Sean went out to photograph the country. After that we headed back to the Oconee River where I took Nashy on a hike up the river. Nash enjoyed the hike.
A man down at the landing told us the river had flooded a couple of weeks ago do to heavy rain and the trail along the river was muddy and somewhat washed out. It was a very surreal looking landscape - lots of debris and every thing was covered in mud, also you could make out the flood line about five feet up on all the trees and bushes. There is a ghost town on the river too! There was a small paper mill town that was abandoned around 1857 - lots of decayed brick buildings, an old covered bridge and the remains of the mill - it was really beautiful.
They forecasted lots of rain that night (and low temperatures) so after dinner we packed up the tent and slept in the car - it was pretty roomy and warm. When the thunder and lightning downpour started around 3 am we were very happy not to be in the tent. The rain had stopped by morning and after some coffee we said good bye to Oconee and Athens. Savannah here we come!
