Camping in North Georgia

As a little birthday treat for me and to ensure we get our annual trip to the woods, we headed up to Morganton Recreation Area on Blue Ridge Lake in north Georgia for a little camping, swimming, and general fun in the outdoors.


Mikayla helps Mommy with a little camp hygiene, making sure to get off all the dirt!


Mikayla enjoyed walking Cayman, well until Cayman decided to walk....


Hubby wanted me to make sure that everyone understands that there was a big difference between he and I on the trail! While I was hiking, with a delightful, less than 10 pound camelpak, he was BACKPACKING with about 40 pounds and a load that like to shift right and left to try and grab tree branches, spent over 30 minutes crying on one hike when we exceeded her patience for riding in the backpack, and demanded, nuts, water, or juice every 10 minutes! On the upside, she did sing nurser rhymes almost constantly! So while I soaked up the beauty of the woods and planned our next camping trip in my mind, Hubby was trying to figure out how to talk me out of camping ever again! He was unsuccessful of course!


Mikayla loved riding on Daddy's back in the "red pak-pak". She was never without a supply of nuts and water. I think she drank more water than Daddy on the hikes, and had the five pound diaper to prove it!


I had Cayman to pull me up and down the mountains. This is a picture from the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.


No kiss for Daddy? After her nap Daddy had planned on trading places with Mikayla, unfortunately for Daddy, Mikayla slept until the end of the hike! She must of heard us conspiring the switch and chose to extend her nap.


If any of you are having trouble with strangers (or uninvited family) on your property, let me suggest these signs for your fences. There was no way Hubby and I were about to get on this guy's property! After being half scared to death to walk near his land, we passed the owner on our way back as he was driving off his property with his dog running next to the van. I immediately scooped up Cayman, looking for a place to hide, and was motioning Hubby to run and take cover, waiting for the impending attack. To our delight, the polite gentleman waved and said "Hello" and assured us his dog was very friendly. This was great news, because by this time the large black, chow-like dog had run over to me and was sniffing around my legs while I was tensed for the bite that never came! Perhaps the signs are overstated, but we're not volunteering to find test him!


The camp sponge bath was a huge disaster! Mikayla cried loud enough to scare away all wildlife in the camp ground, practically in all of north Georgia.


We found a type of hygiene Mikayla liked to do, brushing her teeth next to the fire pit in the morning, no screaming here.


Here is my dish washing team. After Mikayla "washed" the dishes we needed Cayman to do a real washing on the dishes, she was more than happy help! Plenty clean for the camping right?


Daddy's turn in the "pak-pak"! Hop on in; let's go!


Overall, I think Cayman had a good time camping. She did spend a lot of time looking longingly at the truck and trying to sneak into the backseat. When that approach failed she took to sleeping under the pick-nick bench. Let's just say that if Cayman were the featured dog in Jack London's "To Build a Fire", the man in the story would have been more successful staying warm using his canine "friend" for relief! Fortunately it was plenty warm in Georgia, so Cayman had no need to worry.



When Mikayla woke up on our third day of camping, I asked her what she would like for breakfast. "Blueberries?" "No" "Bread?" "No" "Grapes?" "No" "Milk?" "No" "OK, what would you like for breakfast?" "Fruit-loops!" The fact that we didn't have any Fruit-loops was no deterrent for her to repeat "Fruit-loops" about a thousand times until Hubby and I agreed to get her Fruit-loops after we went hiking. So here she is relaxing with Daddy and enjoying the spoils of toddler persistence!

We had a wonderful time on our family camping trip and north Georgia is lovely! The campground was picturesque and the hiking was fantastic! We definitely recommend you visit this part of the country!