The Devil Went Down to Georgia...

[carljwnc]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgvfRSzmMoU"]YouTube - The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia (live)[/ame]

"The Devil went down to Georgia
He was lookin' for some trails to wheel
he was in a bind, and got a little behind
so he made his tires squeal..."

I couldn't help it, it just popped into my head one morning while thinking about this trip. Help me finish it up.:iconwink:

Alright, I'm going to attempt an ORS first, 'live' trip report posting brought to you by the wonders of modern technology and my Android phone.

Time to go...

 

[carljwnc]

 

[E.J.]

I'm a little fuzzy until the coffee kicks in...

 

[E.J.]

Had a really awesome time today! Cool old nuclear ruins followed by some challenging terrain, great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I'm going to hold off on my photos (all from the second half of the trip) until Carl posts his to keep things in order.

 

[carljwnc]

Home safe and sound.:ebiggrin: Awesome trip E.J., thanks for getting it all together. What a great day, cool and somewhat gruesome history to that place, with great wheelin' just down the road.

Obviously my 'live' posting didn't work out. :sad: Not enough signal when needed.

Too tired to do much else tonight. Post away if you want E.J., might take me awhile to get it all together.

 

[mr turbo]

Glad you guys had a great time
Looking forward to seeing & hearing all about it.

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[carljwnc]

13+ hours and 400+ miles I was a blundering idiot when I got home, but it was well worth it.:ebiggrin:

I was going to 'attempt' (boy I'm glad I put that 'attempt' in there:iconwink to do the 'live' trip report. To do that I had to take the photo, up load it to photo bucket, then post it on the forum. First it didn't work because the up load/download speeds were too slow and it would have taken forever. Second it didn't work because it killed off my phone battery to quickly. Lesson learned, it is possible, just not practical.

I did get a few pics on my phone and that's all I have for now, will get 'em off my camera as soon as possible.

About mid way there, still raining just north of the GA boarder.

Dawsonville WMA (Wildlife Management Area) Aka. GA's Area 51. During the 'Cold War' they were working here on developing nuclear powered air craft and they also developed a reactor that could be flown in a plane. The place was shut down in the late 60's/early 70's but there are plenty of remnants. This building is well fenced off and possibly still a bit radioactive.

This is a control room for the reactor that was located a few hundred feet away. There is either an underground tunnel leading to it, or there was a concrete tunnel above ground so you wouldn't be exposed to radiation, I'm a bit fuzzy on what the ranger said.

Containment wall near the reactor site.

E.J.'s Foz and YotaRu hangin' out.

 

[carljwnc]

Mucking about around the reactor site.

It really looked like this!!!:biggrin:

Part of the reactor building.

The 'gruesome' part of the history of this place; it seems to be a popular place to dump your murder victims, I wonder why??? Lot's of underground tunnels and whatnot. The Ranger said that they will find tunnel entrances unburied, they have to go in and look for bodies, then cover the entrances back up.

Alright, until I get pics off my camera that's it for now...

 

[El_Freddo]

I love the way your phone takes "old school" pics! Awesome...

I've resisted the urge to post pics mid trip while at camp - mobile broadband and the laptop are awesome for "portable internet"! My wife was on facebook chatting to mum for 4 hours on our way from home to Mt Hotham at the start of the season last year, it was kind of like we'd not left home! Crazy.

An in-car phone charger might help you out with the battery problem for the drain on the battery when uploading...

Cheers

Bennie

 

[E.J.]

Great shots Carl!

After exploring Dawson Forest or buddies from ExPo forum split off. My Foz was hungry for dirt and I wanted to show Carl a little more of the area before his long drive home. We headed over to Amicalola Falls to cruse down a few roads I've been down. It's amazing how diffident a trail can be after a bad winter. Our cruise turned a little hard core, recovery equipment was used, problems were solved. Big fun was had but we went a little over budget time wise

 

[E.J.]

And a few more...

 

[mr turbo]

Great pics E.J

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[carljwnc]

I love the way your phone takes "old school" pics! Awesome...

An in-car phone charger might help you out with the battery problem for the drain on the battery when uploading...

I have the 'Vignette' app on my Droid (similar to the 'Hipstimatic' app for iPhone), it does all kinds of cool stuff, but instead of messing around with it all the time I leave it on the 'random' setting so I never know what it's going to do next. I do have an in car charger but only one power outlet.:sad: I had to occupy the outlet with the GPS on the way down and once my battery died the phone charger couldn't keep up with the action. So I switched to my other camera.

 

[carljwnc]

Awesome pics E.J.!!! I didn't really get too many but some good ones in there. I still may be making a couple of installments for the report, and it may be tomorrow before I get us off road.

Anyway, on with it...

Our other two vehicles along for the first part of the trip, Yota Taco, and Jeep 4door Rubicon. Wish they had been able to join us for the offroad adventure.

We came across this little building next to a bridge down the road...

Here's the bridge, was a train bridge in a previous life, used to be quite a bit more substantial. No idea why a big chunk of it was cut off at some point.

Top of the foundation of the little building...

There were multiple levels that we could see, possibly even more that were buried...

Speculation continues as to what it was, but these look like gates to let water from the river in. Our best guess is that it was a pump house for distributing water, possibly for cooling the reactor, around the complex.

We then moved on and drove aways and did a little hike along the river. Normally it's pretty calm and you can slide down the rocks here, NOT today...

Out of time once again, my offroad pics coming tomorrow.:iconwink:

 

[carljwnc]

Dang it!!! Slept in a bit today and had to announce the new ORS sticker (business before pleasure:iconwink Will continue tomorrow, but in the mean time...

 

[mr turbo]

Looks like it was an amazing place to explore carljwnc, thats for sure

Looking forward to seeing the pics of the offroading

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[eden]

great pics and report guys. looked like a great trip. i love exploring abandoned structures, we have heaps of old army tunnels and diggins around sydney i used to visit. love the new stickers too

 

[carljwnc]

Alright, it is on... Better late then never.:iconwink: Speaking of late, did I apologize for being late E.J.??? Just so you know, NOT at all typical for me. I paid the price with the Macca's breakfast instead of the IHOP.

E.J. said "forest service roads" and that is what I was expecting. Nice and easy gravel roads, soon after we got beyond this rhododendron tunnel I was in for a pleasant surprise.

What had been a nice, sunny, reasonably warm day, soon turned into socked in with fog, bone chilling day as we got near the top of the mountain.

That is ice!!! Wish I'd taken some pics further down the trail, there were places where the whole trees were covered with it.

Beautiful scenery on the mountain.

Lots of 'dipsticking', plenty of mud holes that needed depth checking. Fortunately most weren't too deep and had good solid rocky bottoms. Big thanks to E.J.'s friend Kyle, and his cyclocross boots for providing the service.:ebiggrin:

There were many of these...

'Forest service roads' give way to rock crawling!!!

Guess what??? I'm out of time again...one more installment tomorrow...

 

[E.J.]

Awesome pic's Carl, cant wait to see the rest of them. I'm itching for some more wheeling.

 

[bombsquad]

Outstanding pics guys!! Wish I could have made it. Did you go down Old Bucktown Rd (to the left) for back towards Nimblewill?