Here is the continuation of my journey in the mountains of Georgia. I left you in a humid atmosphere … The sun came out later, even gratifying me beautiful colorful skies at sunset, which I didn’t see often here.
 
The serie starts on a cold morning at Unico Lake while I was going to discover the Anna Ruby Falls
 
 
1) Unico Lake
 

 
 
The Anna Ruby Falls are probably the best known and most visited of the region. Smith Creek splits into two to form a double waterfall.
 
 
2) The Smith Creek downstream of the waterfalls.
 

 
 
3) The waterfalls
 

 
 
I then went up a valley to discover one of the few cliffs in the area, named Raven Cliffs. A beautiful walk a about 8 miles “one way” that leads to a small vertical cliff splited by a large vertical crack into which rushes a beautiful waterfall. Quite spectacular! Unfortunately, the light wasn’t there, the strong north wind surrounding mountains with freezing stratus…
 
 
4) The Rave Cliffs (panoramic of three images).
 

 
 
5) Approching the crack
 

 
 
6) The waterfall…
 

 
 
I then drove for half an hour to go to the Desoto Falls where I spent the night in a nice primitive campground.
 
 
7) frost on the heights…
 

 
 
8) Desoto Upper Falls
 

 
 
The next day, continuing my exploration, I made another long walk to see the High Shoals Falls, in fact not the most beautiful waterfalls I’ve seen. But the walk was nice: descent into a deep valley, and then down the river about 5 miles to the two falls.
 
 
9) High Shoals Upper Falls
 

 
 
It was already the middle of the afternoon when I found Vivalavida back. I followed some forest roads leading me on the hills to find a place to spend the night.
 
 
10) Sunset on the forest
 

 
 
11) Great boondocking place
 

 
 
12) And nice “Apéritif” at the camp fire! 😀
 

 
 
The next day, I planned to go hiking on the Mount Yonah, a mountain which has beautiful cliffs under its summit. Still using my topographic maps, I chose a forest road of about 8 miles leading me to Helen, a small town on the road to Mount Yonah. But my mapss don’t tell the state of the tracks..!
 
While forest roads taken the previous day were fairly nice, this one first appeared narrower and more “rocky” but nothing really serious for Vivalavida even if I could hardly drive faster than 10 m/h. After about 3 miles or so, the road became narrower and stoned, sometimes forcing me to maneuver in tight corners, where size of VLV suddenly seemed more consistent. But progress continued till a hillside where a recent storm seemed to have devastated the forest. Probably 70% of trees were lying, many across the road. I was not too impressed, most of them had small diameter and only partially obstructing the way. So I took out the handsaw and cuted between 10 and 15 of these trees, nothing too bad, Vivalavida continuing his path about one mile. Then appeared a portion where the road was washed away, with a strong lateral slope, forcing me to put the wheels on the right side of the road to avoid VLV to roll over. Pretty impressive when my “house” was left to swing in balance on two wheels with 150 yards of nothing 4 inches to the right of the wheels..!
 
 
13) Unstable balance…
 

 
 
I was then about 4 or 5 miles from where I could turn around. And this is where things got fun..! 😀
A hundred yards away, what did I see? Three large trees across the road, separated from 150 yards away! From all evidence, Vivalavida could pass underneath! But what to do? 5 miles back in reverse, with the scabrous place described above? No, I was not really tempted … Cutting trees to open the passage? This is the choice I made.
 
For the first one, clearing the vegetation on hill side, deflating air suspension and tires while squeezing as much as possible the left of the road, I managed to get underneath with one inch clearance.
 
 
14) First tree with few clearance…
 

 
 
No way for the second one. Clearance was about 3 feets less thant VLV. So I took the axe! 😀 I neede about 1:15 hour to manage to make a first cut (dry wood his hard !).
 
 
15) Woodcutter work…
 

 
 
16) The tree after the first cut.
 

 
 
I then used the winch of VLV for the first time, trying to rip the tree in the direction of the road. But the weight of the tree was such that when I tried to pull the base, it got into the ground. No other way than cutting the main trunk above again. Three quarter of an hour later with the axe, it was done! I was able to winch the main trunk to put it parallel to the road and then to rip it to the edge ; handy winch by the way!
Remained the third tree to pass under! The measure seemed to indicate that VLV should just go below to the nearest inch. I moved inch by inch, going out every moment to gauge the clearance between tree and roof rack. 5 iches, then 3… then 1. I deflated the tires to 0.5 bar upstream to win half an inch or so, advanced 15 iches… It was still about 15 inches to pass Under while the right front wheel came in a big hole, about 20 inches deep. Despite taking some of the ground out to get some more clearanceg, VLV’s rack hds contact with the tree in front of stunned two guys arrived in the other direction aboard two Jeep, amazed to see such a van on a 4×4 road. They helped me pushing up a last small tree, allowinf VLV to go underneath. Finally, the rack is solid, VLV escaped without any scratch, leaving a big bleeding under the tree…
 
 
17) Third tree…
 

 
 
Finally, I needed almost 6 hours to drive less than 5 miles, a great speed average, isn’t it? 😀
 
 
18) GPS statistics…
 

 
 
The two guys took some pictures when i was winching the second tree, I hope to receive it and will post it if.
No need to say that it was much to late to go hiking Mount Yonah. I then find another nice boondocking place to spend the night and
Pas besoin de vous dire qu’il était bien trop tard pour aller gravir le Mont Yonah. J’ai donc trouvé une autre jolie place pour passer la nuit et and rest the Pschitt a little tired..! 😉
 
 
19) Another nice sunset
 

 
 
That’s it for today. My next update will soon show you my day at Mount Yonah…