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| From Chattahoochee Bend |
I have spent the last few trips down in the floodplain picking away at the marshes and flat areas. One more trip down there and the biggest wet areas should be done - I need to take my rubber boots and capture all the details of the marshes.
They are very beautiful, in a cold, wet, muddy sort of beauty. I imagine the snapping turtles and beavers are very happy with them. Orienteers, not so much. The difficulty will be in getting around them. They flow west or northwest, at an angle to the river, and block access to the sand hills on the river edge, so good course planning will place them in the way of the legs so that they have to be navigated around somehow - or crossed for the adventurous.
I've posted a bunch more pictures also. Found an impressive Osage Orange tree (or Bodark) down on the banks of the river. Unrecognizable usually, but this time of year the "oranges" are very visible, looking like someone scattered a bucket of green tennis balls on the ground. Don't eat them!
The big question is - when will I finish the map? Once these marshes are done I will climb back into the hills and work my way out past the picnic area. Then the map turns south along the bank of the river. I have never even been down there, so I can only guess that it is more of the same. It's a small area compared to what I have already done. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that, at the very southern tip, it crosses into Heard County. I have no basemap for that area. Uh oh.
I plan to take a week's vacation before Christmas and should get in a few more days then. And I will probably spend most of the time between Christmas and New Year's mapping, hoping to finish the whole thing before 2011. Of course, it won;t be "finished". The construction is still ongoing, and I will finish the map before the construction is finished. I'll have to make "updates" as they finish up the campground and picnic areas, as well as the trail construction.
