Elijah Clark State Park,
Clark's Hill Reservoir
Lincolnton, Georgia
At Ft. Clinch, I had arisen slightly prior to sunrise. Because the wind had wailed all night long and into the morning, I know any chance of Kayaking was out of the question; I knew I was done here. So here I was, trying to be as quietly as possible while I moved all my gear from the tent to the car all the while trying to warm some Canadian bacon and make oatmeal. By 8:10, about the time the other campers throughout started stirring around, everything was orderly packed while simultaneously I left as much of the dirt behind. I even took a few minutes to hose the dusty filth off my car from 10 hours of a car traffic kicking up road lime. It's good riddance to site 51; may your station be returned to palmettos and muscadine.
I burned up way too much time getting out of Fernandina while I was hunting for a wireless Internet connection. I finally found a coffee house on the way out right off A1A. I think it took more than 1/2 an hour to load the journal, mostly because they have a bug in their picture loading software. Speaking of State Road A1A, every highway sign for A1A does not have an East, West, North or South designation. Why is that?
My route took me North on I-95 to just north of Brunswick Georgia, then U.S. 25 to Baxley where I picked up U.S. 1 and drove through towns like Lyons, Thomson, Swainsboro, and finally Wrens, where I had to break-off onto State Road 17 to head directly North rather than continue on into Augusta. This day’s entire route is the tree farm capital of the world. Everything is trees and the area is awash in railroads, probably used to get the timber and its resulting product to the consumers of the world. This route was so desolate, that I actually came across a nuclear power plant at the crossing of U.S. 1 and the big Altamaha River. Now that's a good clue you are out in the boonies.
I arrived at Elijah Clark at about 3:40. Dang, the day's nearly gone. The park is beautiful and about 98% vacant. I got to choose my site, so I picked a deep one that looked high over the lake. The sites had probably 40 foot between each other and were probably 30 X 40 not including all the beachfront woods as most sites were up the way from the normal lakeshore. Did I mention the paved roads too?
The lake was about 18 feet down from its high water mark, making for a long and rocky beach. The lake was choked with hydrilla weed, which I do no remember from 8 summers ago. The weed caused the shoreline to stink. I got the tent up in no time, and then with only 2 good hours of sunlight left, I chose to kayak on the windy lake.
I used the steep and uneven boat ramp, making it actually harder to launch. But once in the water, the offensive smell gave way to the freshness of crystal clear water. I paddled across the lake to the South Carolina side. When coming back, I headed over toward my specific campsite. Taking the kayak out here at the site was not practical because of the rocks, and more so, I would have to walk quite a distance to go fetch my car. As the sun reached for the western horizon, the sky began to throw its orange glow over its clear blue heaven. This is why I took the time to travel God's great beauty. I got about an hour's paddling in before I drove her ashore, using the summer swimming beach to exit the water and cart the kayak the 150 feet up to the road. It was superior to the steep boat ramp.
There was no cell phone coverage on site, so on my way out to find dinner; I was able to squeeze a call to Pam. I made my way into the South Carolina side looking for the Hickory Knob restaurant. It was within the vast land of a state park. In fact, I found it quite incredible that there was so much activity in the middle of nowhere. The restaurant was open, buffet style, not really in alignment with my current 6 week diet plan. Oh what the heck! Go for it! It was just oatmeal, Canadian ham and some dried banana chips for the entire day. With a single plate, I sparingly spooned on fried okra, salted ham, black-eyed peas, and peach cobbler. It don't get much more southern than that.
After my shower, I took my camp chair out to the water's edge in the pitch of night. Not a soul stirring anywhere. I sat there looking up at the countless stars. I could see the belt of the Milky Way and noticed the scores of blinking lights from the many aircraft flying all at once in various directions. It was quite a show. I thought a lot about many things looking at the vastness of the sky full of far away places. I thought about the American Indian and how it must had been for them seeing this spectacle of beauty as part of a their daily life. I think you can get a better peace with the world when you are humbled by the shear magnitude of the night sky. I guess the night sky over Washington cannot provide this wisdom so needed today; probably because it is so obscured by what man has created, both literally and figuratively.
I was all cleaned up and in bed by about 9:40
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