The Adventures of Spanky and Rein

Mississippi – Woodall Mountain

How can you top meeting Elvis. Anything we did for the rest of the day, maybe even in our lives will pale in comparison. Nevertheless, undaunted by the mundane worldly tasks at hand, Spanky and I headed northeast on the morning of March 6, 2007, out of Tupelo for our next summit, Woodall Mountain, Mississippi.

It was only a couple of hours from Tupelo, most of the ride being along the Nachez Trace Parkway. The Parkway follows The Old Natchez Trace which was a 500-mile footpath that ran through Choctaw and Chickasaw lands connecting Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. It’s a really scenic drive through farmlands complete with split rail fences, remnants of last years cotton crop, some densely wooded areas, a little bit hilly, and not a single roadside billboard, fast food joint or business of any kind in sight. Nice!

We had to get off the Trace to search for gas. Ended up in the tiny little town of Marietta, MS where we found a combo gas station, general store, and restaurant. I went in to pay for the gas (no automated gas pumps here). There were a bunch of older folks sittin at a table smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. A few wee ones running around – baby sittin the grandchildren no doubt. Anyway, the lady working the cash register was just as nice and polite as could be. It dawned on me that every single person that I had talked to (store clerks, motel manager, etc) in Mississippi so far was just as polite. Good old southern manners. I know a few folks (including me) that could learn a thing or two from these folks.

Another thing I noticed when driving on rural two lane roads, if a pickup comes at you, the other driver always gives you a slight wave hello. The first place I ever noticed this was out west (rural Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico). Apparently this custom is alive and well in Mississippi.

By the way, I’m writing this the following day, sitting at my desk in our trailer (aka expedition headquarters). We are at a campground in Pelham, Alabama. Spanky is just outside the door basking in the sunlight. We decided to take a day off from driving. Spanky seems to be perfectly at ease sitting still for a while – guess he needed a break as well. I also needed to catch up documenting our exploits, posting it, organizing and posting our pics, blah, blah, blah.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, we are driving to Woodall Mountain. The directions I had for getting to Woodall were accurate. We had no problem with finding the dirt road that leads up to the top. I’ve got a truck so what the hell, we drove up. The road got steep enough that I did have to put it in four wheel drive. With the load of the trailer I was occasionally spinning the tires in the mix of dirt and gravel – 4WD solved that. About a mile later we were on top of Mississippi.

First of all, Woodall Mountain is only 806 feet. After being at several thousand feet a couple of days ago it didn’t seem like much of anything. The top unfortunately is cluttered with antennas and a fair amount of litter left there by ASSHOLES! Nevertheless, Spanky and I made the best of it. There was ample room for Spanks to run around, sniff, and yes, leave his mark as only a dog can do.

In the final analysis, Woodall was well worth it. Hell, we now had bagged four summits! A little over a month ago, we had none. We’ve hit 3 out of the 4 lowest summits – Delaware being the only one left and at 448 ft the last one under a thousand feet. So we’ve accomplished a good deal in a short time. I know, I know, what we’ve done so far can’t be considered to be mountaineering. I won’t even try to claim that we are climbing anything – yet. I look at this trip as kind of a shakedown cruise. Real climbs and challenges of all kinds lie ahead of us! Can’t wait.

Spanky On Top of Woodall

We Proudly Pose for the Camera

USGS Summit Marker

The View from Woodall Mountain

Alabama – Cheaha Mountain

I may have misled you at the end of our previous post into thinking that it was the end of this particular excursion. No way! We still had one more summit conquest, Cheaha Mountain, AL before we headed home to regroup. So, on the morning of March 7th, 2007, we bid adieu to the Birmingham South Campground. It was a bitter sweet experience to leave our home of two days but nevertheless, move on we must!

Cheaha Mountain is in eastern Alabama, only about 100 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia and about 80 miles east of Birmingham (our starting point for the day). Most of the morning’s drive was along I – 20. This part of Alabama consists mostly of pine forest, but unlike the southern part of the state, it is very hilly.

We (notice I say “we” a lot – after all it is a team effort and there is no I in team) had plotted our course using Microsoft Streets and Trips. It’s set to give us the shortest, but not always the easiest route – as we would soon find out. The printed directions looked straightforward enough – listing a bunch of county route #’s and street names. Anyway, we get off the interstate and quickly find out that this particular area of Alabama is not real big on road signs. I know we have to go south and east. So……..I head south for a while and then, relying on my innate navigational abilities – dead reckoning, I head east.

Within a very short time, there was no evidence of civilization. Spanky gave me this, “Dad, do you have any idea where we are going?” look. I even started to question if we were in fact just plain old lost. We were heading deeper and deeper into pine forest. I figured it would only be moments before we ran into the Hatfields and McCoys shootin at each other. But……….the safe travel gods were with us that day!

We spy a couple of pickups parked down the road a piece. I slow down hoping that someone is around and lo and behold…….there are two guys (wearing camouflage, of course) locking up a gate that leads onto a dirt road. We stop, I roll down the window and the two hunters (I assume that’s what they were up to – one of em had on an orange hunting vest) walk up to the truck. Spanks jumps in my lap, wagging his tail like crazy and greats the two gentleman with his brand of good old southern doggy hospitality.

I ask, like a dumb ass yankee, “What road is this?” One of em gives me a name, using his best southern drawl, that doesn’t even come close to where I was hoping we were. I tell them that we’re trying to find Cheaha Mountain. The response is, “What?” I say it again – same response. Finally, the older of the two says, “Oh, Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeaw Mountain.” I guess my pronunciation was a little off for this part of the country. In any case, once we reached agreement on where we were heading, the older fella starts giving us directions. The other gentleman quickly jumps in and says, “No way he’s gunna find it! He’ll just get lost in these woods.”

Now remember, this is the south where people still help out strangers just because it’s the neighborly thing to do. The younger guy offers to put us on the right road, he tells us to follow him and he’ll get us there. This guy, who we never met before, and chances are will never see again, proceeds to drop what he’s doing and drive about half an hour (15 – 20 miles) out of his way to make sure we get to Cheaha Mountain. It’s stuff like this that restores my faith in humanity. Spanky and I owe this dude, we are extremely grateful! Thanks!!! Oh, and I must add that Spanky really liked following this guys truck. In the back he had a kennel full of hunting dog pups that kept Spanky’s undivided attention the whole way.

The hunter got us on the right road. He stopped just to make sure that we understood that we had to go to the end of this particular road and it would “T” into Cheaha Mountain Rd. Finally, on the right road, feeling good about the world and everything about it, we were ready for Cheaha’s summit.

Cheaha Mountain Rd is an extremely narrow, winding, twisting road. It’s billed as a two way road but when you encounter another vehicle, both have to slow down and make a concerted effort to hug the shoulder without going off into the woods or down an embankment. Fortunately we encountered very few travelers on the road that day.

After a few miles we saw a sign that we were entering “Talladega National Forest.” That’s right NASCAR enthusiasts, we weren’t all that far from Talladega Speedway. I know some of you will find it hard to believe but we had no intention of visiting the speedway. With all due respect (I love that statement, it’s actually pretty meaningless if you think about it – that’s why politicians use it all the time) to you NASCAR fans, that just ain’t our bag.

Our drive was a constant climb. This Cheaha thing was turning out to be a real mountain, not just some bump in the landscape. At 2,407 ft, it stood out distinctively from the surrounding hills. The approach on the road was slightly reminiscent of Mount Magazine in Arkansas. There were numerous exposed rocky bluffs surrounding the peak adding to the natural beauty of the scene. Unfortunately, the summit itself would turn out to be a little bit of a letdown.

The final summit approach put us into Cheaha Mountain State Park. We arrived at a gate where the sign told us that we should do the honorable thing and throw a $1 donation into the bucket – so we did. From the park gate, it was a mere ¼ mile or so up the road to the actual summit. No hiking required here.

The views, as you’ll see in the pics, were actually pretty nice. But…….the bad news is that this summit is developed. There is an observation tower and building. The tower is old and kinda quaint looking but right next to it is a bunch of antennas, a small tank farm, and a restaurant and hotel just a few yards away. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, and Spanky’s as well, these summits should be left the way were before the white man got here.

Spanky and I much preferred the hikes up Mount Magazine and Driskill Mountain to this drive up, Disneyland (I exaggerate) approach. It was much more enjoyable just to be surrounded by nature as opposed to parking lots, buildings and the other dubious accomplishments of civilization. Oh well, at least we were the only ones up there so we did get to enjoy our solitude. Of course we did our summit stuff to properly document our accomplishment and off we went.

Originally we had planned to climb Georgia’s highpoint as part of this trip. I did a little research only to find that park roads (where the mountain is) are closed this time of year – remember Rein, it’s winter still! Also it dawned on me, through a little more research, that Georgia’s, North and South Carolina’s, and Tennessee’s summits are all within spittin distance of each other. So that will be our next trip – at least the beginnings of it. Probably going out for a much more extended trip next time around.

So that’s about it for our first real “Road Trip.” We had a blast. Spanky behaved himself perfectly. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – he is the best dog ever! The poor guy had to endure 2,636 miles on the road in only eight days. He never complained once. Another few facts. We have now completed 5 summits – that’s a full 10% - I know they are the easy ones but it’s still 10%. Spanky, well his claim to fame is that he has marked his turf on each of those summits and…..in total, as a result of our Christmas trip to Canada and our summit expedition so far, Spanky has pee’d in 16 states and two countries. Bet that’ll create some jealousy amongst the canine population out there.

Thanks for reading about our adventures. We are gonna regroup, replan, do a little equipment and home maintenance, etc for the next 2 to 3 weeks and then head out for the open road once more. Stay tuned!

Spanky Sporting His Summit Grin

Spanky and Rein Nail One More

USGS Summit Marker

Cheaha Mountain Summit Observation Tower

Summit Clutter!

View Into the Valley Below From the Summit Hotel

Map of Our "Road Trip"

Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/rkrevald to see all our pics!

Kayaking In The Mangroves

You might be asking yourself, “What are the great adventurers Spanky and Rein up to?” “Have not heard from them. Hope they have not fallen prey to some malcontents trying to sabotage their efforts. What if they are stuck in some cave, in a blinding snowstorm, running out of food and water and suffering hypothermia?” Don’t you worry, Spanky and Rein fans, we are hangin at home in sunny Florida, safe and sound.

Yes we have plenty of mundane real life, home owner, try to make a couple of bucks, etc. things to do. That said….we still feel the need to go out and “Do some fun/adventurous outdoor type stuff.” OK, so what can we do here at home, have fun doing it, and share with you guys – and………..hopefully you’ll find it interesting, thrilling, and of course educational.

The answer sprang at us like a thunderbolt from the skies (a little too dramatic – wouldn’t you say). Kayaking! Kayaking in Florida? Yep, it’s actually pretty popular down here. Not the white water rapid kinda stuff. As far as I know, there really is no white water in Florida – you can, however, encounter some pretty rough stuff in the Gulf of Mexico and even in the inland waterways depending on the weather conditions. For the most part, Florida kayaking is a get out and enjoy nature kind of thing. And, believe it or not, fishing from kayaks has also taken hold as a common way to enjoy these nimble little vessels.

Throwing in a pic here to keep your interest. I figured out if I spread pics throughout the article maybe some of you will actually read my literary dribble.

Spanky Plotting a Course to Shell Key

Me and Spanks don’t own a kayak so we gotta rent one. The answer to that dilemma, here in the St Petersburg, FL area is Canoe Country Outfitters What a cool store! They pretty much (I probably over use the term pretty much – forgive me) have every configuration of kayak and canoe known to mankind. And………..they have a huge assortment of rental craft to choose from. They’ve got some really neat vintage “Old Town Canoes” on display. Did you ever notice the older you get, the more you like looking at old stuff – I do anyway. Apparently one of the vintage “Old Towns” was once owned by Eddie Bauer! If you like good old fashioned hand craftsmanship, you’ll enjoy looking at these works of art.

In any case, I walk into Canoe Country Outfitters to look for a suitable craft for me and the Spankster. I was barely through the door and this dude says “Telluride huh?” I was wearing a ski Telluride t-shirt. Long story short, this guy named Barry (he works there) used to live in and ski Telluride – so did I for most of the winter of 92 - 93. Folks, I could talk about Telluride forever – another time perhaps. Suffice it to say, it is probably the most scenic place I have ever seen in the lower 48! Simply a wonderful place located in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. And……..I blame Telluride, at least as a major contributing force, for my traveling problem.

When two guys start talking about a ski town like Telluride – well it could go on for days. See, I’ve done it again – off on a tangent. Barry hooks us up with a 14’, single seat Mad River kayak (technically Mad River calls this thing a one man canoe but it sure as hell looks like a kayak to me – I’ll call it a hybrid, but what the hell do I know). It has just enough room for me and Spanks and a little bit of gear (backpack with some chow, a small cooler for water, etc).

Spanky and I live in Pinellas County Florida. It happens to be the most densely populated county in Florida. So….where the hell do we go to “get away from it all?” Believe it or not there are some things that the government gets right once in a while. Just to the north of Fort DeSoto Park (some of the nicest beaches you’ll find anywhere) is an area known as “Shell Key Preserve.”

The preserve encompasses a total of 1,755 acres of and is comprised of a barrier island, numerous mangrove islands, mud flats, and sea grass beds. It has been set aside as a protected, undeveloped, and limited use wildlife and nature preserve. Boy I’ll bet that there are a lot of pissed off developers out there. This stuff would be a gold mine if you could put condos on it – thank god it got saved from the condo clowns! The place is gorgeous! It’s real nature at its finest and it’s less than 10 miles from the Casa de Spanky and Rein.

One of real keys to keeping Shell Key somewhat natural is that you can only get there by water. And…………most of the area is restricted to only human powered vessels (canoe, kayak) so you gotta sweat a little to go out there. That means that rich, overweight, drunk, silicone enhanced girlfriend, speedboat guys are not welcome! Even so, on a nice warm weekend day there are a couple of spots on the Key itself that turn into a little bit of circus but I guess it’s there for all to enjoy.

Spanky and I launched our craft from Tierra Verde at about 9:30 am on Wednesday, March 21, 2007. Since it’s a weekday, and it’s in the 60’s (cold by Fl standards) there is no one out there – that’s the way we like it. Our fist destination is Shell Key – the barrier island. Spanky is so cool (as you can see in the pics)! He just settles down in the bow of the boat and chills. Taking in the scenery, checking out the birds – he usually goes nuts over birds, guess he must realize that he’s stuck in a boat so why get the blood pressure up. Maybe he knows it’s a wildlife preserve and is just being respectful of the local denizens?

It’s about a 45 minute paddle out to the barrier island. Well worth the effort. Shell Key is a 180 acre island right on the Gulf of Mexico. We set shore on the inland side and yep, you guessed it, Spanks goes crazy. He just loves to run, run, and then run some more. The part of the island where we made landfall has a ton of sand dunes dotted with sea oats and other coastal foliage. Spanks throttles up the side of a dune, dodges some sea oats (or crashes though em – depending on how he feels), and launches down the other side of the dune. This process repeats itself several times. I just watch and smile.

The Dunes of Shell Key

The Boy

We head across the island to the Gulf. There is absolutely no one in sight. We have the island to ourselves! Cool! Brilliant, sparkling, white sugar sand, the deep blues and greens of the Gulf, and a picture perfect clear blue sky to top it off! Spanky decides he’s had enough of this respect the nature stuff and starts bounding up the beach after some birds. The birds, as you would guess, fly away and land a few 100 feet down the beach. Spanky runs after them again. They fly down the beach. Spanky chases them again. This dog and bird polka goes on for quite a while till the lad wears himself out a little and develops a quite a thirst.

The Gulf of Mexico

Undisturbed Shells on the Beach

We head back to the boat, guzzle down some water, choke down some sandwiches and relax for a while and then set off to explore the mangrove islands. For those of you unfamiliar with the Mangrove – a few facts. Mangroves are a species of tree that has totally adapted itself to high salinity, low oxygen, and tidal inundation. Mangroves thrive in a coastal tropical, subtropical environment. Their seeds actually germinate on the parent plant, drop into the water and float dormant (up to a year) until landing in a suitable spot to root. This is how mangrove islands start. A few mangroves root in a really shallow tidal area, over time more sediment builds up around the roots, more mangroves root, on and on until you have an island.

Mangroves Taking Root

These little islands are gorgeous! They create a perfect habitat for a plethora of our coastal feathered friends. The birds can hang out on these islands, relatively undisturbed, nest, feed on fish, and do whatever other bird stuff they do.

I See A Bird!

One of Our Feathered Friends

For the next several hours Spanky and I paddle amongst the islands. The kayak, ok – new fangled one man canoe, is the perfect conveyance for the task at hand. At times we are in only a few inches of water – there aren’t many boats other than a kayak that wouldn’t run aground. We explore little nooks and crannys in between the trees, constantly stumbling on to birds quietly sitting in the trees. Spanky is hunkered down in the bow just taking it in. I’m actually shocked at how calmly he sits in the kayak! I honestly thing the boy is a nature freak like me.

Cruising Through the Islands

Some of the islands have little waterways, natural tunnels under the thick mangrove canopy. We venture in to take a look. It’s really kind of a primordial setting. There’s just a little bit of sunlight filtering through the thick foliage, quiet except for the sound of the paddle dipping in the water and a few distant birds. I’m half expecting to have an anaconda drop out of a tree or to spy a pterodactyl clutching its prey.

A Tunnel Through The Mangroves

The Spankster and I spend a few hours on this little intra mangrove island odyssey. We thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time we made it back to shore me and Spanks were both pretty well cooked. Spanky from all the running on the island, me from hours of paddling.

So……..the next time you are in Florida, especially our neck of the woods, get a hold of a kayak or canoe, go out there and see some of the natural beauty that is available right at our fingertips. All it costs is a few bucks rental and a little bit of elbow grease.

A quick update: Spanky and I will be heading out of here on April 1st. Our initial plan of attack is Georgia, South and North Carolina (highest point east of the Mississippi) and Tennessee. From there we will head up the east coast for who knows how long. More to follow. Thanks for tuning in!

To view these and other pics of our kayaking adventure go to http://picasaweb.google.com/rkrevald/KayakingToShellIsland

Georgia – Brasstown Bald

Spanky Boy Scores Another Summit

A lot of people think that we are fools, crazy, whatever, going off on this 50 summit thing. So……..it is kind of appropriate that we took off from Florida for our next attack on the summits on April Fools’ Day!

Our first destination for this trip is Brasstown Bald, the top of Georgia. Brasstown is less than 100 miles from Atlanta. We figured that we’d spend the first night on the road somewhere in the Atlanta area. Not because it’s convenient, nope, because we have friends in Atlanta to freeload off of! Fortunately I got hold of one of my good pals from my consulting days, a dude named Matt Field, and me and the Spankster were able to crash at his pad. It was really nice to catch up (have not seen much of him in recent years), talk trash about nothing special, and pig out on Chinese food.

Which brings me to a very important benefit of this whole 50 summits extravaganza. Over the last few months since we started this nonsense, through trying to update my email addresses, phone numbers, etc I have managed to dig up a lot of old friends that I had lost touch with – pretty cool. Hopefully I’ll be able to introduce Spanks to most of these folks. Watch out, we may be in your neighborhood soon.

Did you ever wonder why Atlanta, one of the US’s biggest cities is there? I have (yep – I’m strange). Geographically, most major cities in the US where started as ports, on the ocean, on major rivers, or on the Great Lakes. So why Atlanta? The answer is railroads. Atlanta got it’s start as the “terminus” of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which was built in the early 1800’s to provide a trade route to the Midwest. It became a key railroad hub during the Civil War and the rest, as the say, is history.

My buddy Matt had to get up at 4:30 am to catch a flight to DC. Spanky, being the consummate gentleman that he is, insisted that we should get up early, make some coffee, thank Matt for his hospitality, and wish him a safe and prosperous journey. Actually I couldn’t sleep – the excitement of an impending summit and all. Me and Spanks had a few coffees, did some route planning and off we headed for Brasstown.

Atlanta is a rush hour traffic nightmare. Luckily we were headed north east away from all that silliness. Spring in this part of Georgia is gorgeous! The leaves are coming out on all the trees, dogwoods and azaleas are blooming. The world is bright green and peppered in spectacular fashion with dogwood blooms. As you would guess, the farther from Atlanta we got, the more rural the setting. And………we start to encounter mountains! I’m such a dumbass, I really never realized that Georgia had mountains. The Appalachian Mountain Range extends into northeast Georgia – guess I just never bothered to pick up on that fact.

It didn’t take long and we were driving on twisty, narrow, deep in the woods, mountain roads. Did I mention that the weather sucked. As we started to gain elevation we got into clouds, drizzle, and mist. The cloud cover, however, was partially broken so patches of sunshine (sort of) broke through once in a while and we could actually enjoy the countryside. Up and down we went, probably averaging no better than 35 mph, occasionally hitting small valleys with quaint little farms and old houses. Finally we entered the Chattahoochee National Forest, home to Brasstown Bald – we were close.

Somewhere around 10 am we hit the access road to the mountain. There is a sign proclaiming “steep grade” and another saying “leave your trailer here” (not kidding). Signs are meant for other folks, not me and the Spankster. Mister smarty pants ended up doing about 15 – 20 mph, in second gear most of the way up. You think I’d learn – nope! We are obviously getting up high cause there is very little evidence of leaves on trees. Spring has not quite hit this high up.

In order to make the final summit approach we had to park the old truck and hike. It’s a pretty steep trail, .6 miles long, with a whole bunch of switchbacks. The trail is tunnel through a rhododendron forest. The rhodies are huge and the trees are small. Wind and weather conspire against the trees – they are gnarly and short. But the rock strewn, apparently reasonable moist conditions obviously provide a good home for the rhodies.

The top at last – Monday April 2, 2007! Brasstown Bald is 4,784 feet high. Not Everest but more than 2,000 feet higher than our previous record – Mount Magazine, Arkansas! It is named for the former Cherokee Village of Brasstown, GA. Supposedly on a clear day you can see Atlanta. Well…………this was no clear day. The summit, the observation tower, and the surrounding mountains were shrouded in clouds. We were able to take advantage of a few tiny breaks in the clouds to shoot some pics and to take in a rather awe inspiring view.

There were a few other crazies up there on this lousy morning. Spanky and I met a young couple from somewhere in Georgia (between Savannah and Augusta I think?) with two little girls who fell in love with Spanky. I told em all about what Spanks and I are up to and shamelessly handed them a business card promoting our website. Spanky vigorously wagged his tail to indicate his approval.

Wouldn’t you know, as we head back down the weather starts to break. Oh well, we nailed another one and that is what matters. We gingerly drove back down the access road (remember I’m towing the trailer that the sign told me not to tow), and headed off to look for our campground and home till Friday. A few weeks ago I found this place called Enota (after Enotah – the Native American name for the mountain) Campground on the net. It is only a few miles from Brasstown and we found it no problemo.

Enota Campground (I’ll write more extensively about it during the week) is a quite a find. Good fortune is definitely with us. The place is most excellonomous! It is tucked away in a thick forest, surrounded by mountains, with a burbling mountain brook running right through the middle of it. As a matter of fact, the brook/stream is right behind our trailer – I can hear it as I’m writing.

Spanky loves it here. He is quite a hit. Seems like half the kids in this place have already met him and know his name. There are a few really cool waterfalls within a short hike. Me and the Spankster hit one of em this afternoon. Spanky actually seemed to be mesmerized by the waterfall. He just sat at the pool at the bottom and stared at the cascading water. Yep, the little lad is a nature freak.

We’ll be doing South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina during the rest of the week and update y'all when we can (I’ve got a wireless connection but it’s really lousy and fails most of the time). Thanks for tuning in.