Paul and I love to camp. And we love the mountains, and we love that we live close enough to them that we can camp on the weekends. We decided that this past weekend was a good time to kick off our summer 08 camping. Paul’s coworker had asked Paul to switch shifts and work on Sunday morning so that he could spend the day with his mom. And really, how can you say no to that?? So we left after work on Friday and came back Saturday night.

First I want to put in a plug for one of my favorite camping books, “The Best In Tent Camping in Georgia“. There are a lot of books in the same series for various states; we have Georgia and the Carolinas. We’ve only used the Georgia one so far and I love it – I’ve found it SO helpful and accurate, and we take detailed notes in the book about every place we’ve been.

So this past weekend we headed up to Fort Mountain, which is in the mountains of North Georgia. I put all the pictures up on Flickr, but I’ll include the highlights here. (Click on the pics to see them bigger)

We stayed in a walk-in campsite – our favorite kind. There were four of these sites back in the woods, but we were the only ones last weekend, so it was really private.

We also went hiking and saw some pretty sites.

After hiking the two-mile trail up and down the mountain, we decided to wander around the lake that was near our campsite. There was a mile-long path around the lake that was interesting and pretty. There were also a lot of people enjoying the picnic tables by the lake, as well as the little beach area.

Funny story about that pavilion. Apparently, you can rent it out for an event or something. Paul and I wandered up to it, thinking it was an office or something, and this lady came out and said, “This is a private event!” and shooed us away. I’m sure she didn’t mean to come across so nasty, but we were so confused! They should have put up a sign or something. Anyways.

And some pictures of us:

I really liked Fort Mountain, and it’s definitely a place we’d like to return! Be sure to check out all the pictures on Flickr. Our next camping trip is in two weeks, to Magnolia Springs (same place we went last year). We’re hoping some people will join us, so if you’re interested, let me know. :-)

P.S. This was our first camping trip without Jera, and it made me really sad.