Landrum, SC — July 5 – 7th 2002
Headed up to Landrum, SC to hang out with the mighty E-Shabazz for the holiday weekend. Comfy drive, if not boring. Lots of construction to be found on 85 north (and south, as it turned out) on the way up there, serving to stifle any attempts at light speed travel. Lake Hartwell was surprisingly quiet considering the holiday status, and the water was so low as to make it seem like little more than a large puddle surrounded by red clay. Appetizing.
I passed a very large deer hanging out right on the side of the highway just before Toccoa. Other than that, and one rotund groundhoggy thang lumpin’ along on the side, I saw little wildlife that hadn’t already been flattened. Flattened creatures include:
- Turtle
- Snakes a plenty
- Possum
- Raccoons a plenty
- The occasional kitty-cat
Got to Eeorr’s parents crib around dusk. He aughta shoulda warned me I was headed to the ghetto!
Twas a very dicey part o’ town, as you can see from the pic above.
Found this little fellow (well, little being relative, as it was about two inches long) hanging out on a
rail to the side of the heezy. Big ole foolin’ ya eyes.
Here’s the back of the crib, as seen from the side. Right up on the side of Glassy Mountain, all covered
with wealthy geriatrics. This place represents one of the more modest dwellings in the community.
It could use a couple of old cars on blocks in the yard, doncha think?
E-Homies handiwork; an awesome lookin’ pond he created in the back yard. Suff’rin from a spite of
algae bloom due to the hours of direct sunlight and too-small pump action. The pond is club med
for all manner of little reptiles and amphibians; more on that later.
The kitchen of the heezy. Blurry, as most of my indoor shots seem to be on this trip. Might have had something
to do with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale… Naw.
That’s E-Razz’s sewing machine there on the counter. He makes all of his buckskin thongs with that. Chafing!
The living room in the heezy. I’m beginning to think that maybe the house was blurry, and my pictures are
actually quite clear.
Maybe not.
E-Rawk and the mighty Mikey. Mikey’s about 18 years old, and quite unaware of his surroundings at this point.
He’s a big cat, and the tufts on his ears might lead one to believe he has some bobcat in him. He spends
most of his day slowly loping around the house in wide circles, hunting for human feet to gnaw on.
E-Blood and I went out for a drive on Friday and found a pair of little raccoon kits on the side of highway 11, trying to cross. We yanked it over and got out, worried that they’d become pizza like so many of their brethren. Turned out they were very young, and we couldn’t find any sign of their mother. As we mulled over what to do, and attempted to shoo the more persistent one off the road (the speed limit of which was 55, but might as well have been 80), a giant pickemup truck came roaring up to the side and a grizzled ole boy leapt out drivers side. “Whatchall gwine do wit ’em?!” he bellowed. Eric and I both had visions of a “thems good eatin'” conversation
taking place as we responded “Dunno. Looks like they’ve lost their mother.” “Them things make great pets!” he exclaimed, as his interesting wife and little daughter tumbled from the passenger side of the truck.
He and his wife explained that he was a “tree man”, and often brought home orphaned animals he’d find during the course of working, either to rehab or release (“I love me some wald animuls. Got no use fer dogsncats, but wald ones… I luvem!”). The raccoon sitting on the side of the road was unusually docile (and perhaps in shock), and he was able to just pick it up. Lacking a proper cage, we fashioned a makeshift one out of a 5 gallon bucket and an old tricycle tire. The docile kit is pictured above. His sibling wasn’t nearly as amenable, and took a lot of cussing and chasing to track down (“Be careful honey! Maybe you aughta leave ‘im!”, “I GOT it, dammit! Git in the truck, woman!”). He eventually caught the other one, spitting and fighting, and plopped it, not without difficulty, in the the bucket as well. We then parted ways.
A couple of things; I wish I woulda gotten more pictures, but I felt like a fool yanking out the camera while this local wrangled with the kits. Hell, he gave me the hairy eyeball as soon as I pulled it out (“Ain’t from ’round here, is ya?”). Second; while we got the docile raccoon in the bucket the other one scuttled a few feet off into the undergrowth. Trying to find him, Eric began to emulate the sounds the docile kit had been making when we pulled up. Miraculously the other raccoon crawled forward towards E-Woody, stopping only when he discovered that the sounds were eminating not from another raccoon, but from some hairy biped. I sincerely hope everything turned out well for all involved, and hereby swear to reserve judgement of my fellow man prior to making acquaintences
whenever possible.
We headed onwards to a variety of state park facilities, hopped up from our raccoon adventure and ready for more. Unfortunately everywhere we went was crawling with people… everywhere. We stopped off at the main office of the park service and found these folks grazing in the yard. They seemed to dislike the E-Wooly, and paused to hiss at him before continuing their lawn pruning activities.
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Thankfully we were armed with a bunch of prospective hiking areas gleaned from that ole inkernest, and we found a secluded and overlooked area called Rainbow Falls to explore. There was a sign at the head of the trail that instructed us to get permission from the neighboring camp (owned by the Y) before embarking on the trail. Did we get permission? Hell no! We’re anarchists!
The info from the inkernest said that the hike was 0.5 miles (one way) and ‘strenuous’. Strenuous my eye. It was straight down, and more like a climb than a hike. E-Metal regretted his choice of footwear, sandals, shortly after beginning the trek down.
This is one of the few flat parts of the trail, travelling under a big ole hunka rawk. Rawk!
I ran across some more of these beauties on the way down, and had to snap a pic.
This shot just didn’t come out well, mostly because of the low light. I shot about 16 pics of this outcropping, and this was the best of them. Doesn’t do it justice, really. It’s much larger than it appears, a couple of stories at least, and had some neat holes that the sunlight would shine through.
Paydirt! We could hear the falls all the way from the top of the trail, but we weren’t prepared for how amazing it was!
More of the falls from the front, and from a long ways away.
This is E-Critters newest buddy, Sergio.
Whoever had created the trail had kindly strung ropes and thick braided wires across some of the more treacherous crossing areas.
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Trying to give an idea of how immense this all was. See Eric there on the bottom left?
Whar’d he go?
The top of the falls, all close up like.
This was taken from the middle of the lower falls, looking down into it.
There were (are?) a lotta fallen old trees to the right of the falls. Chaka came out
and welcomed us to his domain.
Another shot of the top of the falls, with the sunlight sort of overexposing it.
The beginning of the lower portion of the falls.
Taken from beneath the falls. Kinda tricky, as I had to avoid getting the camera wet. It’s all good, Mander!
I tightened up my boots and climbed up the right hand side of the face in order to get a good view and some more interesting shots. The left side was just too wet and covered in growth to attempt.
Keep on climbing! Look out for sniggedy-snakes! Top of the falls…
Bottom of the falls…
Further off to the right and up the face there was more water runoff. Very pretty.
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The area above the runoff in the previous pic.
The top of the falls, from way up. I’m super pleased with this shot. No, Mander, I wasn’t as high up
as it looks. Promise.
Found these little flowers up on one of the shelves along the face. Not a great pic, but I like the little dude
coming in for a landing.
Hiked back along the face for a bit for a wide shot.
Chaka’s down there flanked by trees!
Aargh! He’s spotted me! Run!!!
We spent a good while down by the falls, and then broke our asses getting back up the trail in the 90 some-odd degree heat and no breeze. My knees… I’m old. Damn. Once back at the truck we played with the idea of heading to another trail, but then decided that it was half past beer time and headed back to the ghetto to rest our weary bones, make falafel, and stuff our heads.
Bluebird mcnuggets in a nest in Erics parents backyard. Gimme some damn food!
One of the little toadies from club med, aka the pond, chillin’ on the birthday card created by Imogene for Amanda. Apropos, say I. That feller’s about as big as a pinky thumbnail.
Hey! This one’s almost clear! Another shot of the living room, complete with baby grand.
Awwww yea. This is in the bottom floor of the heezy. This is what I consider to be a professional cartoon viewing setup. Ed, Edd and Eddy and Invader Zim will never be the same for me.
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Don’t worry… you’re in the home stretch now.
The view from the backyard. It must be phenomenal in the winter. Aughta lop all dem treez down so’s you can see ;P
Yeayeayea… it’s in the pond. But too pretty to pass up.
Found this guy flitting around by the drive.
Purty.
A better shot of the front of the heezy-fasheezy. Werd!
Black Eyed Susan by the side of the road (and a little bit of camera strap too).
What is this? Haveta axe the E-Man. I tried to get a better pic, but the cameras battery took a powder on me shortly after this shot.
Some things that weren’t caught by the magic eye; A healthy looking copperhead warming itself on the blacktop in front of the heezy one night (didn’t have the camera at the time, and thought it better to shoo him off the road than run to the house to get it), a deer that bounded out across the road in front of the truck on the way back from Rainbow Falls, and either the words largest fence lizard or the worlds smallest komodo dragon out in front of the heezy on the last day of the journey.
Thanks loads to Eric for the invite and the hospitality. Twas a blast. Sorry to Amanda, who couldn’t go because someone needed to take care of Bowlingball Bob in his time of need. We’ll go back, I promise!