Georgia Cabins for Trout Fishing and Mountain Views

The hatchery is located in Morganton, GA 706- 838-4723 off Hwy 60 between Morganton and Dahlonega. The trout hatchery raises a million rainbow trout each year to stock the tailwaters, streams and lakes of North Georgia. It is operated by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Visitors can tour the hatchery and visitor center, fish Rock Creek, have a picnic, take a hike or camp nearby at the Frank Gross Campground. The hatchery is open to the public year round from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM daily. For more information visit http://southeast.fws.gov

Blue Ridge Arts in the Park May 24^th & 25th in downtown Blue Ridge. You will find over 170 vendor booths displaying arts and crafts created by local artists. You will be able to find everything you need to accessorize your home including rustic hand made furniture, chainsaw carvings, photographs, wildlife oil paintings, pottery, jewelry to name a few.

This is one of the busiest weekends in North Georgia, as people from all over, come to Blue Ridge for Arts in the Park. So don’t forget to make reservations as soon as possible. Every rental cabin and most of the hotel rooms, in North Georgia, will be booked. There may be as many as 15,000 to 20,000 people visit the festival over Memorial Day Weekend.

This is really the kickoff weekend for the summer and opens the door to lots of other activities now that the weather has warmed up. Rent a boat and spend the day on Lake Blue Ridge or go up Aska Rd. to Toccoa Valley Campground and rent tubes to float the Toccoa River. Other activities would include trout fishing, canoeing, whitewater rafting, hiking and biking.

Well it is a big weekend in Blue Ridge as the 11^th annual Blue Ridge Mountain Adventure Race takes Place. Some of the best Adventure racers in the country are in Blue Ridge this weekend for this grueling 35 to 40 mile race. Downtown Blue Ridge will be hopping with activity this afternoon.Each 4 man team consists of 3 racers and one support person. Each 3-man team of racers must be co-ed in order to be eligible for trophies, however all male or all female teams are allowed to participate. The majority of the race takes place south of Blue Ridge out the Aska Rd. corridor in the Chattahoochee National forest. This year the race will start at the Toccoa Valley Campground and will take racers 6 to 10 hours to complete the course.

The course of the Blue Ridge Mountain Adventure Race changes from year to year. However  some combination mountain biking, running/trekking, kayaking, canoeing, rappelling, orienteering, wet river crossings and climbing, as well as numerous “mystery challenges will be used.

One of the biggest draws to the Blue Ridge area is the variety of nature trail system of the Chattahoochee National Forest. Race planners will use portions of the Benton MacKaye Trail, the Rich Mountain Wildlife Management Area and Aska Adventure Area and the racers never know exactly what to expect on race day. Water events usually include portions the Toccoa River and Lake Blue Ridge.

Racers have to navigate their way through the course and make decisions along the way. It is not just about speed, endurance and stamina it is about making the correct choices. Even for the best racers it is not uncommon to get lost somewhere along the way.

The racers will finish in downtown Blue Ridge at the park where there will be food vendors and live reggae music by Natti Love Joys. Racers should begin finishing some time between noon and 5 PM so stop by the Blue Ridge Park and join the fun.

Had a wonderful visit to Lakeside Escape. All the amenities we’re wonderful and the lake was fabulous, with water!! The private dock was very relaxing and we look forward to coming back this summer and bringing our boat.

B.H.

At Rent Georgia Cabins.com we try hard to provide the highest levels of customer service with outstanding cabins well above average for the North Georgia Mountains. It is our goal to make sure your stay is everything you hoped it would be. We value our repeat rental customers, many of which come back several times per year.

We would love to hear feedback from your experience using http://www.rentgerogiacabins.com/

whether you booked a cabin or not. We strive to continue improving our web site and customer service and would love to hear any suggestion you might have on how we can make your visit better.

We make every effort to ensure our cabins are clean, well appointed, stocked, furnished and provide an assortment of activities for our rental customers. Any comment you have on your rental experience would be greatly appreciated.

To leave comments please click on the blue “comment” link at the bottom of this post. Should you have any questions please feel free to call me at 706-632-3609 or email ctrainor@tds.net . We look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoyed your stay in North Georgia.

This cabin in the Aska Adventure area would make an excellent rental cabin. For more on this cabin visit www.buyblueridgerealestate.com

                                    Aska Adventure Area! - MLS# 158525

Finally some good news for housing, according to news reports last week sales of existing homes posted a slight increase for the first time in 6 months. Last months gains were driven by more aggressive price cutting by sellers in many parts of the country.  In the South, existing-home sales increased 2.1 percent to an annual rate of 1.99 million in February but are 22.0 percent below February 2007. The median price in the South was $163,400, down 8.6 percent from a year ago.

The National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units. Many economists were predicting a small decline and were caught by surprise with the largest increase in the past 12 months. The NAR reported that the median sales price of single family homes fell 8.7%to $213,500 from February 2007.

I do not want to read too much into the one-month rise in sales. The slump in Blue Ridge housing market will likely continue until the high levels of unsold inventories are reduced. Coldwell Banker High Country Realty experienced an increase in activity with 37 sides going to contract for the month of February. Other companies are reporting their traffic is up and they are writing contracts as well.The good news for the North Georgia market is that inventory levels have begun to stabilize around 15,000 listings. The spring and summer buying seasons will be the real test of whether the housing market in North Georgia is in fact bottoming out.

For more information on the North Georgia real estate market and access to the Northeast Georgia MLS database please visit http://www.buyblueridgerealestate.com/.

The turn around will not be as quick as equity investors experience in the stock market. It will take time to bleed off the excess inventory; however, we have seen a huge drop off in new construction and land development so the supply of new listings will be primarily resales. Sales have been greater than housing starts on a regular basis since early 2007.
I believe that the worst is behind us and that this may be the best time to buy in many years. Lower interest rates have made mortgages more attractive. The national average for a 30-year conventional fixed mortgage was 5.92% in February, vs. 6.29% a year earlier. There are a host of initiatives being proposed to bolster the sagging market and bail out homeowners facing foreclosure.

Thank you Ellen and Richard for sharing your Easter with us. We enjoyed all the activities with you and the kids. My favorite was hiding all the eggs at 11pm in the freezing cold. I will cherish that. Waking up and seeing that the eggs not only survived the cold as well as the night time critters was also a plus!   It was great watching the kids run and try to collect as many eggs as they could.  It was a beautiful day for the (kids) to play outside until dark.  Hope to see you soon.

Knot-tying on Mountaintown Creek is not just for trout flies.  Today, Margaret Paton and  Buddy Rabun tied the knot alongside Mountaintown Creek, while staying as guests at Creel Lodge and Whitewater Lodge.  Witnesses to the event were Kristin, Maja, Kaile, Mikin, Kimberly, Patricia, Jesse, Ken, Karen, Luke, Sarah, Parents - Luther and Carolyn, and about 1500 Rainbow trout!  Congratulations to Margaret and Buddy.  We wish them all the best!

Carol Trainor

The Toccoa River flows south-to-north and the dam at Lake Blue Ridge is controlled by the TVA. Lake Blue Ridge dam is a bottom-release dam which results in more stable temperatures throughout the year, and the tailwater is one the best summer fisheries in North Georgia. In the summers of  2006 & 2007, when Many of the rivers in North Georgia hit 80+ degrees, the Toccoa tailwater was averaging in the mid 50”s in the early mornings to the mid 60s during the heat of the day.

This makes the Toccoa one of the healthiest trout fisheries in North Georgia. The area in front of Toccoa Preserve is perfect for wading and there is a canoe launch for those wishing to float the river.  You need to be aware of the TVA’s water release schedule when fishing or floating on the lower Toccoa River.  The TVA publishes a release schedule, however, it is not guaranteed accurate. Due to electricity demands or high lake levels the TVA may need to change their releases form the published schedule. Due to increased flows, the Lower Toccoa River is not wadable when the TVA is generating power. If you are wading, and the river begins to rise, it’s time to get out immediately not after one more cast.What to do! First be familiar with the scheduled release times, it takes about 2 hours for the water to begin rising at the Toccoa Preserve from the published scheduled. So if the scheduled release is for 1:00 PM then you can expect the water to rise around 3:00 PM. Watch for signs that river is coming up since the TVA does not always follow the published schedule watch for the following signs; Sudden appearance of more leaves and light debris in water, color changes in water, disappearing rocks in the river, change in sound of shoals.For Release Information, Call TVA, 1-800-238-2264, then dial 4, 23, # to reach the Blue Ridge Dam Information or visit www.tva.com