Doll Mountain Campground on Pristine Carters Lake - North Georgia

The building of Carters Lake was a pretty big deal when I was a kid back in the '70's. The dam is massive, the largest dam east of the Mississippi. The lake is an incredible 450' deep at it's deepest point. Its capacity to generate electricity was welcome back in the day, but possibly more important was the dam's ability to regulate the frequent floodwaters that often caused damage to communities and crops in the valley below. Rebecca and I know. We grew up in that valley.

In the early years of our marriage, Rebecca and I came here often. We had a personal watercraft, and enjoyed the lake's many primitive camping opportunities. We could tell you stories of riding-out storms in our tent, snake encounters, and searching for missing personal water craft gone missing overnight, but...

Now we're much older and have an RV and four young children. So, a real campground with water and electric was our goal. There are two Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds on the lake. We opted for Doll Mountain because it's just a little closer to home, and Woodring campground happened to be fully booked this weekend.

When we arrived at the campground, we were pleased with its layout. Our site, high atop a little branch ridge, had a beautiful view to the west, over the water (as in great sunsets). It was apparent that it would not be easy to keep the boat in the water overnight because of our distance "down" to the water., It was really no problem though, because the campsite's driveway was plenty long for the motorhome, the Jeep, and the boat pulled end-to-end. Wonderful!

It has been an unusually hot summer this year, so on our first evening at Doll Mountain, the entire Richardson Tribe was very happy to feel a steady breeze blowing cross the lake and up the ridge. It was the first pleasant evening we'd had in weeks, with regards to temperature.

Over the course of the next two days, we spent a lot of time in the boat. We never even set foot on the beach as planned. The beach is not a part of the campground, so it's either a short ride by boat, or a longer ride by car. We did some fishing, but kept the tube busy quite a lot. The kids are getting braver on the tube. Lee Thomas is even standing on it now.

Our meals were exceptional on this trip. The kids have grown very fond of salad, especially spinach (I'm shocked!). Rebecca used the cast pie irons to make calzones using canned pizza crust, turkey pepperoni, pizza sauce, and lots of yummy cheese.

 We are anxious to come back in the fall before the campground closes for the season. We'd like to get the very same site so we can enjoy the sunset through the colorful fall leaves. CAN'T WAIT!

For more information on Doll Mountain Campground and Carters Lake, including lots of pictures, click here.

Camp Cooking the Old-Fashioned Way

Read the full story

Everyone knows the Richardson Tribe enjoys outdoor activities, especially those associated with camping. One of the luxuries of camping in an RV is a fully functional kitchen. However, an RV's kitchen is inside, and somehow, cooking with a microwave just doesn't produce a real "outdoorsy" experience. Sure, we appreciate the camper's indoor kitchen, but every once in a while, it's fun to do it the "old fashioned" way.

We initially became acquainted with this type of cooking in 2008 while attending "Frontier Days", an annual October event held at New Echota Historic Site in Calhoun, Georgia. For the Cherokee, this village was the brief capitol of their sovereign nation. New Echota was also home of the Phoenix, the only newspaper published in the Cherokee Nation's own language using a type of alphabet developed by Sequoyah, an illiterate (in English) but brilliant native.

New Echota's Frontier Days event is great for the entire family. Lots of hands-on experiences are provided throughout the historical site that keep kids of all ages entertained.

One of the cabins featured a Native American game that required spear throwing. There was also archery and tomahawk target practice at the same cabin. The cabin also had a wonderful fragrance of baked apples and cinnamon seeping through the cracks in the walls. On the hearth of the cabin's fireplace were several Dutch ovens, each containing some sort of culinary masterpiece. The friendly folks demonstrating the Dutch ovens let us sample the food while explaining how the process works. Rebecca was especially interested and asked lots of questions about what kind of cookware and accessories she needed to get started. more