It’s a bit rainy for the first day of Fall Arts in the Park, but there’s still a good number of people in town for it.
The Friends of the Library Book Sale is on in the basement of the Methodist Church across from the festival, and it’s well worth a visit. I think the books this year are better than they have been for some time. Funds are used to buy new books for the library.
There are some fallen leaves on the ground, but not enough to rake or blow yet. There’s some color in our woods – it varies from area to area – mostly the reds and yellows from the dogwoods and perhaps a few hickories. The oaks haven’t started to turn yet. There was a beautiful orange-yellow tint to the mist last night at sunset, and I expect that there will be a bit more color in the coming week. It’s still too early to guess the peak, but the third week of October is usually a pretty good bet.
Gun season for deer opens on Saturday, October 18. The national forest generally follows the same seasons as the statewide seasons for private land, but the Wildlife Management Areas have separate seasons. If you want to go for a hike but don’t want to compete with the deer hunters, a good strategy is to pick a WMA that is not having deer season, which usually means that they are having small game season, which isn’t very busy. The WMAs require a use stamp ($19) and they are very lightly used, except during the scheduled deer hunts. You can check the regulations for the WMAs in Fannin County and Gilmer (Region 1) here:
http://www.eregulations.com/georgia/hunting/region-1/
Union County is in Region 2:
http://www.eregulations.com/georgia/hunting/region-2/
See my previous column for a complete fall festival rundown.