October has long been my favorite month, and while November is the month for Thanksgiving, I always count my blessings during our tenth month, which comes and goes too quickly.
In October, there is a wealth of activities to enjoy in the Great Outdoors. Nothing like an outing on the Chattahoochee with a fly rod in your hands, as you cast it into swirling waters and capture a five-pound trout. One doesn’t necessarily experience that sort of luck every cast (the average catch is 3-4 pounds), but you can always dream.
The good news is that if you are fortunate to net a trout of five pounds—or a 7-8 pounder, or even more—you won’t reap a greater emotional reward. The Chattahoochee is such an enrapturing stream that you experience more than the highs brought about by your casting acumen.
To stand in the romantic Chattahoochee, watch a trout rise from the crystal-clear and gushing water, make a back flip, and adroitly settle beneath the surface is worth the trip alone. Then to cast into the rippling stream a tiny fly that some trout sucks down awakens the depts of your soul—making memories that last forever. All that is within reach of every Georgian.
The hardwoods and the loblolly pines are often coequal on the landscape and, along with the rhododendron and mountain laurel, form the most inviting backdrop. What a marvelous playground you find in our mountains! Fishing the intercostal streams off the Georgia coast has similar reward.
Then there is the thrill of a well-coordinated dove shoot—plenty of good sporting opportunity and when followed by a social with good food and conversation, the fellowship becomes as memorable as the hunt.
This, too, is the time of the year when quail hunting gets under way, and that experience always enthralls eager sportsmen. Accompanying the hunt is the beauty of the performance of the birddogs, which will make your day like nothing else in the Great Outdoors.
October is for festivals, and every small town seems to have one, from the Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville to the Chattahoochee Mountain Fair in Clarkesville to the North Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay (and more). You can have a grand ole time during one of the most inviting times of the year. If you want to enjoy a signature spice-of-life treat, quietly ask a native where you can find some “apple knocker.”
Not sure how to describe it, except to say that it is something of an illegal brand, is homemade—like moonshine—and is best sipped with caution and restraint. Locals say one shot is terrific, two is too much, and three is not enough.
Where did the homecoming celebrations go on our campuses? Games are designated as such now, but the activities are benign compared to the fifties and sixties where the Greek houses erected lawn displays with creativity and passion.
The World Series comes in October, but while there is excitement galore, I can’t image it ever being as pure as it was yesteryear in the days of the pennant-winning teams of the Natonal and American leagues squaring off in the afternoon sunshine and balmy temperatures.
Whatever turns you on with October activity, it all takes place under the canopy of turning leaves. Fall color in this beautiful country is as good as it gets. New England, Upper Midwest, Missouri Valley, the Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest—wherever hardwoods grow—you are enraptured with the leaves turning and the outdoors beckoning you with the most inspirational of opportunity.
The forecast for North Georgia is favorable for fall color, which is good news. That needs to be added to the foregoing vignette about fly fishing. When you have a good day on the Chattahoochee surrounded by fall color, you enjoy a heavenly experience.
What does all this mean? Fall’s blessing and outdoor opportunity is as good as it gets in Georgia in October.