Georgia - Day 20 - in the Crooked River campground

Crooked River State Park, St. Marys
Wednesday, 12 April 2023

Today was quite warm - likely around 80° - which made a nice change.  I took a shower and did a load of laundry (Georgia state parks usually have at least one washer and dryer - a nice touch lacking in many other states). 

Dexter and I walked around the campground and followed trails to nearby areas with access to the Crooked River and other recreational pursuits.  In fact, one time we followed the river back to the campground, which made a nice change from paved roads, much as both Dext and I appreciate walking on pavement. 

That river really is crooked.  I'm sure someone's counted how many times it turns on its 27-mile path from Kingsland, where it starts, to the Cumberland River near the Atlantic, but I couldn't find it online.  A lot.

On our last walk today before bedtime, Dext found a turtle digging a hole at a campsite.  Each site is marked with a post displaying the site number, and the turtle was apparently enlarging a hole it had already dug at the base of one of those posts.  When it saw us watching it, it dived faster than I'd've thought it could into that hole.  Dext wanted to stick his nose down into the hole to find the turtle, but I worried about the claws turtles all seem to have.

Then I stopped at the camper of one of the camp hosts to be sure somebody in authority knew that a turtle was active that close to a campsite, as well as that the sign post might fall over.  The host told me that turtle was likely a Gopher Tortoise (explaining the sign I saw yesterday), and that they're a lot of them here.  He said they've been digging holes all over the park, and that a pair had been seen mating in a nearby field hidden behind some bushes.  And then I realized that the holes I'd seen when Dext and I had followed one of the trails were likely to be turtle holes.  I'd thought maybe there were just a lot of moles or something here.

The host also reminded me of something I'd read, which is that snakes - he said rattlesnakes - often make friends with the turtles and live in their holes, and Dext could get a lot more than he bargained for if he kept sticking his nose down turtle holes.  Good tip.