"Deliverance Days" - Throwback Thursday

Way back in what Mike calls his "Deliverance Days," he would spend a week at the end of each school year in the mountains of northeastern Georgia, camping, hiking, trout fishing, and trying not to drown in the whitewater rivers. Sometimes he'd go by himself, but more often than not he went with his friend Nick. As the years passed, the camping gave way to staying in rustic cabins. But the hillbilly-ing continued pretty much the same.

Mike usually drove up in his 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck. Here are a couple of pictures he took of his truck at the Stovall Mill Covered Bridge on Chickamauga Creek, near Helen, Georgia. He's pretty sure these are from one of his solo trips, which is why he's not in either of them.

By the way, Mike says there's another Chicamauga Creek in northwestern Georgia, where a famous Civil War battle was fought in 1863. That's not this one. This one, however, was featured in a pretty good 1951 movie called I'd Climb the Highest Mountain, starring William Lundigan and Susan Hayward.

Here's a photo Mike took of Nick in 1999, fishing in the West Fork of the Chattooga River:

And here's one Nick took of Mike sitting on his truck's tailgate, enjoying something called a "chilly brewski" after a long day on the river:

Over the years the Chattooga's West Fork became one of their favorite troutstreams. The main part of that river, however, is much better known for its whitewater canoeing, rafting, and kayaking. One summer the boys decided to see what all the shouting was about. Here they are in the front of a raft doing a manuever called "getting flushed down a toilet":

That's Mike at the bottom-left, with his paddle actually in the water--as if that would make a difference. Mike says his term "Deliverance Days" comes from their adventure on the Chattooga, which was one of two Georgia rivers used in the filming of a movie called Deliverance. Here's a still shot that was taken of the main actors on the Chattooga:

Mike also points out that his trip down the Chattooga with Nick turned out a lot nicer than the one for the movie characters. That's because (spoiler alert!) he and Nick weren't chased down the river by these guys: