OCMULGEE EXCURSION

Ocmulgee Mound, Oct 2007
Lightbox enlargement

For years I’ve been saying we needed to go to the Ocmulgee Mounds Site but whenever the subject came up it would always be summer and we’re not so stupid to go trekking around mounds in the soul-withering, baking hot, Macon Georgia clime. We figured October would be good.

So yesterday we determined today would be a good day to take H.o.p. to the mounds.

Damn, we are wimps. Or I am and H.o.p. is. A lesson learned is DON’T FORGET YOUR WATER WHEN YOU’RE WALKING THE OCMULGEE MOUNDS, NOT EVEN IN OCTOBER!

I usually carry water. Even at the zoo I carry water. But today was a deceptively cool drive down to Macon. And there were clouds. And it was a deceptively nice walk to the Earthlodge from the Visitor’s Center. And it was all so pretty and green. When things are all nice and green your primitive self, I guess, comprehends, “Water surrounds”. And it does. Kind of. If you’re thirsty, and it’s green, your primitive self expects you to be able to walk a few feet to a creek or river or pond and dip in our hands. If all that’s around you that’s green is a green cactus, you can still hack the cactus for water. Right? I’ve seen it on television.

But when you’re twenty-first century wimps and thirsty? What then?

Our plan was to do the mounds and then the museum though we started out at the museum.

Our plan had been to walk to the Earthlodge then return to the car and access other trails and mounds via the road that goes through the park. Since that had been our plan, I’d not carried any water with us. But it was such a nice walk to the Earthlodge we decided to do the whole business on foot. And we forgot all about the water being in the car. After all, it was so nice and temperate.

We began crossing the emerald green fields from the Earthlodge through the Cornfield Mound site and the Village Site up to the Lesser and Great Temple Mounds. Suddenly, it became blazing hot. At this point it’s all open fields. I’d neglected to bring hats. But, by the map, it was only a 1/2 mile walk to the Great Temple Mound (at least as the crow flies). We had barely reached the Trading Post Site when H.o.p. was loudly complaining about needing water. When we reached the road by which we could have driven to the Temple Mounds, Marty thought he’d go get the car, where we’d left our water, while H.o.p. and I went along up to the mounds. And by then I too was seriously wanting some water, but not so much that I was uncomfortable. I was wishing for a water fountain hidden somewhere at the Great Temple parking area, but I didn’t see one, so I quit wishing and on H.o.p. and I went to climb up to the top of the Great Temple Mound where we looked out on swamplands on one side and over the city of Macon on the other.

After the hot walk over the fields, it was pleasantly breezy up on the Great Temple Mound. But H.o.p. was too thirsty to enjoy things much. Marty soon returned as we’d both forgotten that I had the car keys. Fortunately, he hadn’t walked but a short way before he remembered this.

Another family had followed the same path we had and were climbing to the top of the mound as we left.

The experience is much like the Etowah Mounds in that the old unreconstructed mounds are nice with butterflies everywhere but near any man made structure there are a number of wasps. Weary, H.o.p. sat on a bench built into the top of the wood stairs that lead up to the mound but wasps were soon all around. We climbed back down and started to walk back over the fields but it was so hot, the sun beating hard down, we opted to take the road back as it was shaded with trees. The other family was following not far behind us, a teenage boy and girl and mother and father and they opted to go up the road as well.

I asked H.o.p. if he wanted to instead sit with me under some trees and wait for Marty to get the car but he said no.

It’s only about a mile walk back up the road. It was nice. I took some pics of swamp land.

Then it hit at the last 1/4 mile. I was suddenly beyond thirsty and H.o.p. was seriously dragging and pulling on me. My energy, which had been good, was suddenly vanishing.

The family behind us had long since dropped far behind and disappeared. Marty thought they’d probably gone exploring another trail.

It took some major effort to make it up to the car where we unpacked the water and H.o.p. and I both drank a full bottle each in a short while. I also was realizing I’d had no protein yet that day and by now I was famished and had nothing to eat as I’d opted to leave the protein bars at home.

Yes, protein bars. I’ve never found any good ones but for ten years I’ve carried protein bars in the car. Just in case. Something I got used to doing when pregnant with H.o.p. And Marty eats them and H.o.p. does also sometimes nibble at one if he is suddenly hungry.

We were still resting, having finished off our water, when the father from the family that had been behind us came walking across the lot to their car. His family had become too hot and exhausted to make the walk back, so he’d proceeded on in order to get the car and return to pick them up. I don’t think they were carrying water either. At least I don’t remember seeing any bottles on them when we’d passed them.

I mean, really, I know I’m seriously in need of regular exercise, I’m not fooling myself, but still…DO NOT BE DECEIVED BY THE BEAUTIFUL GREEN FIELDS OF OCMULGEE IN OCTOBER. IT CAN STILL BE BLISTERING HOT THERE. BRING WATER.

Somehow, nearly two hours had passed since we’d started out on our walk. Well, Marty says it was two hours but I think it was an hour and a half. Either way, we’d spent more time out in the fields looking around then I’d realized. No time was left for the museum and both H.o.p. and I were too hungry to care. There were a couple mounds that we’d missed but we opted to go get something to eat, start home, and return another day.

Wish I could wax poetic on the mounds but, hey. It’s pretty there. Really beautiful. We were thirsty. It was hot.

The National Park Service recommends bringing a hat and water bottle if you plan to walk Ocmulgee in the summer. Bring them along in Autumn as well, even if you think you won’t need them.

H.o.p. running over the RR bridge at Ocmulgee
Light box enlargement