Biking the Yellowbank Basin
Despite past adventures, learning to explore a watershed by
bike was going to require a little practice. My tools included maps, key contacts
who knew the area, a phone and book, a bike of course, sunscreen, water, camera
a few small gifts and a little luck. Each day was to be a mixture of
pre-planned visits and lucky finds.
Before starting out, I’d pour over maps to identify key
roads and properties to see. I’d call and schedule visits with the few people I
knew in each basin, usually farmers, and look for other points of interest to
get an idea of the history of the sub-basin. At some point, I’d pick up the
phone and call people living in interesting spots. Even though I was a
stranger, coming out by bicycle seems just weird enough to pique interest
rather than concern. Most people, well over 50%, were willing to let me come by
for a visit.
The Yellowbank sub-watershed. Click Here for PDF map
The Yellowbank Creek watershed is strongly defined by a few
key roads and landmarks. The eastern border of the basin begins where the Country
Crossroads Café and A&E Grill sit on the hill on Highway 115. Highway 115 heading
west cuts a straight line through the lower third of the basin to the EZ Kwik
Trip at Wheeler Road. These two locations mark the edges of the bowl that form
the basin. I traversed the entire eastern edge of the bowl by heading north from
Crossroads up Hwy 17 via the Habersham Mill Connector all the way to Haye’s
Corner at Hwy 105. The western edge of the bowl is formed by swinging left at
Haye’s Corner down Hwy 105 to Fairview School Road and back to the EZ Kwik Trip
at Wheeler Road. This loop encircles nearly the entire Yellowbank Creek basin,
all but the headwaters and mouth, and each raindrop falling between those roads
flows to Yellowbank Creek. Roads are very often built on the ridges, or
watershed divides between two basins and Yellowbank is the perfect example of
this practice.
I entered the interior of Yellowbank via Fred Pitts Road (the
north/south path down the basin) and encountered an Adopt-A-Road litter control
sign adopted by Grand Oaks Plantation Subdivision. Roadside litter is common while
riding a bike, but this group’s efforts were evident on Fred Pitts. I decided
to pedal into the Grand Oaks subdivision and found the first evidence of water,
a small shallow pond, tennis court, bench, and just a hint of algae.
I was asked not to give the location of a historic Grist Mill,
but it was exciting to find that Yellowbank has not one but two mills in it’s
6.7 square mile basin, the smallest of the Soque’s seven basins. The giant
millstones and waterwheel are still there, and the falling waters in the creek
evidence that waterpower performed work here in the recent past. So many Grist
Mills scattered across the county indicate that for over a century they were
centers of economic life and activity, a gathering place, and defining part of
the community. At every one, the water falls rapidly and naturally, creating
the power that drove the mill.
When most people think of the Soque they think of trout, and
to our fortune it was a Habersham County native living in the Yellowbank Basin,
Mark Cochran, that caught the state record rainbow trout back on May 7, 2004. His
plan had been to fish for a short while at the in-laws place on the Soque and
then head over to the garden to plant tomatoes and peppers. Those plants didn’t
get planted, because Mark caught a 17lb 8oz trout, and the certified scales at the
Lake Burton Fish Hatchery confirmed it as the largest rainbow trout caught in
the state of Georgia since 1985. The record still stands. Mark and his kids
still love to fish and play in Yellowbank Creek on the other side of the fences
they built to keep cattle from defecating in the stream or trampling its banks.
The Ballinger family occupies the land at the mouth of
Yellowbank, and named the road Sleepy River Drive back in the ‘80’s. To my
surprise, before Yellowbank joins the Soque it looks like youre in the National
Forest. The entire lower basin is forested, extremely steep, with rocky outcrops,
surrounded by rhododendrons and hemlocks. An ancient Beech tree, a rickety
wooden bridge, and a story of an out of control camper falling into the ravine
all added to the character of this tight knit community, in which everyone knows
each other, travel via four wheelers, and take full advantage of the woods, the
water, and the solitude that a steep dead end road to the river can offer.
The Whiting’s told me tales of Kinsey Shoals near Pardue
Mill with its stair step shoals where all the kids would go swimming. Back
then, anybody could go to such places and they all did, because most of the
land was just to cut timber. The men placed pine poles into ditches, and covered
them with soil as a primitive sort of French drain. Many people walked across
their land to get to work at Habersham Mills, and it was said that the wind
always blows in the cat o fields through which they walked, the exact meaning
long lost now. Whiting, in addition to cattle fencing participated in a
full-blown restoration of eroding stream banks on his property three years back,
and told how the contractors explained the hydraulics of the stone placement at
a stream crossing. “The harder the water pushes the tighter it locks the stones
into place,” explained Lamar due to the unique and tight v-shaped placement.
Even though the project is a success Lamar joked, “We as country people don’t
value weeds like ya’ll do,” referring to the thick undergrowth encouraged until
it’s all a bit more stabilized.
A significant missing landmark of the Yellowbank basin is
the Haywood English home, more commonly called Big Holly Cabin, named for the
ancient giant holly tree that stood nearby. The cabin sat near where the
Haywood Hills subdivision is now on 115. The Big Holly Cabin now rests in the
City of Clarkesville across from the library in the Mauldin House Gardens,
moved and renovated in the ‘80’s. My wife had her picture from our wedding day taken
while standing on that very cabin. Such history circles all around us, so
easily slipping by if we don’t reach out and grab it.
photo by Tanya Jacobsen Smith
Arvil Loggins who strolled down his dirt driveway to his
mailbox in his overalls and a straw hat on Daniel Road, is the kind of
character you hope to meet on an adventure such as this. As soon as I saw him I
knew I had to stop and chat. He told how he used to raise hogs on the prettiest
hillside I past that day presently covered with freshly rolled round hay bales.
I have a feeling I didn’t get his whole story. He looked at me with smiling
eyes as if to say, “you’re curious and that’s o.k., but my lore is staying
right here with me.”
Justin Ellis, director
of the Soque River Watershed Association is 4 weeks into a 12 week bike ride of
every sub-basin of the Soque Watershed. To suggest places to visit or to share
stories or photos of interest, or see maps and photos from the tour visit http://soqueriverdays.blogspot.com/ , e-mail soque@windstream or call
706-754-9382.
