This past week, I left my home state of Vermont and drove more than seventeen hours to get to the Richard B. Russell State Park in Elberton, Georgia for a crew spring training trip. The weather was much warmer than Vermont, about forty degrees in the morning and evening and reaching seventy degrees in the afternoons, and very humid. We stayed in cabins at the edge of the water, where the Savannah River meets Lake Russell on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. We rowed almost every morning and every afternoon, exploring the many inlets around the lake.
The land was less hilly than Vermont, but it shared abundant forest cover. The forests were composed mainly of white oak trees, all around sixty to eighty years old. There were also some deciduous trees, some flowering and some with leaves already out. There were many daffodils and other spring flowers around the more sunny areas of the park. Since it was much warmer than Vermont, the foliage was much further along in its spring development.
In terms of wildlife, there were deer, squirrels, a track that was likely a coyote, and many birds. On the lake, we noticed an osprey nest and were fortunate enough to see an osprey soaring above. In the forest, there were cardinals, yellow warblers, and sparrows. Though it was warmer than Vermont, many migratory birds were still missing from the landscape. Georgia has a milder winter, but it does still get occasional freezes and snows.
The park has been a common recreational area since it was founded in 1987. It has a series of trails for walking, a golf course, and a boathouse. There are many recreational fishermen who visit and stay in cottages on the park property (similarly to what we did). In 1980, several Native American sites were excavated near the park. These sites were from more than ten thousand years ago, indicating that the area has a long history of human settlement.