RABUN BALD

RABUN BALD LOOKOUT TOWER

CHATTAHOOCHEE NATIONAL FOREST

Rabun Bald; Chattahoochee National Forest: GEORGIA: Rabun Co.

Person to contact regarding insect collecting permits: Cindy Wentworth; Ecologist/Botanist; Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests; USDA-FS; P.O. Box 9; Blairsville, GA  30514; (706) 745-6928 [current as of May 2000]

Elevation: 4696 feet.  Location of summit: 34°58'01"N; 83°18'16"W

Collection date & weather conditions: This site was visited on May 22, 2000.  Collections were undertaken from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.  The weather was very nice, with mostly clear skies, a little windy (especially on top of the lookout tower), and cool.

Description of summit:  From Dillard, go north on US-441 to SR-246.  Turn right on SR-246 and follow for about 4.3 miles (winding between North Carolina and Georgia) to intersection at a Sinclair gas station.  Take a right and drive approximately 2.8 miles to Kelsey Mt. Rd.. There is a small Forest Service sign here saying "Hiking trails ahead".  Turn right.  In less than .5 miles the road continues up and has a sign for 4-wheel drive vehicles only.  You can park beside the road here and take the trail up to the top (about 1.5 miles to the summit) or take the road to the upper parking area.  The dirt road has some bad places in it and it takes nearly as long to carefully drive up to the upper parking area (with a 4-wheel drive vehicle) as it does to take the trail up.  The trail to the summit from the upper parking area is about .5 miles and takes about 1/2 hour.  The lookout tower dominates the summit.  From the top of the tower you get an unobstructed 360° view of forest.  Below the tower are rocky areas, a small patch of grassy field, with the surrounding trees and vegetation not rising much above 12-15 feet around the edge.  I collected nearly all sarcophagids from areas of the tower or on the ground.  Almost no flies were found on vegetation. The view here is truly spectacular!

Dodge's description of the site in 1952:  Rabun Bald, Rabun County, in the northeast corner of Georgia is 4,714 feet high and is the highest mountain in the vicinity.  The sides are forested up to a grassy summit about 150 feet in diameter.

Specimens collected: Here is a listing of the species that Dodge notes as being collected at Rabun Bald.  Unfortunately, he does not list the species by site in his paper on "Sarcophagidae and other Diptera taken by trap and net on Georgia mountain summits in 1952", but he does note locality information in his paper on "A new sarcophagid genus with descriptions of fifteen new species (Diptera)".  I will add identifications of the material I collected in May 2000 in the near future.

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