By: Robin Ford Wallace, Staff Reporter

The newly formed Friends of Cloudland Canyon State Park met Friday night, and Manager Bobby Wilson simultaneously issued press releases concerning developments at the park. In any case, with spring fast approaching, and with it a fresh crop of outdoor recreational opportunities, now seems a good time for an update on what’s happening at the Canyon.

First, the park officially announced an agenda for its long-planned Outdoor Adventure Weekend event next month. The event will kick off Friday, April 16, with a night hike, then resume with a variety of outdoor activities April 17 and 18.

Among the daylight events will be workshops and demonstrations on caving, climbing, rappelling, fishing and orienteering. Also featured will be a children’s fishing rodeo, archery events and disc golf.  Additionally, there will be show-and-tell snake shows using local reptiles that have proved popular with visitors in the past, according to park staff; but for the most part, says Park Manager Wilson, the emphasis will be on get-up-and-do stuff.  “We’re trying to get people to actively participate in the activity,” he said.

Offered free of charge will be hikes, fishing and orienteering, which for the uninitiated means using a compass to find one’s way around. Other activities may carry a $3 to $5 charge, in addition to the $5-per-vehicle parking fee applicable at all Georgia state parks.

Gear for the outdoor activities will be provided, and the New Salem Fire Department will be vending food items. Participants are urged to bring sunscreen and water. Reservations are not required.

At the Friends of the Park meeting, the group’s Robert Maples announced plans for a wildflower walk at the Canyon on March 27. Maples and FOP will also be organizing interpretive walks on other subjects, such as amphibians and reptiles, he said. Times will be announced as they become available.

For 2010, Cloudland Canyon State Park is hosting contests for photographs of the Canyon during each of the four seasons, the park has announced. Photographs featuring the Canyon in winter will be accepted until April 15; spring pictures should be in by June 30; summer by September 15; and fall by Dec. 31.

The winning picture for each season will be used on a postcard to be sold at the park’s gift shop, and winning photographers will be also be awarded a gift packet.

To enter, send digital photographs as 300-DPI jpg or pdf files to Rene.Everette@dnr.state.ga.us by the above-cited seasonal deadlines. Multiple entries are acceptable.

For more information about the photography contest, hikes or the Outdoor Adventure Weekend, contact the park at (706) 657-4050, or at www.gastateparks.org/CloudLand.

On the subject of photography, FOP vice president Ken Pennington is soliciting pictures of the park from times past, which he is archiving for a planned historical display. He urges locals who might have old family pictures of the area to contact him at (423) 413-4692 or kenpenningtonart @gmail.com.

At the Friends meeting, Bobby Wilson also announced plans for major renovation of the park’s guest cabins this year. A bond held by the state had matured, he said, or a grant had come through – he wasn’t real clear, but:  “One way or the other, we’re getting $750,000,” he said.

The money will be used to redo the interiors of the 11 cabins on the West Rim side of the Canyon, he said. The cabins, built about 1985, are the newer set; the original structures near the Point in the main part of the park were erected around 1965, he said, and have been remodeled within the past few years.

Wilson said the work is expected to go out for bid in September and begin in December, to be completed by March or April of next year.

The park operates a total of 17 rental cabins as well as a group lodge that sleeps around 40, he said.

Wilson said the park is also hoping for a $100,000 grant from the Department of Natural Resources which it will use for its ongoing efforts to open the Connector Trail, the four-mile corridor which will join the park proper to the recently opened Long Branch Trail. Long Branch traverses DNR and private land as well as acreage owned by the Lula Lake Land Trust.

The Connector Trail will enter the park via its Back Country Trail, which Eli Everette of Boy Scout Troop 29 is currently furnishing with mile markers and colored arrows as part of his Eagle project. Young Everette is also marking the park’s Sitton’s Gulch and West Rim Loop trails.

The Connector Trail is projected to be opened by this summer.