Off-roading in the Oconee National Forest

Today I decided to go on a different adventure. I left the city for the afternoon and drove down Georgia 212 (a road that would change my life forever for the better) and entered the Oconee National Forest near Monticello, Georgia. When I was a senior at Georgia College and State University I came to this forest a few times to explore. It does not contain the mountain vistas or the waterfalls of Georgia's other National Forest, the Chattahoochee National Forest but it is beautiful in it's own ways. The United States Government owns over 600 million acres of land, most of them are in the Western United States and are left over from historic events like the Louisiana Purchase, the US-Mexico War, and the Alaska purchase, and thus most of them have never been privately owned. Only about 60 million acres of Federal Lands have been privately owned and of those 60 million I would be that most of them are located east of the Mississippi River. There is lots of evidence of past settlements in the Oconee National Forest, old farm fences, old graves, and old homes, the one in the picture is one that I first discovered in 2005 and then found again in 2017, what a difference 12 years makes. I have always wondered how old the house is, whether or not it was once a farm house. The MDX was able to handle the roads in both Georgia National Forests, but the ones in the Oconee National Forest were needless to say easier. Once I was through exploring I drove through the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, over the Ocmulgee River, and ultimately back home.