With my sinus infection still raging, I did not want to subject my ears to the pressure of a drive to the mountains. As such, I opted for a couple of national parks along with Chattahoochee. I started the day at Sope Creek, in the Sandy Springs area. The park is on Paper Mill road, which should give you an idea of what this area was used for.
The first trail I took runs along Paper Mill road to Sope Creek, which is more of a small river. There are substantial ruins of the old paper mill along the creek. The creek is in a ravine, and you can look up to the top of the hills to the homes that are worth more than everybody I know
combined. Quite a surreal experience.
I left the creek, and started on the convoluted network of trails that runs through the Chattahoochee parks. If you look at them on the map, they look more like a random spider web. I suspect the reason for this is that the Chattahoochee parks are very narrow (we would not want to encroach on anyone’s $1 MM home, would we). As such, the trail network maximizes the space. This also leads to a certain element of boredom, given the lack of features on the interior trails. After all however, it is about the hike.
I got a bit off course at one point and took a long walk across the creek, until I hit a private gold course. It required a good bit of backtracking, but the creek was particularly interesting on this area.
As I continued walking, I hit a much wider hike/bike trail, which interconnects this part with Cochran Shoals, which runs all the way to I-285. This was not my favorite type of trail, but it is the best way to hit the next park.
The hike/bike trail dead-ends into the extremely popular fitness trail at Cochran Shoals. This trail is wide and flat with a gravel base, and has various fitness stations periodically along one side. It runs for a total of three miles, and was packed on this particular Saturday. For years, I have passed this part on I-285 and seen oceans of cars, I just never knew why until today.
I got to the southern end of the park at Powers Ferry, and crossed the Powers Ferry bridge to get to the small Powers Island park. I used their facilities, and had a brief snack on the small island in the Chattahoochee, and then started back.
Going back, I turned off quickly onto the wildlife viewing loop, which loops for about 1 mile from the fitness trail. This trail is lightly used and poorly maintained. At one point, I thought I would have to turn around because of a fallen tree, but I managed to get over it.
For the balance of the trip back to Sope Creek, I took a variety of interior trails. One near the northern portion of Cochran Shoals has one of the steepest sections I had ever hiked. It went straight up the hill.
Recall what I said at the beginning about the interior trails having a lack of features, because I was about to happen on a major exception. I noticed a reference on the map to Sibley Pond.
Since it was on one route back to the parking lot anyway, I decided to route myself that way. I was glad I did, as I came upon a beautiful, glassy, large lake. I took the trail around it to get the full view (no water shortage here). It seemed an unusual place for a pond, so I suspect it related to the old paper mill, but it was none the less quite beautiful.
I reached the parking lot shortly thereafter, having managed to turn two small parks into 11 mile hike.
The first trail I took runs along Paper Mill road to Sope Creek, which is more of a small river. There are substantial ruins of the old paper mill along the creek. The creek is in a ravine, and you can look up to the top of the hills to the homes that are worth more than everybody I know
combined. Quite a surreal experience.I left the creek, and started on the convoluted network of trails that runs through the Chattahoochee parks. If you look at them on the map, they look more like a random spider web. I suspect the reason for this is that the Chattahoochee parks are very narrow (we would not want to encroach on anyone’s $1 MM home, would we). As such, the trail network maximizes the space. This also leads to a certain element of boredom, given the lack of features on the interior trails. After all however, it is about the hike.
I got a bit off course at one point and took a long walk across the creek, until I hit a private gold course. It required a good bit of backtracking, but the creek was particularly interesting on this area.
As I continued walking, I hit a much wider hike/bike trail, which interconnects this part with Cochran Shoals, which runs all the way to I-285. This was not my favorite type of trail, but it is the best way to hit the next park.
The hike/bike trail dead-ends into the extremely popular fitness trail at Cochran Shoals. This trail is wide and flat with a gravel base, and has various fitness stations periodically along one side. It runs for a total of three miles, and was packed on this particular Saturday. For years, I have passed this part on I-285 and seen oceans of cars, I just never knew why until today.
I got to the southern end of the park at Powers Ferry, and crossed the Powers Ferry bridge to get to the small Powers Island park. I used their facilities, and had a brief snack on the small island in the Chattahoochee, and then started back.
Going back, I turned off quickly onto the wildlife viewing loop, which loops for about 1 mile from the fitness trail. This trail is lightly used and poorly maintained. At one point, I thought I would have to turn around because of a fallen tree, but I managed to get over it.
For the balance of the trip back to Sope Creek, I took a variety of interior trails. One near the northern portion of Cochran Shoals has one of the steepest sections I had ever hiked. It went straight up the hill.
Recall what I said at the beginning about the interior trails having a lack of features, because I was about to happen on a major exception. I noticed a reference on the map to Sibley Pond.
Since it was on one route back to the parking lot anyway, I decided to route myself that way. I was glad I did, as I came upon a beautiful, glassy, large lake. I took the trail around it to get the full view (no water shortage here). It seemed an unusual place for a pond, so I suspect it related to the old paper mill, but it was none the less quite beautiful.I reached the parking lot shortly thereafter, having managed to turn two small parks into 11 mile hike.
1 comment:
I'm a little behind on my reading... 11 is a lot of miles for a day with a sinus infection! Impressive. I love the picture of the ruins - trying to visualize them in their heyday...
Post a Comment