It's Leap Day and I have a buddy from Reno visiting this evening, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't get some trail miles in this morning. The East Palisades Trail traverses the rolling hillsides above the Chattahoochee just inside the perimeter. While there are a couple of different trail heads, I start at one that requires me to drive through what appears to be a rather wealthy neighborhood before approaching the parking lot on a one-lane gravel road.
The trail immediately enters the woods and start descending down to the river. Unfortunately, the trail builders decided to building those retaining steps that we're all familiar with. I'm not a fan of these types of steps as I hate steps on a trail to begin with and more importantly, the only thing these things retain is rainwater. As the 'retained soil' of each step is nothing but a muddy mess, I'm forced to traverse much of the down hill on the lumber used to construct the steps. Finally though, I reach a section where the trail-builders decided to leave well enough alone.
Reaching the river, the trail follows alongside for a distance before heading back uphill. I had read of a bamboo forest somewhere along this trial, but after searching a few spur trails, I decide to give up on finding that this trip. Perhaps, I'll return at some point. However, one of the spurt trails does lead me to a deck overlooking the river from far above. It offers a great view of the river valley carved by the Chattahoochee.
After taking in the view for a couple of minutes, I return to the main trail and head back to the jeep. I was able to get in just about 2.9 miles on this trail and I'm not done just quite yet. I have a second trail in mind this morning.
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