Chicopee Woods (Hall County, Georgia)

 

Sundays are normally great days for a hike and I often hit the trails with one of the local Meetup groups. Today, we are hiking Chicopee Woods and around the Elachee Nature Center just a few miles north of my home. After the short drive, I arrived at the parking lot and trailhead just a few minutes before the scheduled start time. With this broken finger of mine still in a splint most of the time, getting ready can be a little slower than normal. After a quick round of introductions, we entered the autumn-colored woods.

Following the green trail around the northern perimeter of the nature preserve we were able to maintain a pretty healthy pace. In fact, myself and a couple of other hikers got too far ahead of the main group and had to wait for them to catch up at one of the junctions. The trail has very, very little elevation gain though and so, it's just to easy to go fast. It's well maintained and cuts nicely through this beautiful wooded area. The fall colors are in full display, and shades of gold, orange, and ocher can be seen everywhere.

There are a few minor creek crossings, but well constructed foot bridges make them a non-issue. Eventually, we reach the junction of the green and orange trails and in order to add more distance, we switch to the orange trail, which will follow the southern perimeter of the area. This part of the trail does have a couple of very easy climbs, but nothing too strenuous. 

Finally nearing the end of the trail, we follow the read trail to the Nature Center, which also serves as a preschool. One of my fellow hikers, explains the "story trail", which we follow around the facility. It combines exercise and learning for the youngsters by placing a story panel every thirty or so yards, each contain the next lines of a story and encouraging the children to walk the trail to read the entire thing. It's actually pretty cool and we quickly walk around it. With this being a Sunday and in the middle of a pandemic, there are no children to be seen out here today, but hopefully, things get back to normal and the children are able to take advantage of this facility again soon.

Returning to the parking lot, I see from my GPS app that we have hiked about 7.1 miles on this glorious day. The weather was amazing and it was really great to get outside. Some of my fellow hikers suggest hitting a nearby brewery for a post-hike pint. Who am I to turn something like that down. Slante!