It's suppose to be a rain-soaked weekend and I was suppose to be hiking to and sleeping at the Len Foote Hike Inn this evening. I had hoped for a beautiful snowy setting on the way up, but with temperatures just a few degrees to warm, it's more than likely going to be a wet and muddy mess. I think I'm going to have to be content to get a few miles in this morning at another of the Chattahoochee River units. Today, I'm joining the Atlanta Outdoor Club to hike a few miles from Paces Mill.
The ten of us met at 8:00 sharp on this cool January morning. After a brief introduction, we hit the popular trail, which was being used by numerous hikers and runners. The first section is paved and quite wide, but we quickly depart the maintained pavement and enter the woods on a combination of gravel, earth, and old broken pavement. I think these were once urban roads prior to the Park Service's acquisition of the land. The trail has a number of nice hills, but I'm feeling great this morning and find myself climbing them without out breaking a sweat. As we make our way around the park and await the slower members of the group, we encounter some very brazen deer who don't seem to mind our presence much at all.
Returning to the parking lot along the river affords us the opportunity to get the best views. With the addition of a few little dead-ends, which the organizer included purposely, we are able to knock out almost exactly 6 miles. As it turns out, we followed a very similar path as a hike I did over the summer, but starting from the other end at West Palisades. Ah well, it was a nice way to spend the morning and probably the only hiking I'll be able to get in this weekend with a large storm moving in shortly.
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