I had promised my elderly mother I would get her out for a hike sometime this weekend. I keep a running list of trails, complete with distance, relative difficulty, and location. From that list, I chose to take her to the Ivy Terrace Trail near Gainesville, Georgia, which is just a few miles northeast of my home. Having researched the trail a little bit, I knew it was mostly paved and shaded, and should be ideal for her ability, though the distance might challenge her a little bit.
After parking my jeep, we head out along the finely groomed trail, which follows a small stream. Kudzu has taken over much of the flora on the far bank of the stream and perhaps is where the area gets its name. The nearly flat trail cross the creek in a couple of places via covered bridges, which is a nice surprise. I also note an abundance of beautifully intricate garden spider webs all over the place. At one point, I stop to watch a battle between a wasp and one of these spiders. Eventually, the two combatants call it quits and go their separate ways, but it was interesting to watch.
My mother is in fairly good health, but just can't maintain much of a pace. I don't mind though, ti's nice spending time with her and getting her out for some exercise. Whenever she sees me stop to admire something or snap a quick picture she stops as well. Eventually, I tell her not to wait on me and that I will quickly catch up.
There are quite a few people out on the trails this morning and all are friendly as we pass them. In addition to the natural beauty of the area, a local organization has installed monuments to the planets of our solar system placed at scaled positions, replicating the relative distance from each other in space. I've done these kind of walks before, but they are always interesting. Each monument bears a plaque with information about the planet. It's great to see education put to the masses in such a creative form. As we approach downtown Gainesville, the setting becomes much more urban and the planetary monuments are spaced much more closely together as you would expect on a walk of this nature.
As we enter the park in the center of town, my mother decides to take a break on a park bench, while I wander over to admire the starting point of the planet walk, the sun. This particular monument is set with a large sphere representing our life-giving star. It's very nicely done.
Returning to my mother, we head back the way we came. She seems to have enjoyed the hike, or more accurately, I should probably call it a stroll, but whatever label we want to put on it, it was a pleasant way to spend the late morning. The 4.3 miles we walked is quite a distance for her, but managed it like a champ. For now, we'll head home, but if you are in the Gainesville area and in need of stretching your legs any section of this trail is well worth a visit.
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