Sweetwater Creek (Douglas County, Georgia)

 

Sweetwater Creek State Park has to be one of the best parks in the Atlanta metro-area. I've visited here several times before, but I really enjoy it each time. This morning, I'll be getting in a few more miles with the Atlanta Outdoor Club. The meetup, which I normally hike with will also be hiking here today, but as I had promised to take my mother to a move this afternoon, I wanted to get the hike in early and the AOC just happened to give me that option.

When we arrive at the visitor's center parking area, we find that today's leader is running late. She had texted one of the other attendees, but arrives at about 9:05 AM and starts the hike almost immediately. I'm impressed with the pace she keeps. I haven't been hiking that much in the past couple of months and I'm really looking forward to getting myself back into shape. This 3.5mph pace should do a lot to help with that. 

The fall colors in the park are in full display and it makes for a wonderful experience as we make our way up and down the undulating hills of the park. The very large creek known as Sweetwater carves it's way through the landscape here. Wide, but shallow, numerous rocks jut out from the water's surface to make for some fantastic pictures. 

In the distance, we can see the ruins of the New Manchester Textile Mill, which we'll walk past later, but for now, several of us wander out onto a long stretch of rock extending into the creek to get some pictures. As our quota of fun has been reached, our hike leader mushes us onward. I'm actually thankful for it. Standing too long in one place is detrimental to workout I'm hoping to get from today's hike.

From here, we follow the color-coded trails along the creek. This requires a fair amount of rock-scrambling as the shoreline is pretty jagged. At one point, we reach a wooden staircase where the bottom three steps or so have been washed away. We each, in turn, climb up the embankment to reach the first available step and then make our way up the steep steps. It adds a bit of adventure to the day, which I'm always up for. 

I mentioned earlier that the fall colors were showing well, but seeing them over creek with the waters and sky contrasting against them is truly magnificent. I'm often weary of hiking the same trails over and over again, but the scenery here on this mid-autumn day makes it all worthwhile. I'm really glad I decided to join this hike today.

At one point, I notice that we are hiking in a circle and will be forced to retrace an area that we had hiked earlier. I point this out to the leader who agrees, but seems to have been confused by the route we were on. We decide to head back the way we came. I get the feeling that the leader is not entirely sure of the trail system here and I begin to go my own way. I let her know that I'm heading back to the visitors center and she and most of the rest of the group follow me. I'm hiking at a really fast pace (~4.2mph) right now because we're already 30 minutes over our planned completion time and I have other things to do this afternoon. It's not my intention to be rude, but I just need to go. Eventually, I reach the parking area and others arrive moments afterwards. We got in 9.8 miles of good hiking today - lots of hills. I'm feeling pretty good and it's been a great weekend on the trails.