Rottenwood Creek & West Palisades (Cobb County, Georgia)

I've been in a funk lately and haven't really gotten outdoors much in the past couple of months. A number of factors have been contributing to this, but regardless of the causes, it needs to stop. Today, I'm joining the Meetup group for the first time in a few weeks to further explore an area that I've only had a taste of. The Rottenwood Creek Trail is a mostly paved route departing the the Paces Mill and West Palisades units of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in the heart of Atlanta. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some of my hiking friends.

As I arrive at the parking lot a few minutes before the scheduled start time, I see the group leader at his car and walk up to say hello. I always feel very welcomed with this group. The thirty or so of us group up in the shade and do a quick round of introductions. Soon, we're on the trail alongside the Chattahoochee. The surface is a fine gravel in this section and it's almost perfectly flat. We make good time along this section and then hit the first fork to head off into the woods. 

There is a pretty extensive trail system here and it's easy to get turned around, but most of us on the trek have a good sense of direction and getting lost is not really a possibility. That said, we make an attempt to connect to trails that parallel the river further up, but steep drop-offs provide no where to walk and we're forced to turn back. On the way, we encounter a young couple carrying a pair of stand-up paddle boards through the woods and struggling pretty mightily. It seems they got separated from their group and decided to come ashore at an opportune spot. Unfortunately for them, the nearest parking lot where they might get picked up is nearly a half-mile away, uphill, and along a single-track dirt trail through the thick woods. As we can see how badly they are struggling, a few of us offer to help and take some of the weight of boards. The couple thanks us over and over again, as we finally lower the paddle boards onto the grass at the parking lot.

After getting a little bit of an upper-body workout carrying the paddleboards, we decide to stop at a group of picnic tables near the parking lot for a quick snack break. I enjoy a Clif Bar and two of the Nature's Bakery Fig Bars to recharge a bit. After just ten minutes or so, we hit the trail again. From here, we'll be mostly on pavement. 

As we review the map on our phones, we realize we need to go through a gated community to get back to our intended route. As an Amazon Prime van enters, we hold the gate and head through. I comment that the residents will be horrified by this rabid hiking group terrorizing their community. The folks around me chuckle. Soon, we leave the neighborhood and are back on our intended route. 

This puts us on the roads near Truist Park, where the Atlanta Braves play. I have to say that I'm not all that fond of all of the road walking today, but it can't be helped given the area we are in. Eventually, we reach Rottenwood Creek, which has a well maintained paved trail running parallel to it. This is probably the most scenic part of the trail. The muddy creek water flows over a series of small waterfalls and large boulders, which provides some very picturesque scenes.

Soon, we are back at the junction with the trail we started on and then back at the parking lot. We covered almost exactly 10-miles today. It was kind of a mixed bag, but overall, there was definitely too much pavement involved. Some of the scenery is nice though and it's always great to hang with these folks. Now, we'll head to a nearby restaurant and allow the other patrons the pleasure of enjoying the aroma caused by hiking in ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity for a few hours, while we enjoy some food and drinks. Slante!

Nickajack Bat Cave Sunset Kayak Tour (Marion County, Tennessee)

 

If spending a little time on the water in a given day is a good thing, then spending more time on the water, must be even better. I'll put that to the test today. After departing the Cartecay River area in northern Georgia, I headed northwest past Chattanooga and onward to Nickajack Lake, which was formed by damming the Tennessee River. The plan is to kayak out a short distance to witness the local brown bat population leaving Nickajack Cave just after sunset. I'm joining a local guide service for this trip. I was actually supposed to do this paddle twice in the past couple of months, but had to reschedule due to family visiting and then due to my mother being temporarily hospitalized. Today's the day though.

I arrive pretty early and take advantage of the time to finish off a Subway sandwich I picked up a short time ago. It's about 6 PM and this will serve as dinner before going back out onto the water. After I finish stuffing my face, I walk out to introduce myself to the guides. The van pulling a trailer full of kayaks pretty much gave their identity away. The guys are very friendly and give me quick overview of the evening and then ask me to sign their safety waiver, which is pretty standard for these types of things. 

Soon the rest of the group arrives and after picking out our boats and getting them adjusted correctly, the guys give a basic lesson in paddle strokes. Luckily, everyone here has kayaked before and this takes very little time. With that, we load up and hit the water. It's still about an hour before sunset and so, we take some time to paddle around the lake a bit and under the bridge, before returning to the cave. Ospreys soar above us scanning the lake for any signs of a meal. Our guide points out a couple of nests in the electrical towers. I've seen osprey nests before, but I'm always amazed at how large they really are. He also tells us that the osprey often prey on the tiny bats as they leave the safety of their cave in mass. 

https://youtu.be/JgDExt91llk

With the sun now behind the horizon, we've position ourselves just a little ways from the cave entrance. Our guide says that while a lot of people actually congregate right at the cave entrance, the spot he has lead us to will see many more bats. As he tells it, the bats leave the cave and then immediately head into the trees, which provides them some protection from the waiting Osprey. They pop out of the trees immediately above where our boats now float. 

First we see on bat, and then another just a second later. Within a few minutes, hundreds of bats have flown overhead and many have dove down in and around our kayaks skimming the surface of the lake for a quick drink of water. Maybe not as fast, but considerably more maneuverable than birds, these tiny little mammals are headed out out for a night on the town to feast on the most delicious insects a hot August night has to offer. 

It's been a really amazing experience, but as darkness settles in further, we paddle back to the nearby launch and pull our boats in. The guides were very knowledgeable and the spot the picked for us to encounter the bats was fantastic. In total, we paddled about 2.2 miles around the lake, but now it's time for the long drive home. 

Cartecay River Float (Gilmer County, Georgia)

 

After having lived in the Atlanta area for a couple of years now, I can testify to how brutal the summer months can be here. The heat and humidity are just miserable most days, and those that are not are generally filled with patches of thunderstorms and rain. The best place to be this time of the year is in the water and today, I'm doing just that. I'm joining a meetup group in northern Georgia for a tubin' good time as we float a couple of miles down the Cartecay River near Elijay, GA. Before moving here, I had purchased a new innertube just for this purpose, but didn't get to use it before leaving Reno. Today, I'll fix that.

Meeting up with the large group, we park our cars and I fill up with an air-compressor they brought along. Once we're all aired up, we head to the booth to pay our shuttle fee and then proceed to the pale green river water. The water is fairly warm, which is to be expected in mid-August, but it's still cooler than the air and once I'm sitting in my tube floating, I'm so relaxed, I nearly fall asleep. The river is mostly slow-flowing and shallow here, but there are a few places with mild rapids and of course large boulders just under the surface. I've never been tubing where I didn't end up sore rump from hitting those boulders.

The thirty of so of us in the group try our best to stay together, but inevitably, we drift apart at times, only to reconvene somewhere further down the river a short time later. I have lots of good conversations with these folks as we make our way to the shuttle point. Once we arrive, the shuttle driver helps us out of the river and we deflate and load up into an old van that looks like it was rescued from the 60's. It's fun though. We floated about 1.7 miles over the course of an hour-and-a-half or so. It was incredibly relaxing and now, we're headed to a nearby brewery to continue the lazy Saturday.