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!