Chicopee Woods (Hall County, Georgia)

 I was supposed to run a 5k early this morning, but overslept. To ensure I still got some exercise, I made the last minute decision to join the Meetup group for a hike around Chicopee Woods, which isn't too far from my house. After a short twenty-five minute drive and paying the $5 daily fee, I drove to the meeting point. There are a lot of cars with bike racks here. I know these trails are popular among mountain bikers, but I wasn't expecting this many. I quickly locate my group, who are a bit surprised to see me since I only signed up on the website a few minutes before leaving my house.

After our customary round of introductions, we head into the woods. The trails are well marked and well maintained, but these first trails we're on are the kind that I really don't enjoy. The trails cut back and forth to add mileage for mountain bikers, while not actually going anywhere. Soon though, we depart this area and get deeper into the woods where the trails open up. They still cut back and forth, but in much wider loops and around ridges, which is far more interesting to me.

Soon, we hit a crossroads with a gravel road where the ruins of a structure are half-buried in a hill. Up top, I can see what I think is a boiler and below is some intricate brickwork, but after walking around what remains, I'm at a loss to make a call on what this building was. No one else is really sure either. It's always interesting to see these kinds of abandon pieces of civilization in the woods.

Making our way further in, we get passed by a number of mountain bikers. We call them out as they approach and everyone in our well-trained group steps off of the trail and gives the bikes plenty of room. However, a couple of the bikers mouth off about hiking other trails instead of these. Before I can respond, they are already gone, but it puts me in a pretty foul mood and I start pushing the pace a bit to satiate my anger. Before I know it, I'm a good distance ahead of the main group, though a couple of hikers have managed to keep up with me. I go for a while longer, but eventually decide to stop and allow the group to catch up.

Once everyone has reached this clearing and had a couple of minutes to catch their breath, I head out again and what someone calls a "blistering pace". Still charged from the mountain biker encounter, I continue pushing hard and before I know it, I've opened up that big gap again. Luckily, there is a junction and not knowing which way our organizer wants to go, I stop and wait for the group.

The day goes on like this and without really noticing it, we've already put in just over eight miles and still have a ways to go before getting back to the cars. I mention this to the organizer. "I guess we'll get a few bonus miles today", he says. I don't mind that at all. The more the better. I've got a couple of big hikes coming up later this year and need the exercise.

Finally, we reach the parking area having hiked about 11.3 miles in total. The elevation gain was only around 800', but that's still a decent day and with the pace I maintained throughout, I feel like a got a pretty good workout. The trails here were actually pretty nice, especially after that first section. We say our goodbyes and head off.

One final note - When I returned home, I looked up this trail system and as it turns out, it is on private property and foot traffic is not allowed. These trails are exclusively for mountain bikers. I didn't realize that when we were out there, but perhaps those mouthy bikers were actually in the right.