Sweetwater Creek Evening Hike (Douglas County, Georgia)

 

Sweetwater Creek State Park offers some of the most scenic hiking trails in the Atlanta area in my opinion. I've hiked there many times, including as recently as a couple of months ago. I learned that the Atlanta Outdoor Club has partnered with the park to offer a guided night hike (or likely more of an evening hike) and thought this would be a great chance to see another aspect of the park. 

Arriving at the designated time, I met up with the group. The organizers and our ranger/guide gave a quick introduction and then provided special tags for our cars and asked us to move them to the employees parking lot, which we all did. After reconvening, we hit the trails. It was approximately 7:00 PM when we started. Apparently the park offers this night hike occasionally, but with the assistance of the club, has extended it from two miles to five miles. 

We make our way down to the creek, which is much calmer than the last time I was here, but still provides some pretty views. The ranger is full of information about the plants and animals we encounter and we encounter quite a few of the later, including toads, turtles, and deer. As we get further into the evening and it begins to get a bit darker, we almost step on a couple of toads who have ventured out onto the trail. And the deer, they are all over the place this time of the day, including one that has swam or waded out to a marshy island in the middle of the creek. 

As we continue our loop, we hike by the ruins of the Old Manchester Mill. It's an impressive site, but I've seen it many times before. What remains of the formerly five-story structure is one of the highlights of the park. Over the past year, a large observation deck has been constructed overlooking the ruins and the creek beyond. There's also a side channel leading up to the mill ruins that was build by enslaved peoples prior to the civil war. This trench was made by building retaining walls from local stones and diverted water directly to the mill's waterwheel. Only segments of the retaining wall remain.

The next section is a bit more technical and includes some minor rock scrambling, but offers some spectacular views of the broad Sweetwater Creek. During this section one of the hikers in our group begins to struggle a bit and as we reach the top and final section, we learn that she has fallen quite a bit behind. One of the organizers had stayed back with her to assist, but eventually, the ranger makes the decision to call for help. Soon, other rangers in a side-by-side arrive and drive down the rough trail to collect the hiker and transport her back to the employee area where we left our cars. The group waits while all of this happens and by the time we're hiking again, darkness has fully settled in.

Arriving back at the visitors center, the rangers open up the building and allow us to use the restrooms. It has started to sprinkle rain and it's time to head home. It was a fun little adventure and we ended up hiking about 6.3 miles. I really appreciate the park rangers and what they do, both to educate the public as they did for us, as well as to serve those in need like our overexerted hiker.