Today, I'll join the Meetup group to hike at one of my favorite parks in the greater Atlanta area, Cochran Mill. I love this particular park because it has a large trail system and a number of interesting water features, including a couple of waterfalls. I've hiked here many times, but if my schedule allows, I almost always join for this one when it gets posted.
Pulling into the parking area, I see several friends that are part of the group. I walk over and pay the $5 parking fee to get the tag for my car and then walk over to chat with my friends. It's a humid day and we have a pretty small group today, only about ten of us, which is quite unusual for this group. Ah well, smaller groups are easier to manage in my opinion. Before long, we hit the trails.
The first section takes us through a slightly overgrown and muddy section that has a lot of joro spiders with their webs strung across the trail. Luckily, one of my friends is using a hiking stick and uses it to clear the way for us. Along this section, we find a dead log completely covered with the turkey tail fungus, which is common in this area, but rarely do we see anything covered this heavily.
Soon, we reach the river and the trail opens up a bit more just before we hit the waterfall area. Last year when we hiked here, we encountered a copperhead in this area and so, we warn everyone to watch where they are stepping. Bear Creek is flowing nicely today and we take a few minutes to have a snack and water break on the granite near the waterfall.
Before too long though, we're moving again and this next section requires us to climb a very steep uphill. I take advantage and run up it. I don't often get a workout on our Sunday hikes, but when an opportunity presents itself, I try to take advantage. The remainder of the hike is pretty tame though we seem to be going a little faster today than normal, which is a welcome changes for me. Not that this group is slow, but I'm a very fast hiker and I love being able to cruise through these wooded areas in high gear.
After arriving back at the parking lot, I mention that I'm going to walk across the street to the other waterfall and ruins of the mill, but no one seems to be all that interested and they go their separate ways. There are few people over there enjoying the cool water on this hot day, but I only stay long enough for a picture of the mill ruins. With this little addition, my total distance was about 8.2 miles for the day. Not bad, but now it's time to go home and smoke some chicken on the grill.
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