Bowman's Island

Yeah, I go there all the time.

Me and the kids walked around a bit today. There are still a couple of purple lines on my map. Can't have that.

We started at the Island Ford trailhead, walked down the ridge toward Richland Creek, took the first trail at the bottom of the ridge, and lo...



a washing machine? I guess.

The trail led into the flatts and quickly became indistinguishable from the surrounding woods. One less purple line.

I wanted to get across Richland Creek and kill some purple on the other side too. We went down to the creek, but it was deep and fast-moving, and it was too cold for wet feet. Iz led us upstream for a while, looking for a better place to cross. The brush was dense, but there were a thousand game trails weaving through it. Sophie called it a "wonderland of sticks" or something like that.



Eventually we spotted a tangle of trees upstream, brought down by the recent floods. Maybe we could cross there.



On the way to the crossing, we found this big sinkhole with a little trickle of a stream running into it. There was a veritable gorge between it and the river. I imagine whenever we get some good rain, another chunk drops in.



It took us 30 minutes, but we tiptoed, crawled and clambered over the jungle gym of downed trees. Iz almost fell into the water once, but she saved it in one of the most impressive flails I've ever seen. I'm not sure I could have saved it. Her gymnastics classes really paid off. She wasn't in any danger, except of getting wet, but it was still cool.

Sophie has some work to do on her confidence. For every obstacle, she's quick to say she can't do it. She can't reach, can't balance, can't get up, down, over, under or through, but then of course, when she tries, she gets it done on the first try.

Iz was the first to make it across. She's been studying explorers in school, so when she set foot on the far bank, she claimed "the new world" for herself. "I claim this new world, all of it, even though I haven't seen any of it yet..." Hilarious.

We milled around over there for a while and killed some more purple.

Found a ton more oranges, or whatever these are.



This time, I took one home and I'm going to cut it in half.

We took a little break where Richland tees into the Chattahoochee.

M'n'M's and Skittles. Healthy.



We didn't really want to have to cross back where we crossed over the first time, it was a long way upstream and we were already pushing daylight.

Another jungle gym. Could we get across?



Apparently so, and much more easily than before.

Up the other side.



Iz nav'ed us through the woods back to Old Island Ford Road and out. By the time we got out, it was officially dark. Earlier than I expected. I'll have to keep an eye on that. The time change is coming soon too.