Chattahoochee Pointe

The past few weeks have been a lot like the past few weeks of college. Too much work to do in too little time. Too much cramming, too many all-nighters, too little sunlight. It's been raining and raining too. I barely remember what it looks like outside.

I did ride my road bike, like once, and I did go walking around for about an hour a few days back.



On that road ride, I took a left instead of the right I usually take and found that park up there. The cursory inspection revealed a small trail system and a couple of points of interest. It was just enough to make me want to come back on foot.

It looks like somebody had a farm back there, way back, and then, more recently like the locals used the old farm road to access the river. Its a park now though, along the same lines as Haw Creek and Caney Creek.

There was an old chimney on the way in.



The sign at the kiosk made the trail look like a bunch of loops off of other loops. It was sort of like that in real life. There was a main trail, but most of the loops were really just mowed areas around the perimeters of old pastures.

The weather was cool and my hands were freezing but for some reason, fading daylight in winter always gives me a cozy feeling.



The whole park was hemmed in by farms and houses and the northern border was fenced off with really old fences.

One old roadbed led down to the river and apparently, some number of floods ago, you used to be able to get into a field or something down there.



Not any more though.

I recognized the rock formations across the river. Last year or maybe the year before I followed a "trail" up there for a while searching for a route from Settles Bridge to McGinnis Ferry.



Some dude was hanging out in a hammock near the river too. It was getting dark but he didn't look like he was planning on leaving any time soon.



I meandered around the old pastures. It looked like there had been at least 3 ponds back there at some point too.



They'd been drained a long time ago though and aside from the old dams were indistinguishable from the surrounding woods.

There were a few more interesting things out there too. Somebody shored up the banks of one of the little feeder creeks.



At the south end of the park there was a canoe launch and what appeared to be more old ponds and the remains of old houses or something. It was getting really dark though and I didn't have time to explore.

Probably the most interesting thing out there was a model air field. I'd hoped to see some planes but no luck. When I was out there on my road bike some folks were flying helicopters around but I guess it was too cold that day.

As the sun went down for real it got cold for real too and my fingers barely worked any more. Every winter I forget to buy a pair of gloves. Maybe I'll remember this time.