Sat, Apr 18 2009 - Chatt NRA North to South: Part 3 - Abbotts Bridge & Medlock Bridge (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Sandy Nadler, Tony C Participants: Tony C, Denise Van Huss, Kristina, Caroline, Sandy Nadler, cliff j, Susan Pratt, Pam P, Gene Shiau

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Write Up:
We had a fun group today and made the most of the beautiful weather.  We started out at the Abbotts Bridge unit of the Chatt. NRA and first took time to admire those majestic trees at the beginning of the trail (see pics).  

Although the hike at Abbotts Bridge was only about 1 mile total, there was a good bit of variety packed into that mile.  We began by walking through a fairly well defined fisherman use trail...admiring more trees along the path, and some birds pointed out by Susan who brought her binoculars along.     Then the trail became a bit fainter and the vegetation encroached on both sides.  It was a bit of bushwhacking for maybe 100 yards, but then we emerged from the woods into the fields at Scott Hudgens Park.

It was nice to be out in an open area on such a pretty day and we hung out here for quite a while.  There were some remote control glider plane enthusiasts out there, so we watched them toss their gliders up into the air and then catch the rising thermals to go higher.   The little planes were quite remarkable with small little servos that allowed the operator to move the wing tips, rudder and a couple other areas on the plane.  But they were having them do loops and turns and all kinds of maneuvers...all without any kind of propulsion system besides the wind and rising air currents.

After this bit unplanned entertainment, we headed towards the parking area...but instead of going back through the dense foliage, we made it a a loop and went through some grassy areas.  We could see the huge tree near the parking area in the distance and there was even a faint use trail that we were able to follow.

From here, it was only about a ten minute drive to the Medlock Bridge park.  Now we had longer trails and some inclines that were definitely "hill-like"...no mountains but enough to get our heart rates up.   We started down the trail here and enjoyed some river views until we had to turn around at the "No Trespassing" sign at the end...hate those...but we stopped to grab a couple of shots at a tree hanging over the river and then headed back and around.

We did a couple of little mini loops...all totaling about 3 miles in about an hour.  Near the end we stopped at a rock outcropping by the river and tried to get some action shots of ducks in flight...Caroline had the best results (see her album below) and a couple of others got decent results as well.  We enjoyed some conversation here and then headed back to the cars.   Afterwards most of us went to get pizza.   We ate far more calories than we had burned up on these two little hikes, but it was a satisfying end to a fun day.

Pics:  http://picasaweb.google.com/tcoutdoors/20090418AOCChattAbbotsMedlockBridge#

Caroline's Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/pirates81/AbbottsMedlockBridges?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPR0_6ZrOPu8wE&feat=directlink

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