Tue, Jul 24 2018 - Sweetwater Creek Trails & Mill Ruins (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Holt Ward Participants: Holt Ward, Eric Ward, Judy, Shirley N, Sharon C., Evy, JOHN HARRELL, Jennifer W, Nicole Battaglia, Val, Allan, Norm Melton, Bunnie

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What a great group for today's hike at Sweetwater Creek State Park.  We started our hike by crossing Sweetwater Creek and hiking the relatively new Blue trail.  Then we crossed back over the creek and hiked downstream towards the mill ruins on the Red trail.  We learned a bit about the history of the mill and enjoyed seeing the ruins have been well preserved. 

Next came the most challenging part of our hike as we continued on the Red trail all the way to the falls.  This part of the trail was full of roots and rocks and had plenty of steep but short climbs followed by equally steep descents.  Next we took the White trail which started as a steep climb up to the ridge line.  After making that elevation, the rest of the hike back to the visitors center was generally gentle ups and downs all the way back.  We completed our 6.1 mile hike in about 2:20 hours, so a pretty healthy pace all things considered.  

A special welcome to my son Eric, a brand new member of the AOC who was on his first AOC event.   ~ Holt