Tue, Apr 28 2009 - After-Work Adventure by the Hooch for Experienced Hikers (View Original Event Details)
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Thanks to twenty intrepid AOC hiking companions including several wonderful old friends who met me after work on April 28th and proved that the Chattahoochee River NRA’s West Palisades unit does indeed have a hikable riverside “Northwest Passage!” Although our joint endeavor involved two quarter-mile sections of light cliff scaling, river rock tiptoeing, and bushwhacking through a few “laurel thickets,” we generally agreed that the 2 miles of "River-right Riverbank" southward all the way from the Cochran Shoals parking lot (just NW of I-285) to the I-75 bridge can aptly be described as a “D5 or less Trail” that is not overly difficult for experienced hikers. We returned to the cars via a route that was on the opposite end of the AOC’s “D1 thru 5” rating system: first walking up the entire 1.8-mile Silver-Comet-like paved trail that parallels Rottenwood Creek (from the Hooch all the way past I-285) then finishing the hike a bit before dark (about 9 PM) via the mile or so of sidewalk along the north shoulder of Interstate North Pkwy.
Thanks to Tony, Denise, and Rafique who shot fantastic pics throughout the hike including action shots of us scaling the little cliffs, group photos, and the wonderful natural scenery, including the river itself, blooming mountain laurel and flying Canada geese. A super-cool image in Tony’s attached PicasaWeb album is his GPS record of our route superimposed over the Google.com/Maps color aerial photo map of the area -- I had failed to realize until seeing
Tony’s image how neatly we "neo-Magellans" had “circumnavigated” the entire West Palisades wilderness!
ROUTE DESCRIPTION: Our chosen route clockwise around the perimeter of the CRNRA unit worked out well to fill the 2.5 hours we had allotted until dark. After introductions at 6:15 PM at the popular Cochran Shoals parking lot we initially walked underneath the I-285 bridge and its adjoining access road bridge spans, then continued downstream along the half-mile frontage of “Riverbend” and its neighboring condos, crossed a couple of small new footbridges, and quickly reached the north end of the rugged trail discussed above. After just a quarter mile of riverside bushwhacking & cliff-scaling southward (on what we might call “non-trail section #1”) we reached the West Palisades marked trail near the south end of the well-known “Devil’s Racecourse” rapids. About 200 meters further southward we arrived at the sandy shore of the Hooch opposite the famous “Jumping Rock” so popular among raftsmen and canoeists, where we took a little break and where Denise got a nice photo of the group (attached in Tony’s album). Continuing southward for about another quarter mile via the marked trail by the river we crossed a footbridge, and quickly came to a second indistinct riverside trail with fairly large cliffs (what we might call “non-trail section #2”). After about 300 yards of light bushwhacking and bouldering by the river on this “non-trail” we arrived again at the marked riverside trail which took us (in a bit less than a mile) to the mouth of Rottenwood Creek under the I-75 bridge. As discussed above, here we took a right (NW) on the “D1” paved 2-mile trail, thence (NE) back to the parking lot via a mile of sidewalk hiking, with much friendly and jovial conversation along the way!
Special thanks to my co-leader for the event, Sandy Nadler, who did a superb job hiking sweep for the group and handling all the AOC paperwork -- also to the following "good-ole" friends and backpacking buddies (whom I get to see far too seldom!) for joining us and for helping "spot" the hikers above them during our steeper cliff climbs: Cheri & Jim Harrington, Karen & Scott Sanders, Mary Donaldson, and Marty Lavine. Let’s do it again next fall!
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