Tue, Sep 24 2019 - Sweetwater Creek Eastside Trails and Mill Ruins (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Allen D, Holt Ward Participants: Holt Ward, Rocky M, Claudia, Evy, Silvia B, Shirley N, Val, Janet G, Bunnie, Suzanne, Allen D, Allan, Connie C, Tanya H, Karen, Dan C, Jo V

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An interesting day hiking the trails of Sweetwater Creek State Park.  We started out on the yellow trail down towards the river, crossing on the iron bridge.  We continued following the yellow trail along Sweetwater Creek and then started our climb to the ridge line where we picked up the orange trail.  We did that out and back before descending  back to the creek on the other side of the yellow loop.  

We took a short trail along the creek where we were able to walk out into the creek on rocks which are normally underwater but with the drought, are quite visable.  From there we had a great view of the New Manchester mill ruins across the creek and slightly downstream.  We headed back to the iron bridge and hiked part of the blue trail before crossing the creek.  We did a short visit to the foundation ruins of the Ferguson mill which supplied the lumber and bricks used to build the New Manchester Mill downstream. Finally we visited the New Manchester mill and learned a little about it and its demise at the hands of General Sherman in 1864.  We did have some excitement during our hike when we discovered a well camouflagued copperhead sitting on the trail.  We finished our hike back to the visitor center on the white trail, finishing our 7 mile, 3 hour hike.   ~ Holt