Sat, Nov 21 2020 - 3-Hour Inter-Park Hike at Mason Mill, Emory & Medlock via exciting Trails & Boardwalks (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Charlie Cottingham Participants: Charlie Cottingham, Mark W, Lee W, Shirley W, Sue, Glenn A, Chris V, HK

  Saturday's blue-sky weather was perfect for our 7-mile hike at Mason Mill Park and Emory's Lullwater Preserve.  Had no problem social-distancing and following CDC guidelines regarding masks, etc.  It did our hearts good along the way to chat with dozens of other folks who were likewise out enjoying the fall splendor with their kids and furry friends.
  We began the hike by taking the PATH Mason Mill-to-Emory boardwalk & spur underneath Clairmont Road (and via a creekside shortcut past the VA Hospital) for a visit to the university's gorgeous Lullwater Preserve parklands.  Miles of shady trails there radiate from the grounds of the Lullwater House mansion overlooking Candler Lake.  Built in the mid-1920s by Walter Candler, son of Coca-Cola's main founder Asa Candler, the mansion has been the successive home of Emory's presidents since 1963. After a stop at the waterfall below the mansion on S Fork Peachtree Creek it was exciting to take the long steel swinging bridge to the far side of the creek and go inside the quaint creekside stone tower that had been part of Candlers' 1920s hydroelectric generating system.
  After re-crossing the footbridge we took the P'tree Creek trail a half mile westward and underneath the Houston Mill Rd bridge to Hahn Woods.  We explored all of its shady terrain and admired the the PATH foundation's progress in extending its Emory "double-wide" trail network a mile or more along the north side of the creek toward Wesley Woods.
  We next ascended from the creek up the steep overgrown hill to the Houston Mill House via its 100-year-old spring house and cistern.  After a stop at the historic restored home we returned to the Emory president's mansion via a pretty singletrack trail on the wooded hill above the Yerkes Primate Center.  After descending the mansion's giant lawn past huge southern magnolias and pecan trees to Candler Lake we then ascended via a pretty single-track trail to Starvine Way for a panoramic view of its colorful forest atop its 100-foot high viaduct.  We then headed back toward Mason Mill via the Clairmont underpass.  Before returning to the cars we hiked through the "jungle-like" historic ruins of the Decatur Waterworks and along the banks of Burnt Fork Creek to its old concrete dam that once held back its reservoir.  - Posted by Charlie, Sun Nov 22nd