Atlanta Beltline - Westside Trail

Please join us on another Urban Hike on the Atlanta Beltline. The new artwork for 2013 is going up in September so by mid-September we should be able to see all of it. The Southwest portion of the Beltline contains one of four sections of the Beltline that has been selected to house new artwork. The portion is between Washington Park and Allene Avenue in southwest Atlanta and that is included on this hike! There are lots of aspects of this hike - we'll spend a lot of time on the new Beltline Trail but we'll also hike through residential areas and utilize paved PATH trails. This trek will take us through a lot of neat places in the West End: starting at Washington Park and going through Mozley Park, Strattford Park, Gordon-White Park and down to Adair Park. The route will be a loop between Washington Park and Ralph David Abernathy. We will do an in and out of the Beltline Trail starting south of Ralph David Abernathy which we predict to be about 3 or 4 miles making the whole hike roughly 10 miles. We will end up doing the entire length of the Southwest Beltline by the time we're done.

We'll stop for a break and quick lunch or snack at Adair Park so please bring a light lunch or snack. It's a good stopping point and there is a nice pavilion we can use.

Total hiking/walking distance is going to be about 10 miles. We anticipate this to be just about the correct distance but please be prepared to go a little further. This is not a beginner's event. Please make sure you are able to keep a steady pace with us for 10+ miles.

We'll park and meet at Washington Park - there are no restooms there.

Please be aware that we must stick together as a group. If you desire to do your own thing and not stick with the group, this is not the event for you. This is not known to be the safest neighborhood and for that reason we must all stick together.

The hiking surfaces are: 30% sidewalks/pavement and the rest is a combination of gravel, dirt trails and some old railroad tracks. There can be broken glass bottles and other strange debris along the trails. I recommend either hiking shoes/boots or trail runners that have a more solid bottom than regular tennis shoes. You do not want to wear shoes like Keds and unless you have no choice, I do not recommend tennis shoes either.

More info on the Atlanta Beltline here:

http://beltline.org/

  ** If you are on the waiting list and did not make it to the confirmed list, it is not okay to show up for the event. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Parking is at Washington Park in Atlanta. The physical address is:

1125 Lena St NW
Atlanta, GA 30314

There is parking along Michigan Ave NW. We will meet between the baseball field and the playground. Don't worry, the park is small and as soon as you look at the satellite view of the park, you'll see how easy it is.

Open maps.google.com and paste the bold line below in to the search bar. Then chose Satelite View. It will give you a bird's eye view of where to meet.

33.75811, -84.42281

If the weather looks horrible, we'll cancel or reschedule.