Give Back to Mason Mill Park on this Trail Maintenance Hike!

Over the years hundreds of us AOCers have enjoyed a wide variety of hikes and other memorable Club outings at DeKalb County's beautiful Mason Mill Park and its interconnecting nature preserves at Emory University, etc.   Hope you can make time this Saturday morning to "give back" a bit by pitching in with this volunteer trail maintenance hike.  The ~3-hour event will be hosted by our friend, Ranger Jonah McDonald and no previous experience or special skills are required.   Comfortable weather in the 70s is expected during the event with partly sunny skies. We intend to follow the CDC's latest pandemic guidelines regarding social distancing, masks, etc. - also we prefer that everyone be fully vaccinated.

This is from Jonah's online invitation:   "Want to make our park more welcoming to all?  Come assist Ranger Jonah with trail maintenence and invasive plant removal.  Wear long pants and appropriate footwear.  Also please bring a refillable water bottle, work gloves and a snack.  Tools and water will be provided."

Our AOC "subgroup" will gather initially at 8:45 AM just inside the Mason Mill Park entrance (by the stone restroom building and kids' playground - see detailed Directions & GPS info below).   After AOC introductions, sharing of loaner work gloves, etc. we'll walk together to the nearby "PATH Trailhead" by the Tennis Center, where at ~8:00 we'll be greeted by Ranger Jonah and other volunteers.  After a safety discussion and Q&A session we'll hike together - each with a chosen tool - to begin the project.  We expect to be back at the cars by about 12:00 Noon.  If you need to "split" early from the group that's OK, but be sure to let us know if and when you do so.  It should be easy to direct you back to the parking lot.

A little about "Ranger Jonah":   Since joining the professional staff of the DeKalb County Parks & Recreation Dept. in Jan 2019 Jonah McDonald has done an amazing job interacting park visitors and overseeing improvement of Mason Mill Park's ecosystems and hiking trails.  He hosts numerous free events such as this one for volunteers and also a wide variety of entertaining & educational nature hikes, campfire gatherings, stargazing sessions, etc.   Also Jonah has become a popular author of hiking & nature guidebooks.  His "Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests" is one of one our AOC Trip Leaders' favorite references to the dozens of wonderful trails in and around metro Atlanta. 

MORE ABOUT MASON MILL and its other adjoining PARKS & TRAILS:  DeKalb County's Mason Mill Park conveniently interconnects with nearby Medlock Park, Ira Melton Park, and Emory's Lullwater Park via a network of shady trails and multi-million dollar forest canopy boardwalks.  The South Peachtree Creek "PATH" Trail is the main artery through this multi-park corridor, and like NW Atlanta's Silver Comet Trail was built to the high standards of Atlanta's nonprofit PATH Foundation.   Branching from the main trail are several miles of ruggedly scenic narrow paths and trails, many which adjoin the banks of "South Fork Peachtree Creek" and its sinuous tributaries - notably Burnt Fork Creek and Glen Creek.  An impressive section of the trail traverses the railroad track via a 3-story wooden deck & walkway.  Here hikers and bikers are treated to aerial views of the restored ruins of the historic early-20th-Century Decatur Waterworks.  The highest portion of the deck has proven to be a good dark spot for occasional urban "skygazing" - i.e, viewing the stars & planets, sunsets, moonrises, eclipses, meteor showers, etc.  From just below the Waterworks deck it's easy to cross the main creek via a pathway of huge flat stepping stones which at normal water levels allows easy access to Ira Melton Park and its white-blazed loop trail, etc.  In 2017 a new mile-long forest canopy boardwalk was opened between Mason Mill Park's DeKalb Tennis Center and North Druid Hills Road, which proved to be an instant AOC favorite. Then in 2018 the PATH Foundation opened a similar "double-wide" boardwalk + paved trail that make it easy to hike from Mason Mill Park to the Lullwater Park trail system at Emory (via a "hiker-biker underpass" to cross safely under Clairmont Rd near the VA Hospital).  A fourth nice DeKalb County park that's easy to access by foot from the above trails is the 28-acre Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, just a 10-minute walk east of Medlock Park.

For an Interactive Map of the "PATH" South Peachtree Creek Trail and how it interconnects Mason Mill & Medlock Park with Emory's Lullwater Park, Ira Melton Park and other DeKalb County green space, click this link:  https://www.pathfoundation.org/south-peachtree-creek-trail

DIRECTIONS to our GATHERING SPOT in the MASON MILL PARKING LOT,  just inside the PARK ENTRANCE beside the STONE RESTROOM BLDG:

GPS and GOOGLE MAPS USERS:  As your Destination address, you can enter the following Lat/Lon in lieu of a specific street address, being sure to include the comma and minus sign:  33.8080, -84.3066  (For a zoomable color MAP and satellite view of this spot and its vicinity you can click the square blue & green "Event Location" icon near the top of this article.) 

FROM the I-85 CLAIRMONT ROAD EXIT in NE METRO ATLANTA to our MASON MILL PARK Gathering Spot:
1. From the I-85 "Clairmont Road" Exit (Exit #91) in NE Atlanta take Clairmont Rd southward (toward Decatur) about 2.3 miles to the traffic light at McConnell Drive.  (This is the next light south of the much busier Clairmont/ North Druid Hills intersection.  If you reach the huge VA Hospital you've taken Clairmont a few blocks too far!)
2. Turn Left onto McConnell Drive, go just 0.1 mile, and turn Right at the stop sign to stay on McConnell. (Note the small "Mason Mill" directional sign here near the entranceway to DeKalb County's Avis Williams Library.)
3. Then turn Left almost immediately at the "Mason Mill Park" entrance sign and park just inside the entrance in the large free lot.  We'll gather by the stone Restroom building (which has been kept Locked during the Pandemic .  It adjoins the children's playground near the Park entrance.)
  In the unlikely event that you can't find a parking space there, the Library mentioned above also has plenty of free parking - just a 5-minute walk away.

Free Event with Free Parking!