Line Creek that is…
After trying for several weekends, Jenna and I finally got out for a day hike. We’ve all been developing bad cases of the shack nasties and really needed to get ourselves outside for a little while. Connie Lou was off for the day with her best bud Linda and the sun was shining so Jenna and I decided to go for a walk and do a bit of geocaching while we were out and about.
We considered our options for a bit we decided to head over to the Line Creek Nature Area in Peachtree City.
The Line Creek Nature Area is an approximately 70-acre nature preserve situated along Line Creek (imagine that…) south of Highway 54 in Peachtree City, Georgia. Roughly 3 miles of trails travel through upland hardwood and pine forests and hardwood bottoms along Line Creek itself. Line Creek, like most Piedmont streams, consists of flat slow stretches separated by numerous rocky shoals.
The Nature Area has a pavilion and picnic area, a playground for the kids and a small pond for folks to fish in. Given the amount of trees and brush around the pond flyfishing would be tough if not impossible but a spinning rod would be just the ticket.
We got to the parking lot and geared up to walk shortly after lunch. We decided to head down the Mule Rock Loop first and promptly took a wrong turn onto a side trail. We decided we had gone the wrong direction once we saw the Hwy 54 bridge over the creek. Oops. Fortunately that only add an extra half mile or so to our trip and next time we’ll know better. Once back on track we made our way to Mule Rock, a spot where the head of a mule has been carved into a rock outcrop by the creek .
We followed the Mule Rock Loop to the Bridge Trail which took us past the remnants of a Civil War bridge over Line Creek.
From the Bridge Trail we picked up the Creek Trail which follows the creek downstream to Lake McIntosh, a new reservoir which was recently built on the Coweta-Fayette County Line.
The walk along the creek on the creek trail feels a bit odd because it runs behind a subdivision and you’re practically in someone’s backyard most of the time. We got to watch folks working in their back yards and nearly got caught in the middle of an Airsoft firefight. There were also hidden little gems here and there along the trail like this stream filled with moss-covered rocks.
The Line Creek Nature Area is a great place for a walk in the woods but if you’re looking for solitude…forget it on a weekend. We had lots of company…but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Lots of folks were getting their kids out in the woods and away from the video games and televisions. While we chuckled a bit at the ‘soccer girls’ out on the trails in sweats and nylon sports jackets (which were being shredded by the occasional sticker vine) and the teenage boy in a pair of cowboy boots (those heels HAD to hurt), we were really just glad to see them out enjoying some time in the woods. The trail itself traveled mostly over flat or gently rolling terrain. It was mostly smooth but was a little rocky and rooty in places and was surprisingly free of significant amounts of mud, especially considering the monsoon that blew through our area earlier in the week.
So how did our day measure up? We ended up hiking about five miles in just under three hours and found the all four of the four geocaches we set out to find…and we left a couple for next time…so we’d have a good excuse to go back.
Get Out! 