Oh the Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

Once again I found myself struggling for a title. More often than not, I have a title for a blog entry in mind as I start to write. Sometimes the title for the entry becomes apparent as the event that I’m writing about unfolds. Not this time. Jenna and I had gone down to Chattahoochee Bend to go hiking yesterday and while the story unfolded in my mind quite nicely, a title never did. As we sat down to dinner this evening I asked ConnieLou and Jenna for suggestions. ConnieLou suggested a line or a title from a Dr. Seuss book since Dr. Seuss’ birthday was last week…and then she tossed out “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” Both the title and the opening passage of the book fit perfectly.

Life has been busy…busier than usual for March. ConnieLou had a bridal shower to go to so Jenna and I decided to go outside and play. Jenna has a pair of new hiking boots that needed breaking in and I have some new GoPro camera doo-dads to play with. The sun was shining and the day was warm so we decided to go down to Chattahoochee Bend to try to hike a few sections of trail we haven’t hiked before.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center, paid our parking fee, and headed down to Trail Head 2.

We took a few minutes to get our packs and poles situated and ready to go.

I don’t know if Jenna was excited to be hiking or just happy to be outside.

We hadn’t been on the trail long before Jenna had a chance to get a little mud on her boots.

We had plenty of opportunities to get into more mud later. Like the other trails at the Bend, the sections we hiked were well marked with blazes and were easy to follow.

Mile markers are placed at appropriate locations to let hikers know how far they’ve walked.

We intended to hike a new stretch of the Wild Turkey Trail to get to visit a couple of the beaver ponds in the park. Unfortunately, we missed the turn-off to the new trail and ended up following the Tower Trail on down to the river. We may not have found the beaver ponds but we did get to see a couple of pretty bogs along the way.

Past the bog it was just a short hop through a stand of tall, narrow trees with very light colored bark, over a couple of bridges and through a couple more mud holes to the river. Then it was on to the observation tower.

Of course, we had to climb the tower and have a look around.

After taking a few minutes to take in the view at the tower, we turned around and retraced our steps back to the truck, arriving as the shadows were getting long, another fun afternoon finished but for the drive home.

Want to see more? Check out the video at: Chattahoochee Bend – March 6, 2016

Photo creds:  Jenna Davenport