Sat, Jan 24 2004 - Sweetwater Creek (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Bruce Participants: Allison Barth, Stephanie Branson, Bruce, Stacey Opaska, Nick Padgett, , Michael Boni, Udo Licht, Michael Aubertine, Rob McDonald, Mikela Swenson, Steve Bevilacqua, Kang Wang, Ryan Michael Manley, Denine Rowley,

Write Up:
After waiting until 11:20am at the park and ride and all three doggies greeted each other as only dogs can, and all of us humans greeted each other without sniffing, it was time to move on to Sweetwater Creek State Park. At our trailhead we met a few more people and started the hike. While it was chilly at the park and ride and cloudy, the sun soon came out for us for the start and duration of the hike and was very pleasant and almost balmy sometimes, especially for this time of year; in the upper 50’s easily. Mid-way through the first portion of our hike, the dogs all enjoyed a stop and swim in the turtle pond, before we moved on to our lunch spot at Sweetwater Creek Falls, nice lunch ‘on the rocks’, and some nice group portraits.

After finishing with the ‘white’ and ‘red’ trails and a brief restroom break; we moved to the lesser used ‘yellow’ trail’. After crossing the creek over the ‘green monster’ metal bridge, and short fairly level walk, we were presented with the more moderate experience of the day with a good long uphill stretch before coming back downhill in this two mile loop and back to the parking lot. The dogs had by far the most energy of all of us, and were well behaved and enjoyed their walk, run (dragging their respective owners).

After saying goodbyes, several of us dined at Ruby Tuesdays afterwards and enjoyed various foods and several took some home (thanks to Udo for the ‘ton-o-fries’ I enjoyed later, much to my indigestions delight). Then we went our separate ways and as usual, it was a great group of people, nice dogs; and good day hiking.
Written By: Bruce Aldridge
Photos From: Bruce Aldridge

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