Cochran Mill Park

Located in South Fulton County in an area known as the Chattahoochee Hill Country I went for a hike last Friday in Cochran Mill Park. While most Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July with fireworks, hot dogs, parades or whatever else I thought the most freeing activity I could do was walk in the woods. I spent the day doing just as I wanted and that is the greatest freedom of all.

A hiding wild deer. Photo by me, July 2014.

Wild deer were running and hiding in the trees during my walk. I encountered them three times that day and they darted away as fast as they could, except the one in the photo above that hid like a child  in a game of hide and seek behind a downed tree. 

 

Lush ground cover on the forest floor. Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

The trail map I had was inaccurate once I looked at the landscape in front of my eyes. I abandoned the trail and strolled through what had been a farming field many years ago. Now the old field was filled with trees and wild grasses and it was as lush as it could be. I could have been happy to sit in take in the greenery for hours, but I had a destination in mind and knew roughly where it was.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

I came to the banks of Bear Creek. I waded downstream for a long while. I knew it would eventually lead me where I wanted to be. My waterproof hiking boots kept me dry until the water became too deep and they filled up. 'Not a problem,' I thought as a few miles in soggy socks was not going to ruin my fun.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Some time later I could see a clearing in the tree canopy to my left so that must have meant there was a field or open area. I climbed the bank from the creek and confirmed my suspicions. Getting to it meant clawing through dense underbrush and wiggling my way through tangles of briars and privet.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

A few cuts and scrapes later I sat in the wonderful field and pulled water from my backpack. I had the field to myself and thought it would be a good place to fly a kite on a windy March day. I made that mental note and filed it away for future reference. I knew from this field I could rejoin the trail system and ultimately decided I would give the poorly marked system another go.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

An abandoned bridge. Photo by me, July 2014.

I walked along an old road. I knew from the history of the area there were old mills, dams, a house foundation or two and a cemetery around these parts before it became public land. So walking the old road had me thinking of people traveling through here in cars or wagons maybe. I thought of how isolated and quiet it must have been back then. Not all that different from today in that it was quiet, but not nearly as isolated. Though no houses were around for a few miles, omnipresent technology such as cell phones and the like have limited what isolation we can truly experience. My phone thankfully stayed silent from texts, calls or emails and I never listen to music when I hike. I walk or hike because I want the full first-hand experience of nature in surround sound.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

A few poorly marked trail junctions later and some guessing on my part and I veered off the road onto a trail heading deeper into the woods. The trail was flat through this portion and I made good time through the green woods. It was a pretty walk in the summer and I would imagine in the peak of fall it is even prettier.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Then it came time to cross Bear Creek again as it meandered through the woods, at least this time there were stepping stones to avoid the water.

Just follow the "H" I suppose. Photo by me, July 2014.

I passed a few people dotting the trail like mushrooms and forged onward on a twisty trail along a ridge line with rock outcroppings. My spirits were high as if the lush forest was feeding me some kind of natural energy.

A white mushroom hiding in the moss. Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Ominous looking little tiny red mushrooms. Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Speaking of mushrooms, there were plenty to be admired. The forests of Georgia, with ample rainfall, are good places for mushroom hunting. Seeing all these mushrooms was a reminder I have been wanting to buy a reference book on mushrooms so that I can identify them. I do not have a desire to consume them in any fashion, but it would be nice to know what I am looking at. It was fun crawling around the ground getting photos of the many types I saw. I kept waiting for someone to walk up on me and wonder what I was doing but it didn't happen.

Photo by me, July 2014.

A few hours and miles into my walk I reached my destination. As with any decent waterfall, I heard it before I saw Henry Mill waterfall. The trail came up behind and I walked out on the algae and moss covered rocks at the top. I took my photos, enjoyed the sound of the water, walked down from the falls and sat on a rock ledge to take in the scene of nature's work. I was alone with the falls. I was there for only a few minutes when technology pierced my isolation. I should have just turned the thing off. I had walked all those miles and hours to enjoy the scenery only to have it interrupted by the nuisances I had wanted to leave behind. Thirty minutes of alone time at the falls was all I could get before other hikers with children came and decided to set up chairs and a mini-camp right the middle of the rocks of the falls. I left and started my hike back to civilization as the day was getting long.

 

To borrow from that lovely and famous poem by Robert Frost:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

This wildflower is a spurred butterfly pea. Photo by me, July 2014.

Photo by me, July 2014.

A variety of wildflowers were blooming in the more sunny spots along the creeks and the trails.

I was stopped and had a conversation with another person out enjoying the trails. He asked if I had seen the deer. I said yeah I had seen three so far and we talked about predators in the wild. A few moments of conversation and we parted going opposite directions. This is one of the aspects of hiking that I like, meeting strangers on the trail and sharing experiences.

Photo by me, July 2014.

Beside a trail marker sign was this surprise. A rat snake about four to five feet in length that was stretched out on the ground. I crouched down and took a closer look at it and it was certainly alive and watching me, I had for a brief second thought it might be dead since it was directly adjacent to the trail. I watched it for a couple minutes and decided I had seen enough before moving on.

Rat snakes are a common sight when out hiking in Georgia in the warmer months. Please do not kill these snakes as they are harmless and considered good for the environment. There are plenty of other snakes you might encounter in the Georgia woods and the one I have seen the most is the copperhead - they are not friendly, cuddly snakes.

Photo by me, July 2014.

On my way out of the woods I navigated the trails slightly better to the trailhead. It was pure luck combined with my lifelong experience in the woods that led me out. Before hiking this area I read about an entire family getting lost here and needing a search and rescue team to find them. After wandering around on these trails I could see exactly how that happened. The trail maps were wrong and the trail markers were inadequate or wrong too. Like life, I do not mind getting lost all that much, when I have the time, because you can make some of your best self discoveries trying to find your direction.

My misadventures on and off the trail tallied seven miles of walking in the end. I got home tired, muddy, bloody, and most importantly satisfied.




Updated March 2, 2017: Since the was written in 2014, improvements have been made to the trail system and the signage at Cochran Mill Park.

Dance In The Garden In Torn Sheets In The Rain

This morning I was listening to a B52s retrospective show on WMLB over my coffee. It made me think of my years in high school and all the good music I was fortunate enough to hear out of Athens in the 1980s and early 90s. I wore out Cosmic Thing on cassette and I was heavily into R.E.M., but the B52s were my happy music. The music they made created a special impression on me about Athens and how I imagined it to be such a cool and alternative paradise on the other side of state. Even though I grew up in Georgia, Paulding County to be precise, and I have lived most of my adult life in the city of Atlanta it took me until a couple of years ago, 2011, to finally visit Athens. I have been to Athens a few times over the last couple of years and I do love the place.


I was just over there again in April of this year and I grabbed my coffee and stood under the clock at E. Broad Street and College Avenue and soaked in the atmosphere. UGA was in session and I might have been a little out of place amongst all the college kids but I didn't care because it was nice to be in the place where so much great music was made. The rest of my group was off doing other things so I took the time to stroll alone through Downtown. Athens didn't mean anything to them because it was just another town and they weren't connected to the music, though I did try to convert them on the drive over.

Not the original location of the 40 Watt. Photo by me, April 2014.

I stood outside the 40 Watt Club for a few minutes and imagined all the great performances that have gone on inside it. Earlier in the day I had tried to explain the significance of Wuxtry Records to my group as we walked past on East Clayton Street and when they failed to care I decided it was time to separate and explore on my own for a little. They just didn't 'get' Athens.

Photo by me, April 2014.

I stopped by the Georgia Theatre to pay my respects and snap some photos. A college kid stopped on his scooter at the light on the corner caught my eye and he smiled at me. He was probably thinking, look at that middle age man reliving he college memories. Then my cell rang and my friends were bored and hounding me about food.

Photo by me, April 2014.

There's only one place I will typically eat in Athens and that is Weaver D's. I met up with my friends there and of course I had to explain why the walls inside were plastered in R.E.M. posters. Then I tried to explain Automatic For The People and how R.E.M. borrowed that slogan for an album name.They didn't much care but they liked the fried chicken and so did I. I only wish they had brought out my sweet potatoes like they said they would but service isn't something I would rave about here.

Photo by me, April 2014.

After we ate I walked over to the bridge over the Oconee River which sits next door to Weaver D's. My friends didn't join me so I was glad to make them wait a couple extra minutes before we got back in the car and headed down the Atlanta Highway.

I still love Athens and the music that was born there even if my friends don't. So when I heard the Deadbeat Club this morning I was taken back to my youth and driving with the windows down on my Datsun 280ZX and singing my heart out. Sadly, I have yet to find anyone willing to dance in the garden in torn sheets in the rain and I need to work on that.

Summer Colors

Fresh goodness. Photo by me, June 2014.

On the first of the month I paid another visit to the State Farmer's Market down in Forest Park. My mission was to browse the produce and maybe find some bedding plants. It's a big outdoor open-air market housed under these massive concrete stalls near the airport. It isn't a pretty place at first glance, but the colors from the vegetables and flowers give it plenty of life. The market emphasizes form over function so it isn't a glamorous place like what you might expect in an indoor market and I like it that way - I like to see the beauty in the ugly.

Photo by me, June 2014.

One vendor was selling pinatas. I was so happy to see these hanging from the roof. One of my aunts on my mother's side of the family would buy these for birthday parties when I was a child. She would hang them from the ceiling of her carport and my two cousins, brother and I would take our blind folded turns and swing at it with a baseball bat. Many good laughs erupted at how we would swing at the air completely missing the target. It often took several good whacks to bust one open. It might be fun to have a party even in my adulthood with one... I will file that idea away for potential later use.

Photo by me, June 2014.

No pinatas, but I did end up getting some pretty mangoes for smoothie making and some fresh vegetables.

Photo by me, June 2014.

Then I walked over to where they sell flowers and bedding plants. It was a colorful scene and the photo above only shows a portion of what all they offered. I spent more time looking at flowers that afternoon than I did at anything else. The selection was good quality and the prices were reasonable so I ended up buying some bright stars, marigolds (I love these basic flowers and plant them every year) and zinnias. 

A photo of a zinnia planted by my mother from my childhood in the 1980s. I must have been trying some "arty" focusing. Photo by me, 1980s.

I haven't planted zinnias since I was a child with my mother. I have some photos tucked away of growing them one year with a grasshopper perched atop one of the blooms. Growing flowers and tending them are some of the best memories I had with my mother and flowers were something that brought us both much happiness. I can't plant flowers or tend to my plants without thinking of her.

It seems the visit that day to the farmer's market brought out childhood memories in me and I acted on one of them in getting the zinnias. So far they are growing well and I will have to post some photos of them as the summer goes on.

 

The Carousel At Zoo Atlanta

Photo by me, February 2013.

A carousel for me is a reminder of days gone by like my childhood and times of more simple and grand forms of amusement. Carousels are a fantastical and leisurely ride in circles bobbing up and down on wooden animals instead of the adrenaline pumping theme park rides of modern times. Yet, carousels have somehow managed to survive maybe because they still amuse small children and satisfy the nostalgia of us older adults. Aside from the nostalgia I like carousels because they are beautiful, the animals are often hand carved and are a display of quality craftsmanship and because they are colorful. I tend to think of them as a piece of art that you can ride.

Photo by me, February 2013.

Despite the feelings of nostalgia it might evoke the carousel inside Zoo Atlanta is not an old one however, it was built in 1998. It was built by the Ohio company Carousel Works, which is the largest manufacturer of carousels in the world. I remember walking through the zoo last year and lighting up in a smile at the sight of the carousel. The bright colors and the animals resurrected feelings of being a child again if ever so briefly. I don't think a person can be unhappy around a carousel except for maybe a child whose parent won't let them ride it again.

Photo by me, February 2013.

It's difficult to resist the sweet stare of those elephant's eyes. The animals are all made of wood lined up in a herd of three rows. There are bears, elephants, leopards, tigers, a giraffe and other animals with two sleighs to ride if you prefer that over mounting an animal. The current carousel had a predecessor outside the zoo and located in Grant Park. It was installed in 1966 but was sold off in the 1980s and today it is amusing young and old in Chattanooga.

Photo by me, February 2013.

If you are interested in carousels there are a few of others that I can think of nearby in the Atlanta suburbs and they are located at Northpoint Mall in Alpharetta, Sugarloaf Mills in Duluth and one at Six Flags Over Georgia.

Monsters At The Asylum

March 2014. Photo by me.

This mural was painted in 2012 as part of Living Walls and was painted by the artist Fefe Talavera. Fefe Talavera is known for painting monsters in her native Brazil and for her it is a cathartic experience. She said in an interview, "the monsters are a way of exorcising my feelings, my angers, my sadness, my ignorance, my fear...it is the only method by which I succeed in expressing my rage, at life, my fury."  

March 2014. Photo by me.

I love the red, black, and white colors she chose to use on the side of the Asylum building on Flat Shoals Avenue in the East Atlanta Village. Unfortunately I couldn't get a closer look at the mural because it is behind a chain link fence and peeking through the wire mesh kind of takes away from the beauty of the work on the side of the wall. Or I suppose you could interpret it as the monsters are locked away kind of like animals at the zoo? In the monster on the right I notice the face of a human lurking behind the shapes of the monster. It makes me think of what the artist said about exorcising her inner monster through her work.

This mural is one of several in the East Atlanta Village so take a stroll around and take in all the free public art awaiting you.

The Old State Capitol of Georgia

This Gothic Revival beauty stands after 200 years in a small east Georgia city. Photo by me, November 2012.

This was parts unknown for me in the Fall of 2012 as I traveled south on U.S. 441, crossed Lake Sinclair and arrived in Milledgeville. Other than Augusta I had never been or passed through the east central part of the state. It was a pretty drive south past the farm lands as I traveled from Interstate 20 with the occasional hill and town but mostly wide open spaces on the way to one of the former state capitals of Georgia. Georgia has been around long enough, a British colony in 1733 and a state since 1788, to have had more than one capital city - we Georgians can be a fickle bunch. I live in the current capital so on that perfectly sunny and warm October day I wanted to see the one that preceded Atlanta.

Before state lawmakers took residence under the gold dome in Atlanta this was their home. Photo by me, November 2012.

In 1804 the Georgia legislature voted to permanently relocate the state capitol from Louisville to Milledgeville. Construction began in 1805 for the new state capitol building in Milledgeville and it opened in 1807. It turned out to be not so permanent as Atlanta became the state capital in 1868.  

It was also here that the Georgia legislature made its most tragic mistake in its history in January 1861. The convention to secede from the Union over slavery was held in this building. It was not an immediate decision and several votes were held as legislators were divided among those in favor of secession and those who were Union loyalists. One vote was as close as 166 to 130 in favor of secession, but the final vote in favor was 208 to 89. 

Despite what might be taught, portrayed in the media or people may believe, the South and its citizens are and were not a monolithic block. After the legislature's vote and during the American Civil War there were protests, riots, desertions, militias loyal to the Union formed and a distaste against the war among some of the populace in Georgia. Demands to put the secession to a vote by the people of the state were ignored by those in power. As one newspaper in South Georgia put it, "this has been a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." Fools who still today fly the Confederate battle flag or erect monuments have never spoken for all of us in the South and likely understand very little of this region's complex history the same as those outside the region who believe in stereotypes.  

Photo by me, November 2012

Architecturally, the building was different from most state capitol buildings of that period in that it did not have a domed roof. The Gothic Revival building looks more like a fortress or castle than what comes to mind when one thinks of capitol buildings. I quite like it. Instead of a dome it has a pointy clock tower in the center. The lancet arch windows are elegant and the arch is repeated again on the face of the clock tower.

Photo by me, November 2012

Originally budgeted to be built for $60,000 by the time is was finished with additional wings added and renovations it cost $200,000 to complete or $5.2 million in 2012. Though the building was occupied in 1807 by the legislature, it would not be finished until 1835 and today what you see is considered to be the finished product. The building is made of brick that was manufactured in Milledgeville. The walls are reportedly between three to four feet thick.

The crenelations along the roof line add to the look of the building appearing as a fortress or castle. Architect Henry Hamilton is responsible for the crenelations and the two additional wings added to the building in 1828 and 1834.

The north portico that faces out onto Greene Street. Photo by me, November 2012.

The west entrance and stairs to the building. Photo by me, November 2012.

The south portico. Photo by me, November 2012.

The east face of the building. Photo by me, November 2012.

The granite stairs and the porticoes were added to the building in 1835. These additions to the building were designed by Charles Cluskey. Based on illustrations I have seen of the building prior to the steps and porticoes being added it would appear that one would have entered the building one level below from the floor you enter today.

Satellite imagery from Google Maps.

In this satellite view you can see how the capitol building was built in the middle of the square and was originally surrounded by green space on all four sides. This was a fairly conventional landscape design during the time for capitol grounds. Milledgeville like Savannah was planned out with squares and with a gridded street layout.

Photo by me, November 2012.

This is one of the sidewalks leading out from the capitol building in a linear line. This one heads in the direction of South Wayne Street. The lamps posts provide a nice visual aide in guiding the eye off into the distance, I bet they look nice at night.

The old state capitol building looks marvelous today but it has been beset by many unfortunate occurrences. You could say the building might be cursed - it suffered a fire in 1833 to the roof,  an 1894 fire in the clock tower, and in 1941 it had a serious fire from faulty wiring that did extensive damage. Another $8,000 in damage was done when Sherman passed through on his March To The Sea campaign during the American Civil War.

In 1871 the building served as the Baldwin County Courthouse and in 1879 it became the property of the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College which was later changed to the Georgia Military College in 1900. The building today is still the central piece of their campus.

Photo by me, November 2012.

Photo by me, November 2012

These are other buildings that are a part of the Georgia Military College campus. The buildings occupy space on the former capitol grounds and mimic the architectural style of the old capitol building. You can visit the old capitol building which today houses classrooms, a museum and still contains the house chamber from when it was the State Capitol Building of Georgia. 

For a historical perspective here are a couple of photos of the college's football team.

1907. Image courtesy the state archives of Georgia.

And from 1940. Image courtesy the state archives of Georgia.

And of the cadets in uniform before the old capitol.

1887. Image courtesy the state archives of Georgia.

 

   

1915. Image courtesy the state archives of Georgia.

One final historical photo from 1941 looking through the gates which are still there today.

1941. Image courtesy the state archives of Georgia.