First Visit

Chattahoochee Bend State Park has been in the works for years. I don't know all the details, but I remember first calling the DNR about the park back in 2004. Recently Laurie and I have seen more and more aricles in the Newnan paper, and Laurie went to an organizational meeting of the Friends of Chatahoochee Bend State Park group that is forming. She is a great organizer - I wish she could do all the things that I hate doing - making phone calls, finding contacts.

We finally found out that the park is moving forward, with an opening date projected for 2010. Two years - just time enough to make an orienteering map.

The last map that I made, of Duke's Creek/Smithgall Woods, took two years. Before that I mapped FDR State Park, Joe Kurz WMA, Sweetwater Creek State Park, and Cochran Mill Park. That's a lot of time on the ground making maps. And that is where the work is actually done, on the ground - not sitting in front of a computer screen.

So I made a trip out to the new park site to see what I could see. While the park is in this state of limbo, the DNR is allowing deer hunting. Hunting season starts Saturday, and the act of walking up and down and back and forth while making a map is not really compatible with deer hunting! So I make a special trip out there on a Thursday afternoon, (after a dental appointment - ouch!).

It's about twenty miles from my house, downstream on the River, in the next county south - Coweta County. It's actually right across the river from the map we have at McIntosh Reserve. McIntosh is a much smaller area though.

The first thing I noticed while driving in is that no work has been done yet on making this tract of land a park - rough gravel roads. Then I noticed recent logging activity. Not clear cuting, but thinning. The pine forests on the top of the hills was being thinned. Some of the areas seem to have been thinned some time ago, and are looking pretty good, other areas are actively being cut. I was impressed by how clean it looked. Sometimes the loggers leave huge piles of slash, but there was none of that visible.

I parked at the hunting kiosk, and was immediately mistaken for a hunter. Must be the gray beard. Since I was carrying a map (I had thrown together an improved USGS quad with the boundaries on it) I was mistaken for someone who knew something. I knew nothing, of course, except what I had read about the hunting season. I impersonated a hunter by keeping my mouth shut, signed in at the kiosk, then drove down Flat Rock Road.

I found the southern boundary, turned around and parked on the flat rock area. Looks like a miniature Arabia Mountain. Lots of little nooks and crannies that are bare rock. Should be great orienteering when mapped correctly! I proceeded down hill to the west from there, and saw plenty of boulders on that downhill, reminiscent of Cochran Mill. There's more logging in that direction, with new roads cut across the hills - too bad. Once down off the hills, the logging stopped, or maybe they just haven't gotten this far yet? Made my way down to the river for the obligatory photo looking out onto the water, then I climbed back up to check out the private property.

There is about a square kilometer of private property that is an "inholding", completely surrounded by parkland. The boundary is well marked. There is a house, or hunting shack, hiding in there.

Then I proceeded north,looking for the open fields that are marked on the USGS quad. Found plenty of overgrown farmland, and some collapsed houses and barns and old farm equipment, but no open fields. I don't think I went far enough north - the photos on google maps show some fields way up in the bend of the river. Or they may be all overgrown now...

Made my way back to the truck, Saw plenty more hunters out scouting for opening day. I pity the poor deer - saw plenty of them while out in the woods, and lots of sign.

So what did I learn on this first trip? It's typical of the other maps we have in this area, with the added unique open rock areas. There are a lot of little hills, spurs, saddles, and reentrants that should provide a good challenge too. Looks like it will make a great map, depending on what happens with the "improvements" as they construct the infrastructure for the park and how extensive the logging is. If the logging is just thinning, followed by controlled burns, it should make it better for orienteering.

Next step in the process? Obtain permission from the DNR to actually make a map before the park is open for business...