An afternoon on the Millennium Trail

We spent Sunday afternoon hiking the CClayborn/Merritt Ridge Millennium trail at Edgar Evans State Park in DeKalb COunty. Total trail is supposed to be about 81/2 miles, we probably shaved a mile off in the four hours we hiked. It's a pretty easy walk most of the way, however the last 5 mile loop can get to be pretty strenuous.

This is the longest trail in the park and it begins with an easy realtively flat run of about half a mile or so. That leads to an old homestead sitting right at the edge of a finger of the lake. The homestead was likely situated there for the fresh water source no longer apparent.. All that remain are large limestone front and back steps, a pile of chimney rock, stone pillars which define the shape of the house, and the foundation of a spring house or root cellar. Another pile of chimney stone suggests a log cabin once stood about 500 feet away. On our way there Pete found an Indian game stone.

Anyway the trail is divided into two loops: the Clayborn loop about 2 1/2 miles long; and the Merrit Ridge loop another five -1/2 miles. The trails lead through through dense woods and cedar thickets as it climbs from holler toridge then down along the lake.. But most of the time you're in the ones. As you passhomesteads long abandoned like the one just described , now overgorwn with woods, you can't help but wonder what life must have been likeway back when....

I'd recommend this hike for the winter months. Nice views of the lake are surely blocked out when the trees are in full bloom.Winter, though, though you get a long view of the lake in several places

The Merritt Ridge Trail traces a peninsula as it juts out into the water.At its closest(about the halfway mark foir the hike) it'sa 70 foot drop to the water below. Nearby, there's a rocky shoreline and you can get right down to the water. ALong the way we paused at to take in the lakeview from atop the ridge..On our way down we marveled at the size of the rocks which were stacked fro a run of wall. Large square blocks of chart almost table size . From there the trail leads down the hill and into a cedar thicket.

The whole time hiking we only passed another group early on and saw only one boat on the water. The rest, the woods, trail and lake were entirely ours. In most places to trail is well-worn. Near the halfway point there's so much deadfall lying back and forth along the trail that I imagine in summertime you could lose your way. So always look ahead for the white metal strip markers s as you go along and you'll do fine.

If you've got a few hours and enjoy hiking this is a pretty easy walk. Just allow yourself enough time to explore the sites and woods and to take in the lake


Recommended.

A Friend and A Truck

A longtime friend of mine just moved on from these parts.... to the other side of the world, literally. We’d been tight 30-plus years, since we first wandered into here from opposite directions. At this writing, don’t really know if or when I’ll see him again. You learn with age nothing’s certain but the passage of time, and that’s limited.

Earlier in my life I might have saddened over such a departure but I’m older now and take all things in stride. In his case, he left as soon as his draining divorce was finalized. He needed to reinvent himself after a suffocating relationship. At least that’s how I see it: like so many in broken marriages he suffered real pain, at the same time loving that person and situation which was also the root of his grief. I did all a friend can do, listen and help talk him through some of the rougher spots.

At the beginning of our friendship we spent many miles and hours arguing our respective views of the world. The thing we most shared was a love of the outdoors, and constantly discovering its myriad fancies with long hikes through the countryside.
We were friends enough to agree to disagree on a whole range of issues, from politics to science to religion. I remember with a smile how he, a scientist, chided me once for allowing the possibility a perpetual motion machine could be built.

We had our last hike a few days before he left, on a large tract of nearby public land he had not visited before. Had he not left, we would have returned there again and again. We still may, if his journey points back this way.

In leaving, he shed this old life like a snake sheds its skin. In that complete break he wanted to make he gave me the truck which has served him so well for years. A little rusted and banged up but better than mine.

And to give someone a working truck in the country— I guess that’s as true a gesture of friendship as one can make.