The Cliatt Creek Trail

Working at Mistletoe State Park is definitely a wonderful job for me, If I could get more than just the weekend for hours, it would be perfect. There isn't another place I would rather be at though. It is nice to be in a place where almost everyone is happy to be there and we don't normally have any problems and if there are problems, I always have someone to call to fix them. There is not a large number of staff but we do have two rangers, 3 housekeepers and a few maintenance men and the man who runs the kiosk on the weekends. I enjoy working with all of them. They like their jobs and it shows. My time, however, is spent stuck in the office/store. I see the beauty of the park out the windows and it is a beautiful park for Georgia. It isn't exactly like going up into the White Mountains of New Hampshire but it is beautiful for Georgia. We have a lot of hikers come to the park because the park has a good number of trails. The trails and the park can be seen on this map.

Mistletoe State Park Trail Map

 I tell people about the trails all the time but I am basically repeating what I have heard the rangers say about them. I have wanted to walk some of them myself but we have just been incredibly hot here lately and me walking a trail when it is over 100 degrees is not a smart thing to do. However, it had cooled down into the lower 90's lately and if you look on the map, Friday after work I did the upper loop of the Cliatt Creek trail  and the Canyon Loop by myself. I walked in the woods as a child in NH all the time but for some reason it is a lot scarier when you are older, fatter and not as healthy, ha ha, but I did make it in about a half hour and I was very, very hot by the time I was done. I felt good though. I really do need to get a lot more exercise and felt good that I had at least gotten started. But I wanted to do the larger part of the Cliatt Creek trail as it is the one I send people hiking on the most. So Phil and Michelle met me after work on Saturday so we could do that trail together.

It was so much more enjoyable with other people walking with me. We started on the trail behind the office, it then crosses the road and there is a steep downhill before it levels off some. I had Phil take pictures as we went along and these might be out of order but it doesn't really matter. A minimum is done as far as upkeep on the trails because they like to keep them as natural as possible, so large trees may be cut where the trail is but not a lot else is done to them. They are marked by paint "blazes" on the trees. The ones on the Cliatt Creek trail are painted with white blazes.

This first picture is a picture of the office from the side view, where the public restroom is. This is Michelle coming out of it after our long walk but the trail did start behind the office.

We didn't really think to take pictures until we were about half way down the trail and had gotten to the "creek". It is very, very low on water this time of year.

The only bench on the trail and I needed it!

Phil crossed the creek and took this picture from the other side. Anyone who wants to hike the Rock Dam trail has to cross the creek to get to it, which is obviously not too difficult this time of year. 

Leaving the creek. 

Birds nest in a tree.

Big caterpillar's nest.

Straight but uphill.

Those are all the pictures we took. We were glad to see the end of the trail but very happy we had hiked it. I am hoping we will get the chance to go next weekend after work as well and try one of the other trails.