Jones Bridge Trail – Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
[stm_post_details]This morning, I decided to hike the Jones Bridge Trail at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Unfortunately, when I got to the place where I thought the trail started, I pulled out my Alltrails App and it showed me that I was in fact in the wrong spot and needed to drive another 15 minutes to get to the actual trailhead. Once I reached the trailhead, the hike started great with a cool morning, a good canopy, and the sounds of the Chattahoochee playing background music to my early morning adventure. Like other trails within the CRNRA, this trail was well maintained and promised to be a good hike.
I tried out two new critical pieces of gear, my backpack, and my new trail runners. For my backpack, I chose the Osprey Exos 58 Pack and for my trail runners, I have selected the Hoka Speedgoat 5 GTX Trail Running Shoes.
The Osprey Exos 58 pack was fantastic to pack and configure, however, once I got on the trail, I realized that the hip pockets were very difficult to open and close. I like to keep my phone nearby for pictures and I never felt truly comfortable not being able to close the hip pockets and ended up putting my phone in my shorts pocket instead. On a positive note, however, the fit of the pack was fantastic and shouldered the load (about 20 pounds) very well. I am going to try some light WD-40 on the pack zippers and we’ll see if that helps make the zippers slide more easily.
The Hoka Speedgoat 5 GTX Trail Running Shoes, however, were another story. They were fantastic. I navigated the hike this morning without my trekking poles and the shoes did a great job on some slick surfaces and provided really good ankle support on the uneven terrain of the trail. I have always thought of hiking boots/shoes as something that needs to be big and bulky, but these were fantastic and much lighter than my previous pair of hiking shoes.
Even though the hike started out wonderfully, at the 1.5-mile mark, I lost the trail and ended up in a subdivision. 😭I double-backed to see where I may have missed the turn, but even using my Alltrails app, I couldn’t find the trail to continue on so I turned around. All in, this morning’s hike was 2.71 miles, but it did give me an opportunity to test some new gear.
One of the benefits of this morning’s hike though was that I was able to think out loud by myself about a few troubling areas of my life and I felt like this morning’s hike was about patience, adversity, and how to continue to find something good even during a tough time. I am grateful for the sunshine, cool morning air, and the ability to get out and put some dirt underneath my feet. It was a great way to start a Monday!