Hiking at Lake Allatoona

I went hiking a couple of Sundays ago when it was about 40 degrees on the 5.5 mile hike around Allatoona. It was gorgeous, but after about 1.5 hours I was beginning to think the sign that said it was a 4 hour hike, was really telling the truth. Cowabunga was I sore, but did do the hike with lots of rests and enjoying of birds in just under 3 hours. It truly is amazing when you stop just how many varieties of birds there are just flitting from tree to tree. One time when I stopped, I thought a small child was beating on a tree trunk with a stick, but it was a HUGE woodpecker. My head hurt just watching him work for his supper! This weekend Wood and I decided to take the hike again (we are saving the 5.5 miler for the weekends and doing the relatively shorter, 3.5 miler a couple of times during the week). Oh my goodness! There were some minor spring like changes...some of the trees are beginning to bud, but the biggest change was that it was about 80 degrees and let me tell you we both thought we were going to die!! Needless to say we both took Aleve when we got home and have decided to work on the shorter hike until we have that one a little more under our belts. I did feel good though that several other people stopped us going the other direction on the hike, asking desperately how much further it was to get back :-). Made me feel a little less like a wuss. The funny thing is, even though we were hurting and probably fairly dehydrated- this morning when I woke up I felt great and started wishing I could go again right then and there!!! It really is a beautiful hike and in a week or two when all the dogwoods are blooming it is downright gorgeous!