Veteran’s Day Hike

There was a beltway hike on Veteran’s Day. Five people took part. There is another report here.
The hike began on time, which may be a first. The start was behind Amsterdam Avenue, and the first part went north towards the Piedmont Park expansion. That project is still under construction, and it takes a visionary to see what will become of that acreage.
Moving back south towards Monroe, a discussion arose of the various neighborhood issues with the Beltway, and development/gentrification/restoration in general. PG learned a new phrase…in addition to NIMBY, there is now CAVE…Citizens against virtually anything. There was a bit of criticism of parties involved, with PG more sympathetic to the cautious neighborhood organization types.
Going under the Virginia Avenue bridge, the beltway path became vegetation heavy. This continued on towards Ponce. There is a big magnolia tree in the location of the former outfield of Ponce de Leon Park, with PG wondering if the two trees there were old enough to be big trees 50 years ago.
The bridge over Ponce de Leon, behind Big Sears/City Hall East, was a life threatening experience. There is no railing beside the rail ties, and rubber mats, with big holes in them, nailed over the rail ties. It was necessary to step on where the mat was nailed down to the ties, which PG found to be an exhilarating adventure.

Past Ponce, more vegetation waited on the tracks. The North Avenue Bridge is wide and in good shape, as is the Ralph McGill bridge. The hike proceeded under the Freedom Parkway bridge, which had the best graffiti of the afternoon. Soon a break was taken, at a gloriously restored restaurant.
Angel was expecting heavy vegetation on the next part of the journey. When the crew arrived on the line, they were astounded to see the rail lines had been cleared. There were fresh tracks in the mud, which, with the heavy rains on tuesday, meant that the clearance had occurred that very day. Indeed, before long a bobcat was seen scraping kudzu off the long abandoned rail lines. It seems like the process of converting this onetime rail corridor into a hike&bike  path is beginning to spring into action.
Walking under Edgewood Avenue, there were people camping out. They were looking for a train to hop on, to take them out west. The hiking crew spent a few minutes talking to them. PG left a couple of minutes before the rest of the crew, and felt a drop of rain. The rest of the hikers came along behind, and made their way to a vehicle on Edgewood to ride back to the starting place.