February 1, 2025

May 11

Big Creek Greenway – from Marconi Dr. Park to Ed Isakson YMCA and back with Noah

7926 steps/ ~3.5 miles

I decided to jump into my New Year’s resolution exactly a month after the new year started which, honestly, that’s on brand for me.

This section started in the Marconi Drive area of Alpharetta, which is a cluster of business parks that happens to also connect to the Greenway. Based on how juicy the creek is in these photos, I’m guessing it had rained recently.

I enjoyed this section because we got to walk under a tunnel that had a very satisfying echo. We also go to walk past a really elaborate wooden obstacle course that neither of us was brave enough, or qualified, to attempt. We took a selfie once we’d reached the YMCA before turning around and heading back to Marconi Dr. I believe Noah’s back hurt a lot on this day, but he persevered anyway!

On our way back, we passed a pretty big bird that was just hanging out by the trail. I think it was a hawk? Then we encountered a guy taking photographs with a huge camera, so we told him about the bird and I forget what happened next - either he went over there to try to take a photo of it, or he already had? Regardless, I love random interactions on the Greenway.*

This section passes the nature trail/mountain bike loop. I’m not even going to attempt that because it’s one of those deals where pedestrians go counter-clockwise and bikes go clockwise one day, and it’s the opposite the next day. Please don’t expect that kind of math from me. If I were a true Big Creek Greenway completionist, I would probably go back and do that loop… maybe someday, once Noah comes back, because he understands stuff like that.

Side note: We also saw Molchat Doma that evening – it was my third time and his first – and we parked pretty far away from the venue. All in all, I walked a record 13,436 steps that day. Bonkers.

*Now that I’m thinking about random interactions, there was another day – I completely forget which day it was, but it was on the YMCA to Rock Mill Park stretch – where I ran into a group of people who had all stopped to help a biker find a missing earbud. I stuck around and helped in the search, but none of us could locate the little guy. I ended up seeing that same biker later that day and asking, but, unfortunately, he never did find the errant earbud.