After being closed for about a month, parks are starting to open back up in Chattanooga.
Yesterday was a warm, sunny day, so we went to Greenway Farms to check out a trail that goes around an old quarry. The quarry is flooded out now, and — even though swimming is supposedly prohibited — people use the area as a swimming hole.
The only problem with it being a beautiful spring day was that everyone else had the same idea we had.
When we first pulled into the parking lot, Derek almost wanted to back out of the plan because there were so many cars, but most of those people were hanging out in the open green area or walking their dogs.
Once we got on the trail itself, it wasn’t too bad. However, I was disappointed with the lack of mask wearers. Derek and I wore masks, and only three other people that we saw wore them too. We did our best to social distance ourselves from others, but at times it was impossible. During pandemic times, people need more spacial awareness.
Part of the trail leads to the bottom of the quarry, where people go swimming. The closer we got down to the end, the more people there were. I wanted to snap a few quick pictures, and Derek stayed behind. There were three other couples there at the time, and they were all spaced apart. I took my pictures, when I turned around to see no less than 10 kids running down the path. It was actually frightening! They were all there to go swimming. I hope they will all be okay and do not get sick from each other.
We took an upper trail that goes around the quarry. We had that trail to ourselves. I am glad that second trail was an option otherwise we probably would have cut our time short.
Despite the issues that we had to work around, it was a beautiful trail. I am glad we went.
However, I think we’re going to run into the same problem that we dealt with last month. Everyone flocks to the parks because that’s the only thing there is left to do, but then the parks are crowded and therefore not safe. With Chattanooga being a mostly outdoor activity city, most of the things on my to-do list are park related.
Greenway Farms is the only place that has reopened so far out of everything on my list. Nothing else is ready to be opened yet, and after our experience at the quarry trail, that is fine by me.
