Local groups hit the trail this spring
On a cool morning in March, a group of nature-lovers gathers under a thick awning of purple wisteria at the Shade Garden Arbor at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and listens as Hugh Nourse reads a nature poem written by Henry David Thoreau.
With those words as inspiration, the group takes off on one of the garden’s trails, greeted as they start by birds chirping from trees and bushes. They point out blooming flowers, ponder bends in the Middle Oconee River and consider the marks left by beavers that chewed on trees for awhile and returned to the water. Halfway through the walk, a hiker shares another nature reading, “Under the Vulture Tree” by David Bottoms.
At the end of the hike, the group stops to watch a flock of cedar waxwings flit back and forth from one holly tree to another eating a breakfast of berries.
Not a bad way to start a Thursday.
With the official start of spring, the garden’s Circle of Hikers is just one of the nature groups in Athens that are taking to the woods.