Agility training @ Sope Creek

Went out with Doug and his 2 huskies yesterday for a little excitement at Sope Creek in Marietta, GA. Not only does this park offer a good amount of single and doubletrack trail but it also offers some great technical training opportunities. If you descend into the gorge in which Sope Creek flows you find yourself passing by the old paper mill which once utilized the flow from Sope Creek to turn the mill. From the large set of ruins down to the smaller set on the opposite side of the stream you will find a smorgasbord of rocks that can be lined up to create a path midstream.

Photo Credit: Doug Urquhart

This "trail" lends itself to being one of the best spots I have ever trained on for agility due to the consequence involved with missing a step and the level of forecasting you will need to do midstride to make sure you don't trip, fall or slide into the water. Training here can benefit you greatly on stream crossings as well as rocky or root ridden terrain.  Terrain like this builds your ability to resist certain types of injury as well. The chances that you will twist, roll, sprain or strain something while running down the center of any creek are high but if you take your time and are deliberate and committed with every step this can make a huge difference for your more technical courses.



 After doing some midstream runs we headed out to loop back to the parking lot to head out. On the way, Doug spotted a gap that looked pretty clean so of course the question of "Do you think you could jump that?" came up. The answer was of course "yes". After about 10 tries and some frustration with getting what we wanted out of the pics we decided to get back on our way to the cars. If you haven't checked out Sope Creek before or haven't been in a while you definitely should. They are proposing and making additions to the single use as well as multi-use trails presently so the park is changing quite a bit from workday to workday.

Photo Credit: Doug Urquhart