On this Tuesday we decided to go to Paradise: but we couldn’t see because the fog was so thick. As I drove from my house in Portsmouth I could see that I would get kidded about the great view we were supposed to see high up on top of The Jordan Bridge, which I had told everyone that we would see. Most everyone was there by 9:15 and we headed out about 9:35, after we had our talk about the hike and things to look out for, mostly here it would be the traffic and not wild animals. Standing in a circle we all gave our names so everyone would remember each person, which is hard to do with 27 names to remember.
The plan was to hike Paradise Creek Park first and check out the wooden bridge and the flooding kayak ramp, so if anyone wanted to use this park for a put-in, they would know where it was located. The loop was about one mile and then we headed out of the park and across Victory Blvd. to a side street making it easier and safe for our group. As we came back out to the Blvd. we had a wide shoulder and this turn into a side walk all the way to the bridge. Heading up to the top of the bridge there was not much to see with all the fog hanging low over our heads, so everyone had time to talk while we walked, which we always do anyway.
We continued down the Chesapeake side of the bridge hiking into South Norfolk and stopping at the library, to take a bathroom break. We were here about 20 minutes and then hiked own towards The South Norfolk Lake, there off of Bainbridge Blvd. Ellis did get a few pictures here and we read some of the stones the city had placed along the sidewalk honoring the men and women of the South Norfolk area that had died for their country in all of the major wars.
Making it back towards the bridge we picked up 2 of our hikers at the library and we all headed for the picnic area under the Jordan Bridge. They have a very nice park here with plenty of tables and bathrooms with heat that was a lot better than that por-o-jon at Paradise Creek. It was 12:00 noon as we hiked over to the tables and everyone brought out their lunches and enjoyed their meal.
We left here and started back up and over The Jordan Bridge, making it back around 1:30 to the parking lot. All said they enjoyed the hike even though there was no beautiful view for them to see. We hiked a little over 7 miles which is good for Julian Miles after I had told them we would hike 6 miles, it could have been a lot longer.
Bruce
Click on the link to view Ellis' pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9eQb4DeVUXH93PZn1