At the far corner of the asphalt parking lot of a Hixson distribution facility, a faint path had been worn through a section of woods tangled with brush and trees.
A few hundred yards down the path, the blue-green Chickamauga Creek appeared, running low in late May.
Allen Miller gestured through the trees to a high point above the creek. That, he said, is where trail organizers propose building a footbridge for the Great Eastern Trail, a long-distance hiking route that’s been in the works for more than 20 years.
The bridge would be one of many river and creek crossings on the trail, which should span a total of about 26 miles through Chattanooga and Hamilton County when complete. If all goes as planned, the entire trail is set to cover more than 1,800 miles from New York to Alabama, much of that running parallel to the Appalachian Trail.