7-26-16 back on the Environmental greenway and sunset at Van Pugh North on Lake Lanier:

 I've been curious about the dirt path at the end of the million dollar bridge in the Environmental greenway.  Signs said it was a .8 miles to the unpaved 1.5 miles trail to the paved Suwanee greenway.  So I decided to take a little hike today---with my bike.  The trail is much curvier and rockier and within the Environmental area they say to only ride on the paved trails.   So obeyed their rules, although there were plenty of areas I would have liked to jump on the bike, like here.

 and here.

 After a few hills and valleys, I came to this sign.  To the left of You Are Here is where the future Suwanee Greenway extension is suppose to come in.  Much to my surprise, I managed to walk right past it without seeing anything that looked like a path.  Ended up back at the sign and decided that was a waste of time! 

 Still walking back to the paved path.  At least they did seem to maintain the "observation" trail.

 Walked back to the paved trail and continued my ride back to the apartment complex and on to the Ivy Creek Greenway. Then  on back to the apartment for a little R&R.  And our own observation area (our couch).  There is a family of squirrels that regularly visits us.  Probably just for the bird seed, but ... .  This is one of the adults.  There are 3 young ones and another adult.

 We also have at least 2 hummingbirds that regularly come to drink out of their feeder.  We originally had one with the sugar water reservoir that was a glass bubble, but found the ants and bees kept climbing into it and clogging the holes.  The guy at the Bird Store talked us into this one with a little water holder on top that turns most of the ants away.  The hummingbirds seem to like this feeder much better.  And the other birds like to drink water out of the little water reservoir.

 The little hummingbirds are so fun to watch.  Especially when they chase the other birds around.

 Near sunset we took a ride out to Lake Lanier again in search of the perfect sunset spot.   This time we drove up around the north part of the lake. 

 Balus Creek Park was another one with a nice swim area and good for kayaking.

 Little Hall Park had no swimming, but nice boat ramps.

 It also had a really nice little amphitheater.

 We found that a lot of the parks listed on the map are camping or marinas and you can't enter then unless you're a member or staying there.  But there are a lot of really nice public parks.  Most have a fee, but with Ken's senior age pass we get in free.  Angie and Josh bought a pass for something like $40---I think that was for the year. 
We ended up at Van Pugh North back on the East side of the lake right as the sun was about to go down.  Turned out to probably be the best place we've come across so far for watching the sunset. 

 Not a whole lot of clouds, but still pretty.

 You can even see some of the mountains in the distance.

 On our way out, we even saw this little guy. 

A nice end to another day.