Jake Mountain - Yellow Trail (Lumpkin County, Georgia)

 

I had planned to rise early this morning and run a 5k downtown, but feeling under the weather a little bit, I ended up skipping the run, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to get some exercise. One of the Meetups I've been hiking with had planned a moderately long hike an hour or so north of Atlanta on the Jake Mountain trail system. The group met at the primary trailhead, which seems extremely popular today and then we carpooled a couple of miles on Forest Service roads to a less popular parking spot. 

From the trailhead, we headed off on the Yellow Trail, which is one of about six different options on this trail system. The twenty or so hikers seem to all be moving at about the same pace today, which is a nice change. As we hike, I begin talking with a couple of my companions and we enjoy some interesting chatter about the woes of the corporate world. 

We quickly encounter the first of what will be two creek crossings on today's trek. As I'm leading the pack at the moment, I visually check the depth and decide to just walk right across. My shoes end up a bit wet, but it was only about four or five inches deep. Reaching the other side, I wait for some of my companions to remove their socks and shoes, wade across, and then put their foot gear back on. 

As we continue down the path, we encounter a number of other side trails and forest roads, but Charlie, the group organizer has a pretty good idea of where he's going and we follow his lead. Besides, we're in Georgia and there isn't anywhere that is more than a day's hike from civilization (as far as I've seen in my short time here). Eventually, one of the roads we take opens up into a large grassy meadow and from here there doesn't seem to be a trail leading out. No worries, we have map, compass, and GPS, we'll bushwhack a bit.

I do always the challenges of off-trail navigation and this is no exception. Between, Charlie, myself, and another experienced hiker, we lead the group toward what we are pretty sure is the trail. Though the other gentleman and Charlie seem to disagree a bit on the proper course of action, we have faith in Charlie, since he has hiked and biked this area extensively. We make our way through the woods for a good hour or so, with a vague idea of where the trail is and eventually stumble across our second creek crossing. This one is a little more precarious and between the three of us navigating, we set up a sort of bucket brigade system of supporting hands and arms to help the other group members across the running water. 

After we cross and climb the next hill, we arrive at another forest service road. One of the gentlemen I had been talking to at the beginning of the hike seems to have gotten frustrated and takes off on his own, telling some others that he was going to head back to the cars. Ah well, good luck. 

Finally arriving back on the Yellow Trail, we make our way back towards the cars, but Charlie mentions a small man-made lake over the next ridge. Three of us decide to head that way to see the lake, though it will add a couple of miles, while the remainder of the group wants to end the day. The lake itself is nothing special, but as a cool wind blows over and creates ripples in the shallow water, I find myself glad of tacking on the additional distance. 

We quickly turn around and head back to the cars. Total distance for the day is nearly 10.4 miles. Not a huge hike, but certainly one of the longer ones I've done since relocating. I need to find more like this.