With my big hike for the year coming up in about six weeks, I'm trying to take every opportunity to get in some good trail miles. This morning, I chose to join the Atlanta Outdoor Club for a sunrise hike over Kennesaw Mountain. The leader of this particular hike has been doing a "seven sunrises in seven weeks" theme and I was able to join him for the Sawnee Mountain version a couple of weeks ago. They kept a great pace on that hike and I hope to do the same this morning.
Arriving at the visitors center at about 6:15 am, I had to pull off the side of the road to wait for the gates to open. Several other cars followed suit. Promptly at 6:30 am, the gate automatically opened and we pulled into the parking area and started gathering by the replica canon outside the visitor's center. By 6:50 am, we had done super quick round of introductions and were already making our way up the mountain. Sunrise was actually at 6:37am, but with the late gate opening, there was no way we could get to the summit by then. We'll settle for a 'slightly after sunrise' hike.
Our group of ten or so hikers practically raced up the steep ascent to the top of Kennesaw Mountain, maintaining an average pace of over 3 mph for that difficult section. Once at the top, we stopped for a short break and to bask in the glory of the recently risen sun over downtown Atlanta in the distance. I also took a moment to find and photograph my favorite carving (sort of a tradition now whenever I'm atop Kennesaw).
After a short break, we headed down the saddle and then climbed back up Little Kennesaw. From there, it was mostly downhill, but with a lot of rock scrambling. Cutting east near Pigeon Hill, we made our way back to the parking area. It was hot and humid, but the pace and sunrise were very nice. We got in about 5.8 miles this morning and completed our hike before 9:00 am. What a great way to start the day.
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