Cloudy Lunar Eclipse and Sunrise from Arabia Mountain (DeKalb County, Georgia)

The astronomers say there will be a full lunar eclipse (also known as a blood moon) early this morning. I had gotten an email from the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Center indicating they would be leading a hike to the top of Arabia Mountain (technically Bradley Mountain) for the event. Originally, I had planned to get up and drive to the nearby Little Mulberry Park and walk up to the observation plateau, but when heard of the Arabia Mountain option, it seemed a better choice.

I got up a little after three and after getting ready, I drove the 35ish minutes to Arabia Mountain. Though there was a thick cloud over overhead, I was optimistic that it might clear before the eclipse was over with. When I arrived, there were a few folks already there, but over the next twenty or so minutes it grew to a crowd of rough 125 people. Truly awesome to see this many people, including a number of teenagers, interested in something like this.

At 5:15 am, the rangers gathered everyone up and gave a quick briefing for the hike. From there, we walked through the woods and crossed the street over to a shortcut to the top. It's cold out this morning, but it seems most people, including myself prepared for it. I even brought one of my foam sleeping pads to sit on once we reached the top.

With our headlamps on, we scaled the side of the granite monadnock and quickly reached the top of the short mountain. The clouds remain and my hope of actually seeing something dwindles, but while we wait, I enjoy a number of nice conversations with fellow enthusiasts, as we brace ourselves from the cold winds. 

As 6:33 am, the minute of maximum, comes and goes, we're unable to see any thing resembling the moon. We do have a nice view of the city in the distance though. I pick up my sleeping pad and walk a few yards to get a eastern facing view. Perhaps the pending sunrise will be more accommodating. A few others join me, but once again, the clouds put a damper on our plan. 

With the time of sunrise, 7:03 am, now having come and gone, I pack up and head down the mountain. It's a bit disappointing, but it's still great to be outside and I do love climbing Arabia Mountain any chance I get, especially at night. I didn't do a GPS track for this one, but I suspect my distance was just over a mile. Hardly worth the effort of tracking.

Yellow River (Gwinnett County, Georgia)

I was able to get some good miles in yesterday and knock out an unexplored section of the AT in northern Georgia, but I really need to be pushing myself in preparation for some other upcoming hikes. I decided to join the Meetup group for their standard Sunday hike, which today was happening at Yellow River Park, which is only a short drive from my house. 

Arriving just a couple of minutes before the start time, I was greeted by several friends. We did our quick round of introductions and quickly hit the trail. I've hiked here before, but it has been a while. The park is mostly known for mountain bike trails, but they are shared with hikers. As we meander through the woods, I get into numerous conversations with friends, new and old alike, about a variety of topics. Several of the topics relate to an upcoming trip a few of us are doing together to hike the Camino Portugués de la Costa and our preparations for the trek.

As we hike, we are afforded a nice view of the river here and there. With the recent rains, it lives up to it's name with a muddy yellowish color to the water. It's still a nice view though. In addition, we wander alongside a couple of tributary creeks, one of which has a couple of small waterfalls, which adds some nice scenery to the hike.

Our hike takes us all around the park and finally, we end up back at the parking lot. Having hiked 7.6 miles today on top of the big miles yesterday, I feel I've given my legs a pretty good workout for the weekend. I say my goodbyes and hop in my car to drive home.

Appalachian Trail - Jacks Gap to Low Gap Shelter (Union County, Georgia)

 

For my continuing quest to complete all sections of the Georgia portion of the Appalachian Trail, I decided to knock out a section between Jacks Knob and the Low Gap Shelter today. I had been trying to plan out exactly how to do this without needing to shuttle, as there is a 15ish mile section between parking areas. However, I realized I could park at Jacks Gap, which is the starting point for the shortest hike up to Brasstown Bald, and then walk the Jacks Gap to Jacks Knob Trail, which hits the AT just past the mountain. I planned to then continue south on the AT towards Low Gap.

I arrived at the small parking area a little before 11:00 am. I had posted this as an event for the meetup, but only a couple of days ago. One person, whom I had never met, signed up and so I waited until the scheduled start time. I didn't necessarily think she would show up, but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. When the clock struck though, I was quick to hit the trail, which started across the highway from the parking area. It quickly starts up hill towards Jacks Knob. We've had a bit of rain the past few days and so, the earth is soft here, but not terrible. 

As I make my way up the hillside, where the trail has been cut alongside it, I can't help but think of watching out for the mythical haggis of the Scottish Highlands. This beast is said to have the legs on one side of its body (both front and back) grow a bit shorter than those on the other side. This adaption allows the animal to feast on the grasses of the hillsides without struggling. It's a great story and having eaten haggis in Scotland, I can tell you that there must be something to the myth to produce such great food.

Reaching the top of the trail and Jacks Knob, I can easily see where this trail meets the AT. The famous trail blaze, a single white vertical stripe adorns a tree here. Just below the trail, is the source of the Chattahoochee River. I consider making my way down to it, but realize that it's not going to be anything more than just a trickle down a wash and decide against it. There are many other drainages coming off the mountain much like what I image that spot must be like.

So, my journey along this section of the AT now begins. I'm amazed at how flat the trail is here. It's actually using what I am fairly certain is an old abandoned logging road. The foot trail uses only a single track of what was once a double track, though the trees and bushes have started to reclaim the other section. I imagine in decades past a great deal of lumber was hauled out of these mountainsides.

In a few sections, the water trickles down from the mountaintops above and makes for some small waterfalls descending the steep hillside. As I pass through this long flat section, I pass a few northbound AT Thru-hikers. When I see their larger packs, I ask if they are bound for Mount Katahdin (the northern terminus of the AT in Maine). Many respond with "that's the plan", to which I wish the best of luck. Someday, I hope to thru-hike the AT myself, but taking four months off of work is challenging right now.

After a few miles, I drop down to the saddle that is Low Gap and then take the spur trail to the shelter constructed there. I'm sure there were hikers camped here last night, but at this time of day, I'm here all by myself. I take a few minutes to rest and eat some walnuts and blueberries. It's peaceful here and after a few minutes a another thru-hiker shows up and pitches his tent just up the hill from the shelter. I wave on my way out and he returns the gesture.

The return trip is pretty similar - easy going along the flat section and then a bit a of a challenge on the way down from Jacks Knob. One interesting thing that I didn't notice on my journey to the shelter that I do now on my journey back is a section of the old logging road supported by flat stones that have collapsed. I imagine the trail itself will completely wash out here in time and need to be rebuilt. It's a problem for another day though, as I need to get back to my car and head for home. As I make my way down the hillside, I can see the observation tower on Brasstown Bald from a distance. It sticks out above the tree tops on the distant ridge marking the highest point in the state.

Shortly before reaching my car, I'm stopped by an older couple who asked about where I had come from. I explain what I'm doing and we get into a longer conversation about nearby hikes and other adventures. They are nice folks, but after ten or fifteen minutes, I excuse myself as I really do need to get going. When I reach my car, I check the GPS track and see that I completed 14.6 miles today. Not bad at all, and with this section knocked out, I only have two more remaining (the two northernmost sections). I get in my car and head for home.

Arabia Mountain (DeKalb County, Georgia)

Having gotten in some pretty good miles yesterday, I was content to do a bit less today. I decided to hike around Arabia Mountain. This unique area has drawn my attention since I first moved to the Atlanta area about six years ago. It's a series of monadnocks southeast of downtown. It's protected as heritage area and has many, many miles of trails in combination of earthen and paved. Today though, I thought I would spend most of my time on the granite.

It's cool outside and the wind is whipping around like crazy, which should make for an interesting time to be atop the near barren granite landscapes of this area. As I'm very familiar with this area and there are few hazards, I decide to continue listening to an audio book that I'm already deep into as I get my miles in. I start out at the visitors center and make my way down the boardwalk to the main entrance to the Bradley and Arabia Mountains and then start the climb to the top of Bradley on the bare, but well-worn granite. 

As I suspected, the wind is making this an adventure. In some the shallow solution pools worn into the granite over the eons, the wind blows ripples onto the settle water. While in others, the tiny red leaves of sedum smallii grow and bring color to the gray land. Once at the top, I locate the USGS cap and stop to take in the view for a moment. 

There are a few people here at the site, but as I wander further north across the granite, it seems I have the entire landscape to myself. I walk and climb over several steps and shelves where quarry workers cut giant slabs of the stone out for a multitude of industrial and domestic uses. The mountain is scarred terribly by the work of these industries of the last century, but it makes for several curiosities for those who seek exploration on the hills and peaks of the area.

After cresting the top of Arabia Mountain itself, I head downhill towards Mountain Lake and walk across the granite at a lower elevation. I take note of the small waterfalls and streams that flow over the smooth stone that makes up the mountain. Most of the water draining into the lake. 

Returning to the area I entered, I head back up the boardwalk, but instead of heading directly back towards my car, I decide to hike a bit more along the Mile Rock Trail, which pass over another granite landscape to the west of the mountains, but that was also quarried heavily. Here, I find the Frog Pond, which is full of tadpoles swimming about. I'll have to check this out later in the year and see the adults.

Continuing north, I find more of the red sedum smallii and more quarried granite slabs, including some that have even been polished to a mirror-like surface. I can't imagine why these were left here. They must be valuable, although no one could move them without heavy equipment if they had the inclination to steal them.

Closer to the edge of the woods, I find the husk of a building atop the granite, which was presumably some structure associated with the quarry operator back in they day. Leaving the granite and re-entering the woods, I find another curious structure. Several parallel granite walls about a foot-and-a-half thick and about the same distance apart. They are laid out in an area large enough to have been a decent sized building, but I can't imagine why they would be laid out in a pattern like this and a quick survey of the area doesn't offer much insight.

Returning to the visitors center and my car, I remove my headphones and check my mileage. I've only hiked about 5.1 miles today, but that's okay, I got in enough yesterday to make up the difference, and it was very nice to hike in such an interesting area with literature being read into my ears. I even stumbled across a new structure that I'm really curious about now - a mystery for another day. For now, I need to get home and get to making dinner for my family.

Coldwater Mountain Loop (Calhoun County, Alabama)

Later in the spring, I will be hiking the Camino Portugues de la Costa and to prepare for some really big mileage days on that trek, I put together a number of training hikes with fairly low elevation change, but with increasing mileage as the trip gets closer and closer. I posted these on the Meetup, as a few friends will be joining me on this upcoming international trip. Originally, today's hike along the Coldwater Mountain Loop was planned for January, but bad weather forced me to reschedule it to today. Only my friend Angie was able to join me for this one, but I suspect more people will be on the ones later in the spring.

I met up with Angie at the Indian Trail Park and Ride just off of I-85 and only a few miles from my house. We planned to carpool the rest of the way, as it is a roughly two-hour drive over the border into Alabama to reach the trailhead. The drive was uneventful, other than the pouring rain that we had to get through on the way over. I had been watching both the forecast and doppler radar very closely. I was pretty certain the rain would stop by the time we reached the trailhead, though a super muddy trail was still a concern. 

As expected, the rain stopped a while before we finished our drive and we pulled into the gravel parking area to find it completely empty. While this is the first time either of us have visited this trail system, my research indicated that it was very popular for mountain bikers. I guess we'll have to see if they know something we didn't.

We quickly got our bearings and started up the Tortoise Trail, which is just one of the large network of interconnecting paths on this series of small ridges. Luckily, the trail doesn't seem to be very muddy at all, with only a couple of small patches of soft soil along the entire trip. Not too long after starting, we start up a steep incline only to hear some hollering coming from the other direction. With just enough time to react a four mountain bikes jump over the hill with no way to stop in time. Thankfully, their yelling gave us enough time to react and get out of the way. These are only the first of many we'll see today. 

Further along the trail, we hit a junction where three of the longer trails converge. Here a large pipe (8-10 ft in diameter) has been fashioned into the ground with cemented stones holding it and the ramp leading up to the top of it in place. This is meant to be an overpass with one trail going through the pipe and another going over the top via the ramp. We decide this is a great place to stop for a quick lunch and find a nearby bench to rest on for a few minutes. I'm dieting pretty heavily right now and so, my lunch consists of a Clif Bar, the peanut butter variety, and a handful of walnuts. It's enough to give me a little energy boost.

We continue on, hopping between different trails and trying our best to follow our planned route as defined by whomever posted this trail on AllTrails.com. After about five hours, we realize we are nearing the end and discuss what a great day it has been. Before we know it, we're at the parking area. The hiking pole that Angie accidentally left beside the "porta-potty" is even still there. Our total distance was about 14.1 miles, which made for a nice training hike. While this trail system is nothing spectacular, it's very doable and well maintained. I don't know that I would drive this far to hike it again, but overall, it was a nice hike. Now, the drive home.

Sutallee Trace White Trail (Cherokee County, Georgia)

It rained most of yesterday and while I was planning to do some hiking at Black Rock Mountain State Park, I thought the trails might be too muddy and started looking for other alternatives. I landed on a new trail that I found while searching the internet. The Sutallee Trace White Trail is part of the Etowah Trail system near Canton, GA. It follows the believed route created by the Cherokee and Creek and later used by European pioneers to travel about these hills above the Etowah River.

The parking area is large finding parking wasn't a problem. The trail system begins with a large sign, with the White Trail being the main trial and then others splitting off of it further into the woods. For the first little bit, the trail runs parallel to a gravel track that I presume is used by the nearby high school for sports training. Soon though, the cleared area of the track ends and the trail enters deeper into the woods.

Almost immediately, I encounter a large aluminum span of bridge laying on the ground just before a side creek. Just a bit further a ramp leads up to wooden bridge mostly comprised of four tree trunks in an A-frame configuration and a floor to walk across beneath them. The wooden bridge appears to be aging and I surmise that the brand new aluminum bridge is intended to replace it in the near future. At least they are taking good care of these trails. 

The trail continues on and offers some nice views of the muddy Etowah River and it's bends and shoals. It seems all rivers in the part of the country are shallow and full of rocky shoals, which must have made water travel challenging in the past.

Eventually, the trail leaves the rivers and follows the ebbs and flows of the nearby hillsides, crossing into an area that was obviously clear cut in the recent past. Few trees grow here and the yellow grasses reign supreme on these hillsides. A church and associated cemetery are visible nearby at a major junction of trails and old dirt roads. The trail re-enters the woods and spends the next couple of miles tracing the hillsides on very narrow foot trails. 

Finally reaching the end at Jug Creek, the trail and white blazes that mark it, just end at an old boyscout-constructed bridge. Having looked over the trail before coming, I expected this. There is an old dirt road here, but technically this is the end of the trail and my turn point.

The trip back is uneventful, though I do encounter a number of other hikers as I get close to the starting point. When I reach my car, I check and find that I've hiked about 8.3 miles. Not great, but certainly not bad. I was also able to check out a totally new trail system. I think I will suggest this to the other organizers of the meetup as a potential destination for one of the Sunday hikes, as I think this would be right up the group's alley. For now, I will head home and enjoy dinner with my family.

Palisades East to the Bamboo Forest (Fulton County, Georgia)

Trying to make the most of my Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area day pass, I also wanted to hike to the bamboo forest of the Palisades East unit. Originally, I had tried to park at the main trailhead, but it was absolutely packed and there was no parking to be found. I guess everyone is trying to get some outdoor time on this beautiful Valentine's Day afternoon. As an alternative, I headed to the Indian Trail parking area of this unit. It was similarly busy with cars lining sides of the gravel road, but fortunately, I was able to locate a spot to park my car.

Walking back up the road just a short ways, I quickly entered the woods and began hiking the trails of this unit. The follow the small gulches cut by the rain waters as it follows the path of least resistance on its way to the river below. Some of the trails are a little precarious and full of roots and rocks. I step carefully, but before long reach the old ruins and then head north right along the Chattahoochee River and all of it's shoals.

After only about a quarter-mile, the tall straight stalks of bamboo come into view and soon, I'm surrounded by them. This always seems a magical place to me. While there is a lot of the invasive bamboo scattered around the southeast, this area is home to some of the oldest and largest I know of. Also, sitting right alongside the river gives it a certain charm. It's actually difficult for me to believe now, but when I first moved her several years ago, I searched and searched for this place with little luck. Now, getting there is like second nature to me.

I spend a few minutes taking in my beautiful surroundings. The tall, green stalks surrounding me, the wide river full of brown, rocky shoals sticking up out of the water pass before me, and the distant hills on the other side of the river, all add to the character of this place. What a great day to be alive. And now, I have to get back home to get ready for dinner and my other reason for being alive - my amazing wife. I put in another 2.2 miles at this unit, which still isn't a lot of mileage on this holiday weekend, but hopefully, it will be dry enough on Monday, that I can get a few more.