The owner of the Meetup group I most often hike with is out of town and had asked me a few weeks ago if I would organized and lead the standard Sunday hike this week. I decided to hit Kennesaw Mountain, which I haven't hiked in a year or more. Knowing the general ability of the Sunday group and expecting temperatures hovering around the century mark, I planned a slightly shorter outing. Additionally, the first section climbs a set of switchbacks as we ascend 800 or so feet up Kennesaw Mountain.
After walking from the overflow parking area to the visitor's center where I told everyone to meet, I see a medium sized group congregating near the entrance. I ask if they are here for the group's hike and they confirm the group's identity. I introduce myself as the organizer and let them know that we'll wait just a few more minutes until the schedule start time of noon, do a round of introductions, and then hit the trail.
Like clockwork, the twenty or so of us provide our names and I give a short rundown of the plan. I also strongly emphasize the need to have plenty of drinking water along, as I don't want anyone getting heat exhaustion or having a heat stroke on this blistering hot day. With that, we start the climb.
I amazed at just how much I'm sweating. I had put on a thick layer of sunscreen, but I feel like just drops of sweat are rolling off of my forehead as I climb the fairly steep incline. I explain that we'll take a couple of short breaks on the way up. At those break, I remind people to drink their water. We're all loosing so much moisture to the heat, that hydration is extremely important.
Soon, we arrive at the summit of Big Kennesaw Mountain and I tell the group that we'll stop here and allow people to get some pictures of the city in the distance as well as the Civil War error graffiti carved into the rocks, which includes a panel that has always caught my attention where a solider carved "Prepare to meet thy god!" into one of the rocks near the trail.
After a few minutes we continue on towards Little Kennesaw Mountain and at one point loose the trail for a brief moment, but I quickly locate it and we're back on the path. After ascending the second peak, it's pretty much all downhill from there, though there is a bit of rock scrambling to be done on the descent.
I stop the group for a couple more water breaks along the way, but we arrive back at the parking area without incident. I group everyone up and do a short debrief and then wish them a good evening. In total, we hiked about 6.4 miles. It was a good day!
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