I decided to rise super early this morning to join the Atlanta Outdoor Club for a hike to see the sunrise from Indians Seats on Sawnee Mountain. The trailhead is only about fifteen miles from my house and so it seemed pretty doable. I got up about 4:30 am and after getting ready, drove to the trailhead. I arrived to meet the other hikers in the dark around 5:45. After a very quick round of introductions, we hit the trail in the increasing ambient light.
The organizer was keeping a strong pace of nearly 3 mph, which was outstanding. There is a bit of uphill, but nothing crazy and it was light enough that I didn't need my headlamp, even though I had it with me. After just a few minutes at this pace, we reached the Indian Seats rock outcropping and observation deck atop the northern peak of Sawnee Mountain. The face of the mountain was not ideal for catching the rising sun in the east, but we could still get a glimpse around the trees. I always find it refreshing to see the sun rise and even though, the humidity is already thick this morning, the early call time and short hike were definitely worth it.
After climbing around on the rocks a bit and getting our last pictures of nearby star, we headed south to complete another loop around the southern peak just to get a few more miles in. We maintained the strong pace and when finally arriving back at the parking lot had completed about 5.4 miles. And it's only about 8:15 - glorious way to start the day.
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