the next step in the journey: another weekend, two more adventures!

This past weekend I had planned to take a hike on Saturday to check out the fall colors, since my employer was in New York for the weekend. I had been following Georgia State Parks Leaf Watch to determine which park was going to have the best colors. I chose Fort Mountain State Park because the report for October 23, 2012 said, "We are nearly at peak! By this weekend, the color should be at its best." Saturday morning, I marshalled the troops (this time Marius, Sarah, and her dog Luke) and we headed northwest toward Chatsworth. It was a 2 hour drive, with a lot of clouds and a forecasted 20% chance of rain. As we approached Fort Mountain, we drove into the clouds so we were in a thick, thick fog. We THOUGHT we might drive through and get above it, but this was not to be the case.

Undaunted, we climbed out of the car at the end of the road, and made our way through the fog to the "GAHUTI TRAIL" sign we had seen indicating where the trail had crossed the road. We started along the trail, and after not too long, came upon an overlook. It was supposed to have a pretty extensive view which might have been very colorful, but we will never know - this is what we saw:

marius with luke at the "cool springs overlook"

As we left the overlook, we found a sign that informed us that we were NOW at the trailhead. Oh well, at least it was a loop trail. As we passed the sign and continued on our trail, it started to rain. It turned out to be not only extremely foggy the entire 8+mile, 5+ hour hike, but it rained off and on. Somehow, the fog was wet enough that the rain really didn't matter - except we all shielded our cameras when the rain fell. Also, this promise of "the color should be at its best" did not impress us. The overall colors were okay but not brilliant. Most of the leaves were brown and had already fallen. Nevertheless, the hike was really beautiful - not IN SPITE of the fog but BECAUSE of the fog. We had a great time with some slipping and sliding, lots of stopping to take photos, and good company. Sarah's undergrad major (Wildlife and Fisheries) meant she could educate Marius and me about some of the foliage and wildlife native to these mountains.

i found some fall color in the fog

water and snack break (i think this was supposed to be another great view)

sarah and luke found the mile 5 sign through the fog

a bright spot - pretty maple leaves

yep, a wee bit of fog, it was pretty crazy at times to not see much of the trail ahead

this scene looked somewhat like japanese art

pretty scene through the fog

these are the conditions through which we drove and hiked

Well, Georgia, you've got one more chance to impress me with your spectacular fall color! So far I've missed out...

Friday night at the climbing wall, I got an offer to go climb outside on Sunday. I put off my final decision because I have a group project on which I need to work, but by Saturday night I decided to go - I had put in some work after I got back from the hike. So on Sunday morning, David picked me up and then Brent, and we headed to northwest Georgia (again, for me). This time we headed to Pigeon Mountain just outside LaFayette, to the Lost Wall which is partway up it. We hiked in and climbed three different routes - two trad and one sport. David and Brent led the routes and I followed them up. It wasn't foggy, just overcast, but the temperature kept dropping. I ended up very glad that I brought multiple layers, and wished I had brought a beanie.