Pine Mountain

The rain finally stopped yesterday, and I spent a big part of my Thanksgiving Day raking and blowing away what were hopefully the last of the autumn's leaves. Since the clear weather continued today, I used the opportunity to take a recon hike up Pine Mountain.

However, clear skies by day also mean clear skies at night, and this time of year, clear skies at night means cold weather. The temperature was 38 degrees when I left the house this morning, definitely the coldest day so far this year.

I needed to hike Pine Mountain today because I needed to get out of the city and feel real earth under my feet, but also because I will be leading a hike there with the Zen Center in two weeks (December 11) and I will be out of town (Grand Cayman) scuba diving next week. "Let's Take the Zen Buddhists Hiking" doesn't quite have the ring of Camper Van Beethoven's "Let's Take the Skinheads Bowling," but the former seems to be my fate. Anyway, it's important if you want to lead a successful hike to scout the route beforehand, to remind yourself how to find the trailhead, what the parking situation is, and what the trail conditions are like.

But, as I was saying, the frost was definitely on the pumpkin when I left this morning. I picked up my friend K., who wanted to come along, and we drove south out of Atlanta after the obligatory Starbucks stop and headed down I-85.

Pine Mountain is an anomaly. It's the southernmost mountain in Georgia, but it's not part of the Appalachian chain. It's a quartzite ridge that juts up out of the Piedmont - geologically, some say its a structural window and others call it an anticlinorium - but it makes for a nice hike in a part of the state not known for nice hikes.

It's also near Warm Springs and FDR's Little White House. You also have to drive through Moreland, Georgia to get there. Moreland is the home of the late Lewis Grizzard, southern humorist and columnist, and they even have a "Lewis Grizzard Museum." We didn't stop there, though.

The Pine Mountain Trail is 23 miles long and runs the length of the ridge. However, there's a nice loop trail starting from the western end that's only 6.7 miles and passes by some scenic waterfalls (nothing big - the scale of everything, including the mountain itself, is somewhat modest compared to the grander scale of the North Georgia Appalachians). K. and I found the trailhead after only one wrong turn, and began hiking around 11:00. We found a couple of good sitting spots for Zen meditation along the trail, and even identified a good lunch spot. We got back to the car around 3:00 and back to Atlanta by 5:00.

So, like, you know, mission accomplished and stuff.