Stone Mountain Hike

High on the side of Georgia's Stone Mountain, our group of hikers are on solid granite and in view of the skyline of Atlanta about 15 miles to the west. Alexi Hughes, Emily Musgrove and Madeline Danser with Johnny Huffman. We planned an RA/GA hike, but it turned out to be just GAs.

We had a wonderful day for a hike, cool and very clear.

We started with our pancake breakfast at the church and then headed out to Stone Mountain Park. The girls pose with Johnny on the railway that rings the base of the mountain.

We headed up the trail among the yellow flowers that are abundant near the bottom. Soon we are on solid rock with very little soil.

Emily was fascinated by the illustrated map of the park we had gotten, and she wanted to know where everything was.

We stopped by the bubble gum post, which seemed to have collected a bit more since we examined it on a previous trip.

Upslope from the cave are some neat rocks to climb.

Finally we made it to the top and could look down the other side at the lakes.

The butterfly was quite patient with me - maybe it just didn't want to leave the only flowers in sight. This was a dramatic spot of beauty in the otherwise austere world of granite.

On the back side of the cable cars were some small patches of trees on the rocks which the girls enjoyed exploring. They would shoo Johnny and I away, telling us this was a time for girl talk. It was a little different, taking a group of girls up the mountain. But it was all great fun.

We are used to mock battle being part of the agenda with boys groups, but now we were being attacked by the girls! I sort of thought that being behind the camera would protect me from attack. Oh, well! Time for retreat!

At least the weapons being used were not too damaging.

The girls were beginning to ask about lunch, so we headed down the mountain, with the panorama of the Atlanta skyline in front of us.

Time for our traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before we head back to Mableton First Baptist.