Sun, Mar 1 2015 - March Monadnock Madness! Stone Mountain + Arabia + Panola + Prizes! (View Original Event Details)
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We AOC “madmen & madwomen” had a blast today summiting all three of metro Atlanta's famous granite monadnocks with our friendly naturalist hosts and about 25 other hikers from the public at large.
Thanks to our AOC President Joyce Taaffe, who has added greatly to our enjoyment of the event not only by hiking with us but also by sharing her fabulous photos. Click on these links to access her colorful variety of candid people shots, nature closeups, group portraits, etc. at each of the three "monadnocks":
Stone Mountain: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153774182935260.1073742453.540275259&type=1&l=781ac9bf3c
Arabia Mountain: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153774213780260.1073742454.540275259&type=1&l=281227821f
Panola Mountain: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153774253900260.1073742455.540275259&type=1&l=b9019a06fe
Despite the overcast skies we lucked out with nary a drop of rain and comfortable hiking weather considering it's still wintertime. Special thanks to our friendly naturalist hosts who did such a fine job and kept us all safe: Hanna & Anna who guided us at Stone Mountain, Robbie & Kimberly at Arabia, and Lieren, Jimi & Matt at Panola. Along the way we stopped often to discuss the ancient monoliths’ fascinating geology and the adaptive wonders of native outcrop plants such as diamorpha, snorkelwort, prickly pear cactus and red cedars.
It was fun having Lisa, Leeann and Jane join me for carpooling from Stone Mountain to the other two parks and back. Kudos to Kristina, Ron and a few others who helped us organize the carpooling effort and drove their own nice vehicles.
A final word of thanks to the Davidson-Arabia Alliance's "outreach coordinator" Kimberly Estep who does such a bang-up job planning and coordinating Monadnock Madness! She awarded each of us “Kickoff Day Triple Challenge" finishers a gorgeous commemorative bandanna at the lovely lush summit of Panola Mountain. We look forward to joining Kimberly and her fine colleagues often in the future, not only for this annual fun event but also for the other numerous creative educational events they host at all three lovely parks.
Other AOC members are encouraged to check out the cool "MonadnackMadness.com” website, and if you like you can still earn the nice commemorative bandanna on your own by hiking to all three summits before the end of March! As you may know each of the three giant monoliths is geologically more than 300 million years old and they boast an amazing diversity of rare plants and animals. - Submitted by Charlie - Sun Mar 1 at 8:00 PM
April 4, 2015 Postscript: Thanks to Kimberly for the following link she sent us today. Click it for her amazing Flick-R photo album of all March 2015 Monadnock Madness events: http://bit.ly/1D1VsNW
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