Sun, Dec 21 2008 - Hiking - Mount Yonah (w/sunset) (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Tony C, cliff j Participants: Tony C, Charina, Mary Padgett, cliff j, Cheryl Z., Marshall, Joseph Martin, Lisa Maldonado, Justin Markham

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Write Up:
After two weeks of very little sunshine, we had a nice clear day today and took full advantage of it. The cold weather returned just in time for the first day of winter and the wind chill factor drove the point home. We started out with four hours remaining before sunset, so we took our time with the hike...heading up the main trail and pausing at the overlook about halfway up to admire the views and take pics. We had quite a few active photographers this hike, which is always fun.

After taking a break, we headed up the steepest portion of the trail and then up side trails to the top....the second one was like hiking up a small creek with all the water running down from the last few days of rain. But we chose our steps carefully and there were no unfortunate missteps. We emerged on the side of the exposed rock face with mother nature in all her glory (or fury?) hitting us with ferocious winds...not much of an exaggeration in this case as some gusts were so strong as to almost knock you off balance at times. This combined with the temps in the 30s, definitely made for an invigorating experience. Still we soaked in the views and could see Brasstown Bald and Tray Mtn in the distance as well as Pink Mtn right next door with that mysterious house/lodge/building on it. The exposed rockface was dripping with running water, but the wind was so strong that it was blowing some of it back upwards.

After making it down to the last overlook, we headed back into the woods to the actual summit of Yonah...a tranquil clearing surrounded by a ring of trees. We stopped here for lunch and tried to warm up a bit. We headed back down the wide main trail, which turned out to be a little wetter and icier than was ideal....and it wouldn't have been good to navigate down it in the dark. Because of this, we decided to watch the sunset from that lower overlook rather than near the summit. So we headed down to play on the Boulder a bit...then did a short out and back from there, and then took a shortcut down to the overlook, where we arrived 5 min before sunset. We had a team of photographers to capture the moment (see pics) and after that, we headed down...taking another shortcut to skip some long switchbacks and get us back to the cars and to dinner more quickly. we stopped for pizza just down the road and made the most of their buffet. From there it wasn't a long drive home, ending another fun adventure with a great group of people.

Tony's Pics

Joseph's Pics

Lisa's Pics

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