Sun, Mar 12 2017 - March Monadnock Madness! Stone Mountain + Arabia + Panola + Prizes! - our 5th year of AOC participation. (View Original Event Details)
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We AOC “madmen & madwomen” had a blast yesterday summiting all three of metro Atlanta's famous rocky monadnocks with our friendly naturalist hosts and a couple of dozen other hikers from the public at large. Thanks esp. to Joyce for co-leading this year and for doing such a splendid job taking a variety of colorful photos and sharing them so graciously with everyone. Click "Photo Album" above to view Joyce's 135 fine photos from yesterday, already posted on Facebook and prefaced by her following event archive notes:
"The day was overcast and chilly -- but we were grateful that the rain passed earlier in the day. Fifteen AOC members joined folks from the public to hike up the "three sister monadnocks" -- Stone Mountain, Arabia Mountain, and Panola Mountain. We had educational guides for each mountain, so we learned a great deal about the formation of the three areas and how they differed.
We couldn't have gotten luckier when we reached the top of Panola Mountain. The overcast skies cleared up, giving us a pretty sunset and a beautiful full moon rise.
Upon reachinh the top of Panola Mountain, each participant was given a commemorative bandana -- a wonderful keepsake for our day's adventures up the mountains. We concluded the event with making S'mores around a big campfire -- a treat provided by Panola Mountain volunteers."
We'll also appreciate it if our other AOC photographers will send us their own "event anecdotes" and links to their online photo albums so we can post them here for all to "click and enjoy"!
Erica took an album of pictures that you can see at https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNAhDqZiv7NDwyAa-cPQiQ0QGzCXj6bAcWgEpnLkpo6E2u0CUer0CX1VWLj2OIshg/photo/AF1QipNR40gudHNvTK8TqFGAtIRdgtPa_-mZlKxz7OWL?key=akN6XzVYNE1jNWxmOGpWNXVPakxtc3J3RmFmaERB
As Joyce mentioned, we want to thank our friendly naturalist friends for doing a fine job guiding the hikes and keeping us all safe: Brian, Barcia and Angela at Stone Mountain; Robbie & Sarah at Arabia; and Jeff, Matt & Theresa at Panola. Along the way we stopped often to discuss the fascinating geology and human history of the ancient monoliths - also the adaptive wonders of the native plants that adorn the rocky outcrops and their surrounding forests -- diamorpha, prickly pear cactus, yellow jessamine, serviceberry, snorkelwort and many more.
AOC members who were not able to participate today are encouraged to check out the "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 - Mon March 13th
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