We had a "refreshing" day to hike up and around Blood Mountain. The sun and absence of leaves gave us fantastic views through most of the day.  The hike provided lots of variation. Going up Slaughter Creek Trail is a moderate steady climb with sweeping views down to the creek until it joins up with the AT about a mile from the summit. We were fairly protected from the wind until the last steep climb to the top of Blood Mountain. We spent a little time looking out atop the bald and then the northern outcroppings at those luscious views from opposite directions. Since it was early as we had made good time, we decided to have lunch a little further down the AT in a nice rock garden out of the wind.  Just before we got to our lunch spot we came to an overlook to the south were we spotted Stone Mountain on the left part of are view, Kennesaw Mountain to the right and in-between was a faint downtown Atlanta just to the right of Sawnee Mountain in the foreground. Quite an amazing view considering we were just a hand full of folks looking down on an area that contains over 5,000,000 people!  

 

We saw a few day hikers, a couple of backpackers and two through hikers during the day but for most of the part it was just our small group of seven. On our way back on the loop via Freeman Trail we only saw two hikers as this section is rocky providing more technical hiking that most (but not us adventuresome souls) try to avoid.  We had intermittent wind on this side with jackets coming off and on to suit. When we hit the AT on the home stretch the wind picked up and we made tracks.  We got back a little earlier than expected. The group stayed together throughout. The pace was moderate. We greatly enjoyed each others company. But of course we would as all were sociable, pleasant folks in one of their favorite environments doing what they enjoy!  

 

- Lindsey