Pine Mountain

Pine Mountain

May 12, 2010

For some reason or another I decided to take a Maymester course, Environmental Anthropology. Not entirely knowing what the class was about I went in with an open mind just because.. well it sounded interesting!

Environmental Anthropology is unique to any geography class I have taken. Instead of looking how humans have affected the environment, the course is looking how the environment affects humans! Well part of the class is focused on field work, being able to distinguish fauna and geology in a certain area. Our teacher planned a field trip to Pine Mountain. I had never heard of Pine Mountain, especially because it was not on our original state park list. Pine Mtn is actually territory owned by the City of Cartersville located adjacent to Lake Allatoona.

I invited Kim to go with me because I knew she would enjoy learning about the rocks and vegetation with me. I was really glad she came. We learned so much. The cool part about it was all the information the anthropology teacher knew! I had never had an anthropology teacher before but he was familiar with a wide range of knowledge from biology, geology, and botany to human history.

The entire hike was roughly a 3 mile loop to the summit of the mountain. We saw so many beautiful plants. It was amazing thinking that I could go through the hike with friends and missed the majority of what we saw. We stopped every 5 minutes or so while he pointed out this and that. I loved the trees! There were many white oaks, red oaks, and chestnut oaks. The forest in that region was secondary succession meaning it had been clear cut years before but was growing back to a mature forest though it still has at least a hundred years to go! We even saw what is believed to be one of the few remaining chestnut trees. It was really upsetting to see the tree was only a sapling and was slowly dying.

I did enjoy one thing he pointed out.. in class he mentioned that due to its geological history, Georgia has the second highest biodiversity spot in the world in terms of its plant and animal species. While on the trip he pointed out the forest diversity in a variety of ways. While hiking the trail we seemed to walk through various zones of forest. Some would have more shrubbery or more pine trees. Others would have less vegetation and trees that would be found in northern states. We saw four different types of pine trees which is very unusual for a forest. We also saw a bunch of beautiful wildflowers. Kim and I were both excited in being able to actually recognize and name some flowers.

It was also pretty interesting getting to learn what kinds of rocks leave various soils that trees prefer. The coolest part about the rocks... Georgia has some of the oldest rocks recorded, 1.6 billion years ago and they are found right next to Pike Mountain at Coopers Branch!

I am truly enjoying this class and tomorrow is set to go to Allatoona Dam :)

Red Top Mountain

Red Top Mtn

May 7, 2010

Planned three days ahead of time, this turned out to be sort of an odd trip.. It seemed that all day we were all dragging our feet for a lazy day.

Scott, Clay, Kim, and I met up around 12:30pm and drove to Publix to buy subs for lunch. Scott drove us in his Jeep to the park, roughly 25 minutes away. We found a picnic table close to Lake Allatoona and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch :)

Roughly 45 minutes later we drove to the visitor's center to pick up our maps and to choose a trail. We were stuck between taking the shorter one mile Sweet Gum Trail or the 3.9 mile Iron Mill Trail. We decided on the longer one!

The trail itself was gorgeous. The majority of the trail was walking alongside of the lake. We saw several boats, a guy fall while he hit a wave during wake boarding, and a Labrador swimming! The lab was adorable... his master had him laying on an inflatable next to him chewing on a bone. I wish I could bring my beagle on the trails and to outdoor things. I'm also really glad Scott came along. It was the first trip he didn't have prior commitments. Being a boyscout, he naturally went in front but was very aware of everyone and I can tell you I definitely felt safer knowing if anything happened he would know what to do.

The trail had several abandoned picnic tables overgrown with vegetation as well as a bathroom. We stopped midway at a picnic table to take a 15 minute break. It was a good time to talk about our plans for parks during the summer. We are thinking of doing a longer trip to knock out several parks on the coast. Those will definitely be the most difficult just because of distance. We considered a full moon hike in late May as well, offered by many of the parks. If not that, I know I want to do a full moon kayaking trip near Dahlonega. I think it would be gorgeous!!

The weather was perfect in the mid 70's and we didn't have to worry about direct sun. Overall the trail wasn't too bad. There was gravel on the majority of the path and what looked to be fairly new bridges near the end of the trail. I have to say though.. once we hit the bridges I was exhausted. I knew 3.9 miles would be quite a distance but I don't think mentally I was prepared. I brought the wrong shoes and I was still stuck in the mode of lazy.

We saw several bikers too. I would definitely come back and bike the trail!

This hike was kind of a celebration of spring semester and in a way, the mini vacation before Maymester classes begin. I think it was definitely the exhaustion from the spring classes that put me in the lazy mode. Though the hike also acted as a rejuvenater in the sense that I am really excited about hiking this summer. Let's see where the next trip takes us!