Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield

Well, yet another day of unsettled weather. I figured that if I was to get in a hike at all, I would need to stay in town. As such, I picked the next trail on my Atlanta list – Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. I had never been excited about doing this park, because I saw it as more history and less hike. I was wrong.

After a false start due to forgetting all of my high tech gear, I arrived at the visitor center and began at 9:40. I had noticed before I left home that there was another line of storms in Alabama, and given last night’s tornado, I knew I needed to keep a close eye on it. I pulled the hi res radar image up on my phone, and kept refreshing it (I am not called the high tech hiker for nothing).

The book “60 Hikes in 60 Miles” lists the hike up Kennesaw Mountain as the most strenuous in the book. While I think that is a bit of an exaggeration, the climb of 600 ft in 1 mile will get your attention.

The hike started out on packed gravel, and I was afraid that was what I would have to hike on the whole day. Early on, another hiker, clearly experienced from his gear, asked if this was my first time here. When I said yes, he told me it was one of the nicest and most rugged hikes in the area. Soon after the conversation, it switched from gravel to rugged rock climbing. My kind of trail!

I made it to the top of the mountain, back down a bit, and the up Little Kennesaw Mountain. It was some of the rockiest terrain I have hiked. All around the trail were remnants of the civil war, including mounds and trenches used by the troops for protection. There were also reproduction cannons (I assume) placed on the ridge, in the spot real ones would have been used during the war.

The trail descended to Pigeon Hill and the crossed a road to a large grassy clearing. I continued on the main trail, keeping a wary eye on the weather. When I got to the bridge over Noses Creek, I decided to circle back on the West Trail, and to pickup the East Trail (which does not climb back over the mountain) just to make sure I beat the weather. The section of the West Trail proved to take longer than expected. As soon as I got on the East Trail, I heard the first sign of thunder, even as my phone showed the front a good distance away.

Having lost my map some time back I had no idea what the return trip would take, so I hastened my pace. As I did so, the thunder continued to increase, as did my speed. It was quite some time before the rain actually started, at which point I pulled out my umbrella. I found it somewhat pleasurable to hike in the rain, except for the threat of sever weather.

When the East Trail crossed the access road used by the shuttle to get to the top of the mountain, I took it rather than the trail, just to make sure I made it back in time. Even as the thunder increased, I saw numerous new hikers and joggers just starting out. As I hit the parking lot for the visitor center, the weather sirens began to sound. Just in time! I would later hear of a tornado in the vicinity of where I was, just 30 minutes behind me.

As I put my gear in the car, I began to think about how insignificant my worries about work, the economy, etc were given the fact that I had just toured an area where men fought for a cause larger than themselves under terrible conditions, with many giving their lives. It sort of puts things in perspective…..