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Published: November 27th 2007
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Posted by: Onaxthiel: How can it be this misty in an area that is in a severe drought? It's frigging annoying! My poncho accomplished its assigned mission somewhat, with the top side completely coated in a fine sheen of dew. The bottom, facing us, was also coated in a fine layer of dew. It was a success in that our bivies were mostly dry, but even they had a bit of morning condensation on the outer hull. My ruck sack, bereft of it's normal poncho wrapper that goes on it most clear nights, was also thoroughly coated in moisture. The fact that all my gear is in water tight bags and the ALICE itself has about three layers of camp dry sprayed onto it meant that this was more of a nuisance than a real problem, but even so....
After drying everything out as well as we could (I'm sure the poncho will be soaking whenever I get around to hanging it up this weekend) we broke camp and moved back to the car to drive to some other scenic spots around the Tennessee Valley Divide. All the Ranger support vehicles were out again, so I surmise that the guys
were still in the neighborhood. Before they arrived at any of the points I knew they would take over later in the day, I wanted to get Obfuscator to see them. The first of our stops was Hawk Mountain, the highest point in that little stretch around the TVD.
Hawk is a solid hike when you are in condition for it, and our out of shape selves were laboring to get to the top. Once on the top, we were treated to some decent vistas, and noticed the giant G 23 placed at the summit. I am not sure what they are for, but it is a bit weird. I assume it is there for aerial navigation of some sort, but whether it's civilian aviation or the helos that support 5 RTB I am not at all sure. On our way up, we encountered an abandoned patrol base. Soldiers are slobs. I assume that the location was vacated in a hurry when an instructor threw an artillery simulation into the middle of the camp, because otherwise the mess was rather inexcusable. I seem to recall something about packing your trash out with you, but perhaps I'm just misremembering. I'm
This tree had roots that were very shallow.
It was also near the site of the Rangery mess. not. There definitely shouldn't be that much trash left over when you exit a patrol base.
Next we went to the Hightower Pass, right in the same area as Hawk. Hightower is the pass you finally arrive at after walking out of Camp Merrill, and it is an awful, horrible, head spinningly hard hike from the valley bellow. It's not nearly as difficult when you just drive to the top.
Me: “I hiked up that twice when I was in school. It really sucked.”
Obfuscator: “Looks hard. Makes me tired just looking at it.”
Me: “Yup. Let's walk up the first couple meters of trails past here, rest and have a snack.”
And so we did. Then it was getting a bit late in the day, so we drove all the way out of the county to our last target of the day, Mount Yonah.
Yonah is the highest point in the state of Georgia, and has a nice, easy drive that takes you near the top, to a foot path that will take you to the actual precipice. Of course, as our luck would have it, that road was closed at the time
of our visit. Therefore we had to park at the base and climb the entire 2000 feet. Most of the route wasn't bad. There are foot paths and it's really only moderately difficult most of the way. Then, as always, we had a Bright Idea(TM). Rather than using the clearly marked path that takes to up the easy foot path, we detoured to lowers, the area that Rangers use to train more interesting mountaineering techniques than they do near the home post. It was nice to see the area again, though it was overrun by civilian climbers that didn't seem anywhere near stressed enough to be getting the same lessons on climbing that I received. By God, they almost seemed to be ENJOYING climbing around up there! We moved on past them and onto the route that I had to move around the mountain along back in school. The entire point of this route is to prove that you can find routes free climbing that no sane people would ever attempt in order to surprise an opponent that thinks his position is unassailable. We were feeling challenged, but confident. Then the vultures started circling. I'm not speaking metaphorically. There were
literally vultures circling. I don't think it was us, as they seemed to be offset about 100 ft. to our right. But it was a bit unnerving to have the carrion eaters eying us when we were struggling to find hand and foot holds two hundred feet above the nearest landing in a 2,000ft. vertical. Finally we pulled ourselves over the last ledge and were on the cap of the mountain. I lay down for a little rest while Obfuscator took advantage of the line of sight to make a phone call. We then went back down the well marked foot path to the bottom that we should have been on from the start and went back to the car to put some miles down before our next really long day of driving.
Lessons learned: I froze last night. Since the weather report for Dahlonega had stated that the temperature would be in the low 40s over night, we had packed the summer bags, not really remembering that the mountains would be noticeably cooler. When we went to bed, the mercury still wasn't too low. By three AM, my choice to not bring thermals out of my pack into
the sack with me was costing me. Next time, certainly bring the long underwear and top in, even if I don't think I will need them.
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