Blood Mountain

Somehow, incredibly, we actually made it to a mountain last weekend! Blood Mountain (that is seriously what it’s called) is the tallest peak in the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail, and for some reason this was the first ever mountain we decided to climb. After all these relatively flat trails in Florida, I was definitely not prepared for the constant up-ness of a real life mountain.

Towards the end I was able to make it ten or so steps up before needing another break. What can I say, I’m a wimp. But after way more stops than probably should have been necessary, we did finally make it to the top. And man, was it worth it. Sitting in the clearing looking out over the Blue Ridge Mountains as the sun started to set is one of the cooler things I’ve gotten to do.

Reaching the top of a mountain is a lot more rewarding than I ever imagined, and once we were up there I didn’t really want to leave.

Another thing they don’t tell you — the way down, while not as difficult as the way up, is still not easy. Your knees will yell at you almost the entire time.

We were planning on taking a longer trail the next day, but we ended up being really wiped from this one. So instead we took the short route, a half mile trail up Brasstown Bald, which you can see in the next post 🙂