I woke this morning and headed west to Stone Mountain State Park. It was supposed to rain, so I had packed my rain gear. As I got closer to the park it started to rain. I guess it was going to be a soggy day. To my delight, it stopped raining as I started my hike on the loop trail. I was quickly shedding layers as it was turning out to be nice day. It was warm but not yet sunny. My first view as I broke through the trees was breathtaking. Ahhhhh….the Appalachians. But also a huge rock! I have never seen a whole rock (that’s 1 rock) that was an entire mountain. Fascinating!
There are stages to hiking that define the trail. Typically these are listed as easy, moderate, and strenuous. I was on a trail marked strenuous. I also think there are different degrees of strenuous; I experienced two of these today. Let me define these is my terms.
1. Strenuous = switchbacks = somewhat steep = I’m walking a lot but I don’t seem to be making much headway in terms of elevation.
2. Very Strenuous = stairs = steep = my butt is going to be hurting tomorrow.3. Extremely Strenuous (which I did not experience today) = climbing on hands and knees or rock climbing = extremely steep = for every two steps you take you loose one by sliding backwards.
So far it was easy, but soon enough strenuous would rear its head as my trail turned into switchbacks until I reached the summit of Stone Mountain at 2,305ft. I wandered around on top for bit. The views are simply amazing up here in heaven. The clouds were still looming overhead; I was hoping the sky wouldn’t fall. The summit was another big giant rock mountain. Stone Mountain State Park is a very fitting name. In the rock was some very neat formations created by thousands of years of erosion and pooling water.
As I descended the mountain, the very strenuous appeared. Stairs. But hey I was going down so it wasn’t that bad. At the bottom was a sign (read below). Now I know that the parks put these up for legal purposes, but they always amuse me. If someone is really “smart” enough to climb over the railing and think they can walk down the big stone mountain, do you think they are “smart” enough to read the sign? I doubt it. As I neared the end of my loop I was feeling pretty energetic so I took the Wolf Rock branch. This took me back up another mountain for more gorgeous views. From this mountain, I could see the summit that I was previously at. From there I took the Cedar trail down and found the homestead of J, L, E, and J, my fellow Soapstoners. Are you guys related to John and Carrie Hutchinson?
I headed back around the loop and crossed the stream many times. It’s a good thing my boots are water proof. Now I could have used the bridges provided for me, but what fun it that? I decided to detour again because I couldn’t miss the water falls. On this trail, I had no choice but to walk across the rocks to cross the stream, as no bridges were available. The funny thing is that this water was actually more difficult to cross without getting wet. Put a bridge where it is not needed and don’t put one where you need it. Sounds logical to me, right?
By this time the sun was shining and I was getting hot. I walked down, down, down to see the lower falls. It was very neat. Back up the hill to find the branch trail for the middle falls. I saw a rock that looked like a cupcake. Yummmm! Can you tell I was hungry? The middle falls were a little tricky to get to. I had to shimmy along a ledge and then squeeze under a rock in order to get a head-on picture of the falls. After this I was wiped out and ready for The Beetle to magically appear in front of me. As I headed back out to the loop trail I came to the Stone Mountain falls. Obviously there had to be an “upper” falls if there was a middle and a lower. Now by this point, I had hiked up and down for about 8 miles. Initially I was only planning on doing 5 miles. So when I saw VERY STENUOUS conditions ahead I cringed. Stairs and lot of them. They followed the 200ft waterfall to the top. I trudged up the stairs slowly for my legs were like Jello and my belly was screaming at me for food. At the top, I found another funny sign. I was soon back at my car and headed on my merry little way. 
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