January One

My first hike will be close to home at the Big Trees Forest Preserve in Sandy Springs. Since I plan on going to a New Years eve party, I don't think I'll be getting to bed early the night before. I want to start the year off right, so I'm hell bent on doing a hike on January one. This hike is close, so I can leave later in the day, and it seems pretty easy. I don't think I"ll have any luck recruiting comrades for this hike, so I am going to plan a longer one on January second and hope that I can get a better turn out. That one will be the Iron Mine Loop at the Red Top Mountain State Park.

To plan my hike, I am mainly using the website GeorgiaTrails.com. I also recently purchased a version of 60 hikes within 60 miles of Atlanta from betterworldbooks.com, my preferred book buying website. So I'll be using that book, as well, to plan out my hikes. I need to go to the grocery store so I can make some sandwiches! I'm out of chicken broth, so I think I'll make chicken salad and chicken broth from a Kroger rotisserie chicken.

Now is a good time to give a little background into why food and wine is such an important part of my hiking experience. When I was studying abroad in France, my friend's host family had a hiking club that invited us for a hike up Mount Sainte Victoire. We brought water and sandwiches, which apparently was not enough. The others on the trip pulled out nuts and sausages for an aperitif, wine to drink during the main course, coffee for after the meal, and a digestif made from Thyme, which was growing on the mountain. Needless to say, my feast on the top of a mountain in the south of France changed the way I look at hiking.

On another note, I am a little concerned for Brandy about the first hike. It appears to be a very serious nature preserve and I do not think they will want me to take my dog off of her leash. I hate leashes. The dogs don't want to be on them, and I don't want to hold something in my hand. I do have one of those leashes that you can wear around your waste or over you shoulder. Its called the Quantum Leash. Its pretty versatile, but I just prefer to let my dog run free! I have a shock collar that I use with Brandy, which is kind of like a wireless leash, and pretty damn effective.

On January one, I'll go see some big trees and on January two I'll look at some holes in the ground where they took out Iron. If the second one is a good location, I may be returning to try some of the other hikes in that park. Before I start school, I would like to do a long hike so I am going to hike a mixture of 3 trails to summit Blood Mountain, the second tallest mountain in Georgia, on January seven. As you can see, scheduled hikes will appear on the right hand side of the blog. So here we go! If I start out strong, I should hopefully finish this thing.