Mount Yonah Overnight 4K

Eighth backpacking trip of 2024 … August 30-31, 2024
Included ... me, Caitlin & Sally
Day 1-2.. 5 miles roughly (we did some walking around at sunrise that I didn't track) / roughly 1500’ elevation gain

After getting off work... I ran home grabbed my overnight gear and Sally and hit the road to Georgia! I had to see a man about a tent... Mountain Crossings was great to deal with and also got me a great deal on the tent and was nice enough to hold it for me for a couple days too! Funny story, while at Mountain Crossings I realized that the last time I was through here (during a section hike) I completely passed under the shoe tree and never even saw the shoes!! You'd think it'd be something completely obvious - but not to me at the time! It's funny the things you miss when you're tired!

Anyway, on our way to the trailhead some afternoon thunderstorms had popped up and had cooled the temps from an unbearable 97 degrees to 73 degrees!! Thankfully, the storms had passed by the time we got to the trailhead. | decided to go ahead and start making my way up - because I hadn't felt well most of the week and knew I'd be slowww. Unaware just how slow I'd be ... reality set in quickly! That relatively moderate day hike I'd done a couple weeks prior had suddenly felt A LOT HARDER!! Between getting Sally messed up by putting her pack on wrong, and ill temper, and leg cramps ... I'm just glad no one was around to witness the walking disaster! It was a gorgeous evening hike - but truthfully I barely remember it - all I could focus on was getting to the top! One foot in front of the other - we finally made it to the first opening with a view looking back west which gave me a chance to finish off my electrolytes and take some deep breathes to get ready for the next steep climb (it's the worst of the climb).

Finally, we made it up to the clearing with a large group campsite and the bathrooms. Another lengthy break and we start climbing up the now wide road to the summit. I took a quick detour off trail to my favorite spot from last time - then kept pushing to the summit! We didn't bother taking any more detours ... I wanted to get to camp, setup, and relax while watching the sun go down!

Mercifully, we finally got to camp and to our surprise no one else was camping! For reference... it took me just over 2 hours to summit. So, I picked the spot in the middle of the field which I think also is the highest point of Mount Yonah. I quickly setup camp, fed Sally, and gathered firewood (which was seemingly limited). | then grabbed up my food bag and made it down to one of the cliff overlooks for sunset. While we didn't have a direct view of sunset... I had a great time watching the shadows of the evening shift along the hills and valleys below - along with watching a rainstorm to our south. I was returning to camp to hang my bear bag -when Caitlin pops out of the woods! So, we chat while she sets up ... then after the sun goes down we return to my cliffside spot to retrieve the GoPro but end up stargazing and watching the lights below us while chitchatting. We returned back to camp and settled in by the fire before finally calling it a night.

The next morning, we got up an watched the sunrise slowly illuminate the land before us (it was rising behind us - so the shadow of Mount Yonah was pretty cool to see)! We returned to camp- packed up our wet tents (from the morning dew) and returned to our cars. Grateful for the time together.

Things to note ... again I still consider this a moderate trail, I just didn't feel well and trying to hike with leg cramps are no fun! I highly recommend LMNT - it really seemed to help later in the hike. We had the summit to ourselves - but I imagine at times this could be a busy area. Firewood was somewhat hard to find and no water is available - so you'll have to pack in however much you need. The trail even after a rain wasn't too bad to hike. And coffee is ALWAYS a win