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Cherokee Trail log /

Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain

8.9 mi, 1,041 ft, sunrise 7:02 AM, clear, 46°F

A nice, cool morning, cloudless at sunrise and 46°F, with mallards on the water and a line of geese flying over. A tree that looked healthy has come down across the trail near the covered bridge. Back down from the top of the mountain, two trees crossed in an X over a connecting trail at the railroad, as if telling me not to go that way. Venable Lake was still enough to mirror the whole mountain.

  • 3rd slowest pace of 122 timed hikes, 23:05 /mi.
  • Sunrise 41 minutes earlier than on October 17, 2026.
  • 15°F cooler than the median of 165 logged hikes.
A cloudless sky nearly ten minutes before sunrise, blue overhead fading to a yellow and orange band along the horizon, dark wooded shores across a calm lake with one round tree rising above the treeline at the center left, mist drifting off the water at the left and the glow repeated in the ripples
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Ultra wide lens 2.200mm f/1.90
Focal
13 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.9
Shutter
1/120
ISO
40
Taken
6:52 AM
Sunrise
10 min before
Color index
27.4

What the Watch Saw

The Numbers

8.95 miDistance
1,041 ftElevation Gain1,045 ft loss
3h 26mMoving Time23:05 /mi
3h 52mElapsed6:20 AM to 10:12 AM
1,653 ftHigh Pointlow 837 ft
7:02 AMSunrisecivil dawn 6:35 AM, bearing 110°

Elevation from the watch: 5-point median, then only climbs over 3 m count. Moving time drops stretches under 1 km/h.

Where It Went

Route and Profile

Route map of Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain on November 8, 2026

10,448 GPS points, drawn from 289 of them. Pins mark where the photos were taken.

Download the GPX (1.1 MB): the recorded track, heart rate removed. Open data, CC BY 4.0.

Elevation profile of Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain on November 8, 2026

Elevation in feet against distance in miles. The dashed line is where the track was at sunrise. Pins mark where the photos were taken.

Mile splits
Mile Passed Split Climb
1 6:42 AM 21:17 10 ft
2 7:06 AM 24:51 60 ft
3 7:29 AM 22:16 30 ft
4 7:50 AM 21:08 233 ft
5 8:32 AM 42:25 538 ft
6 9:04 AM 32:18 75 ft
7 9:27 AM 22:48 0 ft
8 9:51 AM 24:05 41 ft
8.9 10:12 AM 21:02 53 ft

Each mile as the watch recorded it: the clock at the marker, the time it took with stops included, and the climb inside it. The marked row is the one the sun came up in.

The Ground

Route in Relief

The route of November 8, 2026 on Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain drawn on a relief model of the terrain, seen from the south-southeast and lit from the east-southeast

Terrain from USGS 3DEP at 10 m, drawn at 2x vertical scale with contours every 40 ft, seen from the south-southeast. Lit from where the sun stood at 8:29 AM, when the walk reached its highest point: bearing 123°, 16° above the horizon. The green line is the recording draped on the terrain, dotted where the ground hides it (17 percent of the track from this angle). Drawn when the entry was made; nothing runs in the browser.

At Sunrise

Conditions at Sunrise

46°FTemperature
0%Cloud Coverclear, high cloud 0%
4 mphWindgusts 7
89%Humiditydew point 43°F
987 hPaPressure
Low 0%
Mid 0%
High 0%

Cloud cover here is the low and middle layers together, the cloud that hides the sun. High cloud is what a sunrise lights up, so it is counted on its own. Open-Meteo archive (ERA5 and IFS analysis), 7:00 AM. Station KPDK (Atlanta, De Kalb-Peachtree Airport), 10.7 mi away, 6:35 AM: 43°F, sky CLR125, clear.

On Me

What I Wore

  • A vest and long pants for the first part of the hike.
  • Took the vest and the long pants off once I warmed up.

Written from that morning's notes, and nothing they do not say. The pieces are on the gear page.

In My Ears

What I Was Listening To

  • The Exodus Gambit (House Adamant, book 1) by Glynn Stewart. About 17% to 44% of the way through.

From Audible's listening time for the day, which does not say which book: the book comes from the order I heard them in, and how far through it is an estimate. How it is worked out.

On the Trail

Trail Conditions

  • A couple of hundred yards north of the covered bridge, on the trail along the lake, a newly fallen tree lies across the path. It looked healthy, but the roots seem to have been rotten.
  • Fallen leaves cover the trail and can hide dangers underneath, so watch your step.

Written from that morning's notes, one line for each thing they say about the trail, and nothing the notes do not say. What the notes did not mention is not here.

More From the Top

More Frames

Trees turning yellow, orange and red among tall pines along the shore six minutes before sunrise, mallards swimming across the still water in front, and a yellow glow over a misty far shore at the left under a blue sky
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Wide-angle lens 6.500mm f/1.40
Focal
23 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.4
Shutter
1/120
ISO
100
Taken
6:56 AM
Sunrise
6 min before
Looking down a calm stretch of the lake four minutes after sunrise, fall color along the left shore and tall pines on the right, a yellow glow on the horizon at the far end under a clear blue sky, a line of geese flying high on the left and mist low over the water
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Wide-angle lens 6.500mm f/1.40
Focal
23 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.4
Shutter
1/180
ISO
32
Taken
7:06 AM
Sunrise
4 min after
Color index
32.1
A newly fallen tree torn out at the roots and lying across the dirt path along the lake, its root ball turned up on the left, fallen leaves all over the ground, and the water and the far shore catching the early light on the right
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Ultra wide lens 2.200mm f/1.90
Focal
13 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.9
Shutter
1/120
ISO
125
Taken
7:11 AM
Sunrise
10 min after
Two leaning trunks crossed in an X over a yellow-blazed path where it leaves the railroad track at the lower left, pines and trees in yellow and orange fall color all around, lit by the morning sun under a blue sky
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Wide-angle lens 6.500mm f/1.40
Focal
23 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.4
Shutter
1/207
ISO
10
Taken
9:15 AM
Sunrise
133 min after
A narrow path along the lake buried in brown and orange fallen leaves, tree roots showing through them, ferns and a small tree at the water's edge and the lake bright blue on the right
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Wide-angle lens 6.500mm f/1.40
Focal
23 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.4
Shutter
1/180
ISO
25
Taken
9:40 AM
Sunrise
158 min after
Stone Mountain's bare granite dome and summit mast above a shore of trees in green, yellow and orange across Venable Lake, all of it mirrored in still water under a cloudless deep blue sky
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Ultra wide lens 2.200mm f/1.90
Focal
13 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.9
Shutter
1/944
ISO
32
Taken
9:46 AM
Sunrise
164 min after
Looking up into the woods from a floor of fallen leaves, tall gray trunks rising into yellow, green and orange leaves, with blue sky through the canopy and sunlight across the ground
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Lens
Galaxy S26 Ultra Ultra wide lens 2.200mm f/1.90
Focal
13 mm eq.
Aperture
f/1.9
Shutter
1/120
ISO
25
Taken
9:49 AM
Sunrise
167 min after

On the Trail

Seen This Morning

In the Pack

What Came Along

What was in service on this date, by the dates on the gear page. Buy links are affiliate links; see the disclosure.

The full kit, with the mornings and miles on each item.

Same Sky

Mornings That Looked Like This

The three sunrises in the log whose sky colors sit nearest this morning's, by the five-color palette under each photograph, whatever the date or trail.

Pink and orange streaks of high cloud across a blue sky eight minutes before sunrise, a yellow band along the horizon behind a dark wooded shore, mist lying on the water and the still lake mirroring all of it Sep 26, 2026 Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain Gold light along the treeline of the far shore at sunrise on Stone Mountain Lake, a band of soft cloud above and light ripples on the water Jul 11, 2026 Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain A clear sky before sunrise, blue overhead fading to a band of yellow and orange along the far treeline across the lake, wind ripples on the water and a bare branch reaching in at the right Oct 17, 2026 Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain

Other Years

This Morning, Other Years

The nearest logged morning to this date in each other year, within two weeks, from this trail when it has one.

Every Morning on Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain Cherokee Trail Review All Sunrises Compare With Another Morning