King of the Mountain 10k Group Run : First Sunday of Every Month at Stone Mountain, Georgia
Meet 8:00 am, run starts at 8:30 am
Where:
Stone Mountain Park
Meet at the walk up trail parking area in front of the bathrooms near the train tracks
Address for directions:
Confederate Hall Parking Lot, Robert E Lee Blvd, Stone Mountain, GA 30083, United States
PLEASE NOTE you need to purchase a day or annual pass to Stone Mountain.
Route:
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Route directions:
We will start at the Walk up trail parking area. We will officially start at the train tracks where we immediately go left to parallel the tracks and follow the orange blazes connector trail until it dead ends into the White blazed Cherokee Trail. Go straight on it and follow it all the way around the mountain. Follow all signs to stay on the Cherokee Trail Clockwise. You will cross roads multiple times so watch for cars and bike traffic.
Eventually the trail crosses some train tracks 4 plus miles in. Then begins to climb pretty step up the mountain. This is on all granite at this point. You will look for the white blazes painted on the rocks. Then pass over a gravel road. When you pass over the gravel road start paying attention as not much further up you need to take a right on the main WALK UP TRAIL. This is all on the granite now and you can follow the path of people / yellow lines that lead you to the top.
Once on the walk up trail you will come to a pavilion aka the “halfway house”. Continue past the pavilion and they bare right. Shortly after you hit the steepest pitch where there is a handrail. After that its one more steep bit to the top. We say for the strava and official rout you must touch the building at the top.
Once on top take it all in and cheer others on. When you are ready to go follow the white line back down and to the walk up trail all the way down to the bottom back to your car. We are not racing down the mountain as we didn’t want to encourage that.
It’s about running our local trails with a big iconic climb at the end. Why a hard AF climb at the end and not the beginning? Because life is tough and we want to be tougher.
We want to prepare for things always getting hard towards the end. It’s life training. Some people hike, some people run, some people run hike but everyone conquers the mountain.
All paces, races and thinking allowed.
We just ask you be nice, encourage others and make it a goal to make 2 new friends every time you come out. Just leave religion, politics and bad vibes at home at home.
This also is the King of the Mountain Strava segment so we encourage anyone and everyone to run this any time you want and maybe try to go for the Strava segment record.
Brought to you by Sean Run Bum Blanton. 300 x ultra runner and owner of Run Bum Races. Also an Atlanta native.
History -
“ A long time ago I wanted to put on this route as the race. I wanted to have a King and queen of Atlanta trail running. That won’t happen ever as a race so why not have this as a fun run and if SOME people want to race it then right on but if people want to come meet us and run or hike it then that’s awesome too! My goal has always been to get people on trails and doing hard and scenic things in our own backyard. I can’t wait to meet you guys and gals. I used to go run up and down Stone Mountain for training. I love it. The climb gives you a view and a reward. I love Stone Mountain because anytime youre going up the mountain, you’re surround by so many people from so many ethnic backgrounds. To me this is the Atlanta I know and love. All walks of life attack that mountain every day. So this is me hopefully getting even more folks out there.“ - Sean Run Bum Blanton