Jonah , left, and Zana giving a studying at Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Protect. (Picture by Aleksandr Sasha Greenspan)
Co-authors Jonah McDonald and Zana Pouncey discuss Climbing Atlanta’s Hidden Forests.
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Hikers, lace up your boots or tighten these sandal straps. A few of metro Atlanta’s best-kept mountaineering secrets and techniques may not be a secret for much longer. Final month, native naturalists Jonah McDonald and Zana Pouncey launched Climbing Metro Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: An Hour or Much less From Downtown. The e book comes six months after the discharge of the primary quantity: Climbing Intown Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: Inside And On The Perimeter. Collectively, the two-volume compendium marks a complete assortment of hikes, trails, parks and preserves in Atlanta, together with not less than 90 locations which have by no means appeared in a guidebook earlier than.
McDonald is a park ranger at Mason Mill Park as a part of DeKalb County’s Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs, and, on the time, Pouncey was a park ranger on the Stonecrest’s Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Protect. The 2 initially met on the Environmental Educator Alliance Convention in March 2020 at Jekyll Island, on the eve of the worldwide lockdown. Regardless of the terrors of the pandemic round them, Pouncey and McDonald turned good associates.
“Although neither of us knew this, my plans for writing a brand new mountaineering guidebook had been coming collectively at precisely the identical time as Zana’s plans for altering jobs,” mentioned McDonald. “I used to be in search of a co-author to companion with, and, once I discovered that Zana — who’s somebody I belief, like and work properly with, was between jobs — I reached out with a co-authorship proposal.”
“It was very serendipitous that our paths continued to cross,” mentioned Pouncey, who now works for the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation (NPCA), a nonprofit watchdog of the Nationwide Park Service. “After I left my place at DeKalb County, Jonah approached me and requested about being a co-author for the books. [I knew] he’d written the unique model 10 years in the past and was making updates and, in fact, I mentioned sure.”
As Pouncey knew, McDonald was type of “the man” for mountaineering anyplace in Georgia’s capital. In 2002, he hiked all the Appalachian Path, beginning north and trekking south, ultimately touchdown in Atlanta on the finish of his epic journey. McDonald favored town a lot that he determined to settle in, and he quickly began main hikes and walks in metro space parks, main him to publish his first (2014) version of Climbing Atlanta’s Hidden Forests: Intown and Out.
After an additional decade of rambling and exploring each city nature nook and changing into a little bit of a social media star for Atlanta nature lovers, McDonald determined it was time to replace the guidebook right into a two-volume set. Figuring out what a frightening process this might be as a father working a full-time job, McDonald wanted some assist, which is when he reached out to Pouncey.
“I believe these books are higher for having two folks’s brains behind them,” mentioned Pouncey. “We introduced in our personal concepts and views that collectively made the books extra strong. Jonah and I labored very well collectively, and I appreciated [his] group and communication.”
The 2 had a standard purpose in thoughts: to meticulously map out as many trails and parks within the metro space as they might and assist extra folks uncover and confidently discover even essentially the most obscure locations. This meant McDonald and Pouncey personally visiting each park, protect and trailhead featured within the new two-volume version. However greater than geo-mapping and describing, McDonald and Pouncey additionally devised a ranking system for the paths that included not simply size and problem but additionally security, public transit choices, hidden gems and secret histories that few Atlanta hikers learn about — just like the “mule” carving within the granite outcrop at Line Creek Nature Space in Peachtree Metropolis or the previous bathtub trapped between two timber at Decatur’s Briarlake Forest Park.
But it surely wasn’t simply Pouncey and McDonald turning this guidebook right into a actuality. The 2 enlisted greater than 50 volunteers who helped with testing the hike routes that now seem within the books. Over two years, these associates, relations, colleagues and even some strangers beta-tested what Pouncey and McDonald had written, mentioning ambiguities within the textual content or maps and taking detailed notes.
The result’s a complete pair of guidebooks on nature spots in Georgia’s capital. Seventy of those 126 hikes weren’t within the unique guidebook and a few — resembling Clinton Nature Protect, Lionel Hampton Beecher Hills Park, and, surprisingly, Lake Charlotte Nature Protect off Moreland Avenue — have by no means been featured in any guidebook.
The 2 authors had their e book launch on the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Protect on June 14 with a e book discuss, adopted by a one-hour nature stroll across the protect, which was partially rained out by a summer season bathe.
“Now that all the pieces’s lastly completed, it’s actually satisfying, and I really feel pleased with what we’ve achieved,” mentioned Pouncey, who was exhausted by the (in complete) three-year writing course of. “I believe we’ve had our heads down working nonstop; hopefully, now that we’re completed, we will make time to rejoice.”
The pair is doing varied talks and signings, together with on the Large Haynes Creek Nature Middle in Conyers (September 27); DeKalb Historical past Middle (September 4); and the Decatur E-book Pageant (October 3 and October 4).
As for McDonald, who’s written 4 guidebooks now (Try his second publication Secret Atlanta: a Information to the Bizarre, Fantastic, and Obscure), he’s trying ahead to a bit of R&R. “I don’t think about that I’ve written my final e book, however this undertaking was so time consuming, I’m prepared for a break.”
Or maybe a hike by a hidden forest?
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Jeff Dingler is an Atlanta-based writer and entertainer. A graduate of Skidmore School with an MFA in inventive writing from Hollins College, he’s written for New York Journal, The Washington Put up, The New York Instances, Tiny Love, Newsweek, WIRED, Salmagundi and Flash Fiction Journal. Extra info at jeffdingler.org.