My Pinhoti Through Hike Journal

I'd been planning this hike for the last year. A week alone on the trail, time spent with the wilderness, time to think, and time to not think. The idea was exciting and scary. When I finally got on the trail last week I found that I was not really alone. I've spent many days on the Pinhoti, and many more hours writing about her. The experience was less like a new adventure than it was spending time with a good friend. Getting to know her ups and downs, the good parts and the bad parts. I never felt lonely although days went by that I didn't see another person, and the only time I was worried was when facing a day and night of expected thunder storms. The hardest aspect was getting my body to follow through, I found myself having much more endurance at the end of the hike, but also had continuing troubles with my ankles. All in all it was a great experience, I hope you enjoy reading about my week with the Pinhoti and also that you find time to build your own memories with this wonderful trail. As you do so, please respect her like you would a good friend.

Day 1: 3/13/00 Porter's Gap to Who Rock, Cheaha Wilderness (Section 8 and Section 7), 24 Miles, ~ 5000 Vertical Feet, Difficult.

3/14/00 Cheaha Wilderness, 6:50 AM

I was too tired to write about the first day last night so I figured I'd catch up this morning watching the sun rise on the mountains and valleys below. It is amazingly beautiful here, I'm glad I persisted to this camp sight last night even though I was in some pain. I've just finished eating my first meal of oatmeal and hot chocolate, wow that chocolate is good.

Yesterday I got up at 2:30, and was on the road by 3:10. I made a food drop at the FR500 Trailhead (I'll return there Wed and until then hope and pray that it is okay). I left most of the rest of my gear hidden at Adam's Gap. I finally got on the trail at 6 at Porter's Gap. I was expecting to be nervous, but really it felt just like starting any other day hike. The morning was cold, much more so than today, I wore my rain coat for a good portion of the morning. But the birds were signing and that early 3 mile warm up was good. I stopped on a rock in the early morning sun and snacked on Gorp. The 9 more miles to Adam's gap were pretty. Better than when I hiked them last summer. However, the rocks were worse than I remembered them, really bad all day long making for some difficult hiking. My new shoes - Montrail Vitesse - for the most part preformed better than the New Balance 802's that I was using. Except that my feet kept rolling from side to side in them, perhaps because of the socks or the very rough trail? I hurt my right ankle jumping over a rock, a strain that hurts when I step on it a certain way. It should be okay once I get out of the rocky portion of the trail today.

There are lots of spring flowers out, bluets and violets and many more I can't name. The spring flowers have a different kind of beauty than the summer and fall flowers. They are small and hidden. Elegant discoveries nestled against the ground that make you want to stop and enjoy them. "Here am I, aren’t I beautiful?" I stopped many times and have lots of pictures. [Above is a huge patch of bluets in the stark woods] There were a number of burned sections today, a new one south of Adam's Gap and the burn left over form a few years ago in the wilderness. The burned areas are an interesting contrast of the stark black and dead with new life spring up. [Note the new green grass coming out of the blackened remains below]

I just took a break to finish the most dreaded task of the morning - dishes. All done, just a small amount of packing left till I can hit the trial. The sun is now bright in the valley and just about to hit my rock which is shaded in the morning by trees on the east side. It will warm up quickly now.

Yesterday I retrieved my gear in tack at Adam's Gap at about 12:00 and hit the trail again with a much heavier pack (pushing 20 lbs.). The foothills were not as bad as I remembered them, perhaps going from south to north involves mostly going down hill, but they were very long. I was tired and had to take a break before climbing the mountain. At least they aren’t nearly as rocky as the rest of the trail was to this point. Along the foothills I passed two young guys out for a few days. The mountain was difficult but not as bad as I feared. There are a few good overlooks at the top with potential camping near by. After a break I headed for the Chinnabee Intersection. It felt like a longer distance than anticipated. I filled up with well over a gallon of water at the spring there, passed a father and son at this point who apparently are spending a few days exploring the wilderness.

The last three miles to the campsite felt like 6. My pack was very heavy, I forgot what an extra 10 lbs. can do to you - and the ground is very rocky. The trail is often impossible to see because you are walking in a field of medium sized rocks. At least it is now blazed - with non standard blazes - this is an improvement from last fall when Dad and I had a horrid time trying to find the trail. I had to stop a few times in this last section and considered setting up camp. My ankle was also hurting again at this point. I pushed on and was grateful when the campsite came into view about 4:30. It is truly the best campsite on the trail. I've named this point, just up from McDill Point, Who Rock.

I took some pictures and started setting up camp only to find that I forgot to bring the metal connector for my tent poles. I had to cut a large tree branch from a fallen tree and turn it into a tent pole. Will have to do the same tonight too. Then when I was draining my mac & cheese dinner I dropped the lid and had to pick the pasta from the pine needles. Yummy. Funny what being tired can do for you.

Finally I cleaned up last night, called my wife to let here know I was still alive, and got to bed at 8. Slept well to the sound of a gentle wind in the trees. Woke a few times but had no problem getting back to sleep. Got out of the sack about 6 this morning - time to get packed and moving.

Day 2: Who Rock to Twin Falls (Section 7 and Section 6), 17 miles, ~2000 Vertical Feet, Moderate.

3/14/00 6:00 PM, Twin Falls.

It was hard leaving my campsite this morning, not often that you get a chance to stay somewhere so beautiful. I've been a little tired and sore all day which made the trail more difficult.

From Who Rock the trail follows the top of a band of rocks for a ways, this section is great, the rocks sticking out like shark teeth, the pine, and the views. The trail then heads up to the top of the mountain and follows the ridge down and up along some more cliffs. I felt a twinge of regret leaving the Cheaha wilderness, being on top of the mountain in the sky, with great views is awe inspiring. Today I came back to earth in the valleys and short ridges below. I saw a turkey as I was leaving the wilderness. A promising sign.

The trail to Blue Mountain Shelter was more impressive than before, the leaves were down and there is more of a view. Also the streams are full and water is flowing everywhere. I got to the shelter and stopped for a drink in 1 1/2 hours. From the shelter the trail heads gradually down Blue Mountain. It isn't as ugly in the spring when the bushes don't have leaves and the poison isn't out, or when you are going down rather than up. There is an occasional view and the hill sides are pretty. I stopped near the bottom on a stump for a snack.

From the CCC road the trail was covered with flowers. I shot 1 1/2 rolls of film. Red and white trillium where blooming, some orchids were in bloom, but almost over (only a very few left). There were many more flowers. The trail goes up and down, I waded Hillabee Creek, the temp is in the 70's and I feel warm on the trail. This section seamed long and much harder than I remembered it. I guess I didn't remember coming down all that ways, there sure was a lot of uphill today.

After crossing the county road I meet 3 people right by the road doing a photo shoot. They were nice so I talked a while before heading up the trail. I then meet and talked with an older guy who is thru-hiking the forest service sections of the trail. I found Martin lake this time, it was fairly unimpressive.

After climbing the top of the ridge I stopped to call Gina since I didn't except to get a phone signal tonight. Talked briefly and then followed the ridge the rest of the way to the falls. On reviewing the maps I found that I only have 17 miles to the shelter tomorrow so I decided to call it a day. Explored around the waterfalls a little and then got camp set up at a decent spot near the bottom of the first falls. Had an early dinner of polenta, gathered wood for a fired tonight. There is an old moonshine still right beside my camp site here [see picture above]. Pretty cool, too bad none of the ingredients are left.

Day 3: Twin Falls to Lower Shoal Shelter (Section 6, Section 5, and Section 4), 18 miles, ~4,000 vertical feet, moderate - difficult.

3/15/00 Lower shoal Shelter, 6:11 PM.

Honey says it is to start raining tonight and end Friday. I'm as prepared as I can be. Everything is done for the evening and I've done as much as possible for tomorrow morning. I shouldn't have to get out into the rain until it is time to leave. These shelters are awesome, they almost make you want it to rain. Tomorrow night won't be nearly as much fun.

Well, the trip is now 1/2 over, it has been fun and beautiful but more difficult than I anticipated. My feet and ankles are sore. Wow! A plane just flew over VERY low, a large prop plane, probably military. I thought the base was closed. Now back to my peaceful night by the brook. The worst thing is that I've been a lot more tired than expected. Especially towards the end of the day, of course, I've had some fairly difficult hiking the last 3 days too.

So, last night I pitched on a bit of a slope and found I couldn’t sleep well. It was nice out so I got up and slept on a flatter spot under the mood. This worked grade until I heard drops falling on my overbag at 2:30. Opps (Gina said it wasn't supposed to rain). I rushed back to the tent and put up the fly which I had left down. Then I found a large flat rock that leveled the ground under the tent out enough to sleep another 3 hours. The rain pittered out and didn't return until I got up in the morning. This morning I moved real fast trying to get things done in the periodic light rain. I hit the trail at 7.

By 8 the rain stopped and I crossed US431. Portions of the trail had been burned by a recent fire - a common occurrence today. The trail was perhaps a little prettier than I remembered it, but nothing special. After crossing the busy highway I headed up hill to the beaver pond which appears to be in need of some dam maintenance. I hope our good little guy has not moved on to happier chewing grounds. A little ways past the dam is a nice campsite, the only on this section of trail.

I forgot how much up and down there is on this trail. All day it has been constant up and down. Section 5 is pretty, but you sure have to work for it. After crossing I20 I took a break, called Gina and had a large snack. Not too long latter I meet Matt and Mark, a father and his son - a UAB football player - out for a day hike. They were very friendly, he has been hiking the trail from the start, over 20 years ago. After talking with them I hit the trail again, up and down for miles to the FR500 trailhead. But it is pretty land that occasional offers a view and often crosses streams.

At the trailhead I found my food bag, thankfully. It took longer than expected to load up the back. While working an old guy with a long beard comes up in an old beat up truck. This guy stops just to say 'hi' and as he is about to go offers me a beer. Needless to say I was grateful. Then Matt and Mark came back by to get their other vehicle, talked to them a while longer before finally heading out.

I love this next beautiful section of trail. Today at places you could see Cheaha Mountain. The windy part was very long, just as I remembered it and after that is a short downhill mile to the shelter. Dinner tonight was a potato gratin mix. Very good. Now I'm tired and ready for the rain to start. Called mom and dad today as they wanted me to call, was nice to talk with them.

Day 4: Lower Shoal Shelter to Choccolocco Watershed (Section 4 and Section 3), 18 miles, ~2000 vertical feet, easy.

3/16/00 6:30 PM, Choccolocco Lake.

The rain started at 2:30 last night, boy was I ever glad for the shelter, which made it hard to leave. Breakfast was eggs today. There were expensive and not too great, but I needed something to break up the oatmeal. Once all was made up and packed I donned my Frog Toggs, did the dish washing, tooth brushing, and hit the trail. The rain got heavier as I went, however the Frogs were making me hot so I got rid of them and tried to have a good attitude hiking in the downpour. There was a huge burned out section from before the shelter, it burned within feet of the shelter, and continued a long ways from it. I explored a little at High Rock Lake too, enough to discover that it too is mane made. Oh well, who wants a natural lake anyways. After using the nasty facilities at Pine Glen I headed out for Sweetwater Lake and then Laural Shelter. By the shelter the rain had for the most part stopped. I was getting cold when I stopped hiking being totally soaked.

The trail around Colman lake to the trailhead is fairly long but heads through some interesting areas where they've done tree thinning. After the trailhead it climbs up for about two miles to a ridge top through more thinned trees. I was getting dried out at this point - a good feeling except for my feet which wouldn’t seem to dry.

At the ridge I called Gina and then headed to the little glen I like so much. Stopped there for water. My feet were hurting from walking on the crinkles they got from being wet. (does anyone else have this problem when hiking on wet feet?) When I had almost made it to the lake the rain started again, with thunder this time, sounded real bad. It never started to rain much though thankfully. I got camp set up pretty much in dry weather, dinner was freeze dried lasagna, okay. I pitched the tarp and tent tonight so I would have a place to cook and sit that was dry outside the tent and a dry place to pack up in the morning if needed.

The sun set was beautiful tonight. This lake really is lovely and the sun came out after I got camp set up. Only two more days and one night on the trail. I think I'll be ready for home. Please don't let it ran tomorrow. The wind is starting to blow very hard, knocking the tarp around, I think I'll get in my tent.

Day 5: Choccolocco Watershed to Oakey Mountain (Section 3, Section 2, and Section 1), 15 miles, ~3500 vertical feet. Easy.

3/17/00 1:40 PM, Terrapin Watershed

I'm sitting hear waiting for my water to boil. Decided to have dinner for lunch, cuts down on the amount of water I'll have to carry to the camp site. Today is beautiful, sunny, breezy, with a few clouds that make the sky interesting. The last dark looking clouds blew over at 11, thought I might get some more rain there for a while. The watershed is very cool, from up here on the dam I can see out at the surrounding mountains. The large grassy area reminds me of alpine meadows unfortunately the large drain and spillway nix that notion. I just looked at the trail profile changing pages and it say I've come up 2700 feet so far, didn't seem to bad, maybe I'm getting in better shape. My ankles sure felt the 2800 feet of down though, going down really seems to bother the ankles. I'm hoping they do okay tomorrow, I leave most of my stuff behind after 3 miles, but it is still going to be at least a 20 mile day with about 3000 feet. At first I thought the profiles were deceiving, they sure weren't!

Dugger mountain was prettier than I remembered this morning, until I got on top of the mountain anyways. I climbed a sloping rock face right off the trail to get a good view from the east side of the mountain. The top was still scrubby with very few views. Did get one picture of Piedmont.

I went to bed early last night when the wind started to howl. I was kinda stressed and not relaxed yesterday, I guess from the rain, thinking about setting up in the rain, etc. I woke up the same way and 2 this morning and didn't know what to do. Read my bible for a while, after a little meditation I felt much more at peace and slept till 5:30. Today has been great.

3/16/00 6:00 PM Oakey Mountain.

I did much better on the trail today. Didn't get very tired perhaps because of the shorter distance but there were some good climbs in there. Finally got a hold of Gina tonight. She said that there is a chance of rain tomorrow. That would be a big bummer as this is a new section of trail for me. I'm sleeping under the tarp tonight. Have it close to the ground in case, but I sure hope it isn't raining in the morning. It is 30 deg out now and cold, rain in this weather would be bad. I took a lot of pictures today and really enjoyed the hike. Coming up Oakey was interesting. I thought I could see Cheaha way in the distance. Hard to tell for sure. However there was never an open view, the trail missed all the rocks and other potential good spots, why?

Sitting by the camp fire it is hard to believe this is the last night of the trip. I'm going to miss the woods, and the quite of the trail. I'll also be glad to get back to Gina, to teaching, to our cats, and to work. The experiences on the trail are some of the best times that put the into perspective.

Day 6: Oakey Mountain to Flagpole Mountain (Section 1 and ATA Section), 21 miles, ~4000 vertical feet. Moderate - Difficult.

Wow, what a week. It was cold but no rain getting up in the morning. I hit the trail early again, this was the first time I had hiked most of today so that was exciting. The north/east side of Oakey is prettier than the south/west side, you can see more and it is more diverse. However then you come down off the mountain and follow through some recently forested areas of think pines for a while, kind of a drag. The rail trail was easy walking, I was surprised how quiet it was there, but it was still early in the morning. I stowed my stuff just north of county road 94, wow did it feel good to have a 5 lb. pack.

The trek up Wilson and the Augusta Mine Ridges was pretty. I saw some Jasmine blooming by the trail. The mountains weren't very difficult. In fact, at this point I was looking forward to the uphill sections as they didn't bother my ankles, getting rid of the extra weight helped, but I was still in some pain. You never get a panoramic view in this section, although I was real excited when on top of Augusta Mine Ridge I could see the faint outline of Cheaha in the distance. I verified that it was Cheaha, 37 miles away using my GPS. The only view in this direction is from under an oak tree just a few yards off of the trail, you should see the spot if you are looking for it. I called Gina from here too, was good to speak with her, in just a few hours I'd see her again. From there I found some more flowers in bloom, some dogwoods were out.

After hitting the last trail head in the Forest Service section of the Pinhoti I headed up beside the road till I got to the ATA section. This section was interesting, going through the old mine ruins. There had been a very recent prescribed burn there. I was moving pretty fast at this point, finally stopped on top of Davis Mountain at a point were you could see out to the north for a break. Now the goal is within reach and I'm anxious to be finished. I'm really looking forward to seeing Gina, barbecue, and to a bath tonight. The worst thing about being on the trail is feeling dirty.

There was a van at the road when I crossed to the last section of trail. I remembered that it was the 3rd Saturday of the month and that the ATA should be out working on the trail. On the way up, through another burned section and then up, I meet a couple out for a hike. The first people I'd seen in 2 1/2 days. Finally, when I got to the top I was faced with a dilemma, where does the trail stop? They were up there working, the good treadway (where they had cleared rocks and dug the trail into the side of the mountain) stopped a ways past the point where the trail is marked as finished on the map, but all the workers I meet kept encouraging me to go further, passed people digging, then people moving rocks, and finally I got the guys who were cutting the path. They encouraged me to finish over a section that had been flagged (but no clearing) to the top of Flagpole mountain, about 1/4 a mile. I ran up there to the summit over some rough terrain to find a hunter's camp complete with a rusty lawn chair! At this point I turned around, less then a mile from the GA border. I thought the end would be emotional, but it wasn't that much. Mostly I was ready to get back, and was hoping to hitch a ride with the workers back to Gina. I caught them just as they were heading down and talked with Jim Austin on the way back. Got a ride a mile down the road to find the Honey waiting for me, what a sight for sore eyes!

Well, it is hard to believe the hike is over. So quickly it fades as you get back into the routine. What I love about the trail is the peace. No work, people, school, or anything that you are responsible for but yourself. It gives me time to think, but more importantly, time to not think.