Finished the Pinhoti Trail

"Florida or Bust" - Days 32, 33, and 34

Big milestone!  I've now hiked the Pinhoti Trail end-to-end, all 335 miles of it.

It went by too fast.

It was so much fun that I want more.

If that's not endorsement enough, let me spell it out:  The Pinhoti is first class hiker trail.  I highly recommend it as an extension of the Appalachian Trail, whether it is formally named part of the AT or not.  I recommend that hikers who have the time, particularly early in the season, start their AT trek in, say, early February by hiking the Pinhoti.  Consider it a warm-up.  By the time you hit the AT in mid-late March, you'll be a seasoned veteran and already in shape.  You'll have a distinct advantage over those nobo newbies and thru-hiker wannabes.

But the Pinhoti is more than a preamble or a warm-up for the AT.  It has a distinct personality of its own.  It's far less traveled.  It would be a shame to see it trampled the way the Georgia AT is.  It has those quirky turkey track blazes, and it passes through some different ecosystems--particularly the distinctive, fire-dependent longleaf pine savanna.  It's an Appalachian experience that the AT doesn't provide.

On my completion day I hiked just five miles--the newly opened trail around Flagg Mountain.  The land for this piece of trail was just purchased in 2011 by the State of Alabama through its 'Forever Wild' program.  But the local hiker enthusiasts of the Alabama Hiking Trail Society have been a busy bunch.  The trail is already up and running and open for business.  The southern terminus trailhead has that big sign and a bigger pavilion, the edge of which can be seen in the photo above, and they've already established a primitive campsite and built a cute little shelter that sleeps two comfortably.

The shelter register only dates back to May 2015.  There were just six pages of entries. 

The entry before mine mentions hanging up an antlered deer skull over the door.  They didn't mention the resident insect patrol, but he was on duty on the rainy day that I stopped in.

Also along this five miles of trail I passed through a grove of Piedmont Rhododendron--first time I've been aware of this species, though I might have missed it because it's easy to mistake for the much more common Mountain Laurel.

There was a short section of fine old rock work--this bit of trail must have been an old CCC trail.

And I finally saw some real turkey tracks.  Mind you, I saw dozens of wild turkeys, but it's been bone dry and tracks left in dust don't 'take' well and generally don't last long.

I continued playing with shirts and hats.  You've already seen the message on Shirt number twenty-one up top.  Here's my message on Shirts number eighteen and nineteen.

Eighteen was on display on Rebecca Mountain where the trail follows the last of the linear ridges.  But on the following day the road walk down to Weogufka (north side of Flagg Mountain) found me walking beside a line of low hills, visible behind the shirt.

The road walk also took me past a friendly horse, a disrespected witch, a diminutive yellow flower, a viney brilliant red one, and the first of the Great Eastern Trail yellow blazes that I've seen.

So that was a bit of a picture show.  I take lots of photos and generally post only a selected few here.  The best of the rest of the crop can be seen by following the links on the map below.  EveryTrail, don't fail me now!




Pinhoti Trail - Bulls Gap to southern Terminus at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Birmingham, Alabama

Walking the technicolor woods

"Florida or Bust" - Days 30 and 31

The cool weather of last week has triggered fall color change here in east central Alabama, and the woods were ablaze.  It's a special time to be hiking--a color display so vivid that sometimes startles you when you round a bend on a dry hillside ...

... or pass by a quiet lake.

The majority of this section followed ridges, though, and there was one grueling rocky section a couple miles long that is so tough that the Pinhoti 100 endurance trail run (to be held November 7th this year) opts out and follows the dirt road, FS 600, that parallels the trail through nearly all of the two sections covered in this report (sections four and five).

The weather continued dry and mild.  There were some excellent viewpoints at rocky outcrops, and at this particular one I felt closer to the puffy clouds than to the ground.

I notice that the mountains are dwindling away.  Most of them are just long, straight hills now, and the few 'lumps' don't scrape the clouds like they would in the Smoky's.  The southern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail is getting close.  In this shot from a power line clearing, looking SSW, I think the distant mound, just below the lowest power line, is Flagg Mountain, the actual site of the southern end of the trail.

When I wasn't otherwise occupied by the fall color or the fine weather and views, I was up to my antics with my collection of shirts again, dreaming up labels or slogans.  On Day 30 I wore my best 'pre-made' hiking shirt, shown as the headline photo up top.  Here's what it says on the back:

On Day 31 I was wearing shirt number seventeen, trying to be invisible.  But when I tried to adjust hat number seventeen, my shadow gave me away.

Note that the tree I used as a model for shirt number sixteen has two Pinhoti markers nailed to it.  Some trees don't seem to mind having metal tags, others try to eat them alive.

At the end of the day of rocky trail (between Porter's Gap and Adam's Gap) I felt spent and exhausted after hiking fifteen miles.  The next day, on thesection between Bull's Gap and Porter's Gap, there is some of the best cut trail I've seen anywhere.

It was patiently and neatly built, four to six feet wide, level, smooth, and gently sloped with more than ample switch-backs to ease the climbs.  I hiked eighteen miles that day and actually felt invigorated when I finished.  I wanted to hike more.

Well, there is more, of course, so watch this space.

Below is a map of the two hikes with links to all the photos I though were worth the pixels they're filling.



Pinhoti Trail, sections 4 and 5 at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Alabama

Cheaha Wilderness - Crown Jewel of the AL Pinhoti Trail

"Florida or Bust" - Day 29

The Cheaha Wilderness encompasses a high rocky ridge just to the south of Alabama's Highest point.  The Pinhoti Trail travels its length. 

Passing beneath this whimsical arch at the north end, the hiker with enough stamina to do it all on a day as clear as this will be richly rewarded.  I counted ten rocky outcrops with excellent vista points like the one shown above.  Here's just one more example, looking south to the vista point shown above:

The hiker who is fortunate enough to wander these woods in late October gets the added benefit of the fall color change.  The red maple 'Acer rubrum', is a notable star performer all across the eastern US.  Here one little tree shows much of this species' magnificent color palate.  I've never seen this before--such diverse coloration on a single tree.

Many of the trees were just beginning to change color.  As seen from the vista points, the predominant color is still green.  But there was one notable exception.  The sourwood, 'Oxydendrum arboretum,' stood out with its pale pink-red to blazing deep red.

Also seen today was this little lichen and moss 'Garden on a Log'.  It's not all about grand vistas.  Sometimes the tiniest scenes paint the prettiest picture.

And lastly, when I turned over a rock, look who showed up.  A red salamander 'Pseudotriton ruber'.

This guy was five inches long and is one of the most primitive species - it has no lungs or gills.  It breathes only through its skin.

This was a memorable day for me--so much to see.  I only hiked this eleven mile section but that was plenty - the time and miles melted away like sweet butter.

Below is a map of the route, with links to photos from every vista, more leaf color photos, etc.


Pinhoti Trail - The Cheaha Wilderness at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Alabama

A fall ramble, hiking at its best

Reflections on the autumn woods.

"Florida or Bust" - Days 27 and 28

There's nothing quite like the early fall for being in an Appalachian forest.  There's a riot of new colors but the canopy still feels alive.  In a few weeks branches will be bare and the woods will have gone into hibernation.  There are still fall flowers.  Next to witch hazel, the Bottle Gentian is among the latest to bloom.

The autumn sky is as blue as it gets.

Humidity and temperature are down, but it's still warm enough to hike in shorts and a t-shirt.  Leaves have started to fall, adding another sensory input--the crunch of fresh dry leaves.  On this footbridge the new accumulation was apparent.  There are so few hikers on the Pinhoti trail that they hadn't been trampled or swept away.

Maybe the only down-side is that all the sunny dry weather has stolen the thunder from some of the waterfalls.  This cascade showed me nothing but its potential.

On the other hand, it makes rock-hopping even the biggest streams a cinch.

These are days to treasure.  The Pinhoti Trail has been good to me.  Thank's 'Turkey Track'!

Turkey oak leaf with the metal 'turkey track' trail marker and the standard blue blaze of the Alabama Pinhoti Trail.

Next I will pass through this magic portal and into Cheaha Wilderness.  Cheaha is Creek-Indian for 'High Place' and this will be some of the last hiking I do above 2000 feet as I make my way toward Florida.  All the more reason to keep all senses alert.  Stay tuned.

Below is a map of the two day autumn ramble with links to more photos:

Pinhoti Trail - FS 518 to Cheaha Trailhead at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Alabama

Hiking the Pinhoti Trail - Life in the slow lane

Just off FS 523 this hand-hewn monument states "YCC Crew 5, 1977"  The section they announced (and probably built) covers a mile of straight-line distance with 2.5 miles of trail.  It's not about getting somewhere, but about being somewhere.  These kids and their managers understood that.

"Florida or Bust" - Days 23, 24, 25, and 26

The Pinhoti Trail in Alabama is a pure foot trail - an unadulterated ridge-rambling, creek-side-meandering hiking track cut from 'whole cloth' - that is, unspoiled forest land.  It avoids following old woods roads and old logging roads, even those that have been unused and overgrown.  It follows nothing but its own muse.

The Pinhoti Trail in Alabama is modern hiking trail, built starting in the early 1970's with intent to do what it does and with the understanding of how to build it for that purpose.

As such, it is what the Appalachian Trail wants to be but isn't - because too much of the AT is too old--built without the understanding that trail builders have today, too heavily trampled and therefore badly eroded, and cobbled together from existing tracks designed for other purposes - logging roads, fence lines and ridge lines, old recreational local trails, hunter's paths, and whatnot.

Of course the Appalachian Trail covers ten times the length, so it was a much more complicated project.  The Pinhoti Trail in Alabama was the project of a single federally funded organization--The US Forest Service/Talladega National Forest.  That gave it a huge advantage.  A lot of it was built by kids during the summers in the 1970s--kids recruited by the Federally funded Youth Conservation Corps.  The YCC still exists, but Federal funding ended in 1981.

Because of the fortuitous N-S orientation of the Talladega National Forest property, the Pinhoti Trail naturally became a long-distance through trail, which would be a natural extension of the Appalachian Trail.  The Alabama Trails Association has been promoting this extension for most of thirty years.

I have mixed feelings about whether the Pinhoti ought to become part of the AT, with Flagg Mountain as the southern Terminus.  The Pinhoti Trail has the shelters in place (conveniently spaced in Alabama, though there's only one in Georgia that I recall).  It has huge modern trailhead parking facilities.  In many ways it's more prepared to be part of the AT than many parts of the AT itself are.

But if the Pinhoti were part of the AT my hiking experience would be much different.  I've met only a handful of people on the trail in three weeks.  I've nearly gotten lost because the trail is so little used and the new fallen leaves are beginning to cover the track.  It's what the early AT pioneers would have experienced - Earl Shaffer, Dorothy Laker, Gene Espy, Emma Gatewood.  What a delight it is for me to have that sense of pioneering experience.

I've had the full 21st century AT experience too, so I can compare.  I hiked Georgia in late March 2012 during the peak of the thru-hiker bubble.  I would pick up a pebble each time I met a hiker.  Some days I had a hundred pebbles in my pocket by the end of the day.  It felt like a freeway at rush hour.  I prefer the wilderness isolation, thank you very much--life in the slow lane.

A Sourwood tree as twisted as the trail it oversees.

I have been enjoying perfect cool fall weather.  Temperatures range from the upper 30's F at night to the mid 60's during the day.  I have not seen a single cloud, and the visibility is unlimited.  I can imagine no better hiking conditions, nor can I imagine a better woods venue for hiking than the open understory of the fire-fashioned Alabama woods.  I've been happy.

The four days covered in this report found me in lake country.  The trail hits no high peaks.  It meanders through valleys and over randomly oriented hilltops, often following side slopes between the two.  It passes a series of lakes that appear to have been built for flood control, and many of them have no public access other than the Pinhoti Trail - fantastic!

Sweetwater Lake on a chilly morning

Double outflow structures and very high dams were common to all of the lakes the Pinhoti passes.

This section is the venue for the upcoming Pinhoti 100 mile endurance race, to be run November 7th. They use 86 miles of Pinhoti Trail.   I had the benefit of fresh clearing of blowdowns in preparation for the event.

Near the end, on Day 26, I was getting close to Mt. Cheaha, at 2413 feet, the highest point in Alabama, and was granted several excellent views.

I'll be passing that mountain (The Pinhoti doesn't go over its summit, which is a popular driving destination and has a road to it and a tower on it) and hiking through the Cheaha Wilderness in the next couple days.  Weather is forecast to warm up - even get hot for a change.  Bring it on.

Below is a map of the route I hiked, taken by my GPS, and including links to a total of 71 photos:


Pinhoti Trail - High Point to FS 518 at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Alabama

Into Alabama on the Pinhoti Trail

"Florida or Bust" - Days 21 and 22

These were two very interesting days.  There wasn't a lot of just plain woods walking, and I like variety.  I completed the road walk, passing through the little town of Cave Spring.  It's downtown contains a block of antique shops,

a wonderful public library, and the Chief Vann (Cherokee) cabin being restored.  It sits right on the main street of town, a street (and a part of the Pinhoti Trail) that is part of the original route of the Trail of Tears national historic trail.

And, of course Cave Spring has its Cave with a good sized stream of clear, cold water emerging from it.  The cave itself was closed--only open to the public on weekends.

Then it was back into the woods for a short two and a half miles--the last woods walking in Georgia.  The trail passed 'Hematite Lake', named for the iron ore mined in the area.

There was a lot of land ripped up--shallow quarries probably a century and a half old or more, with some of the tailings--low grade hematite, lying around.

Then I crossed into Alabama and was immediately impressed.  Indian Mountain has a viewpoint with a panoramic view to the south.  I was surprised how little sign of civilization I could see.  It took three shots to cover the scene from SE, through South, to SW:

This land was purchased by an Alabama conservation initiative called 'Forever Wild'.  The trail was for foot traffic only, and I love the open understory of the Alabama woods.  It lets me see what's around me, and get views of the sky.  Fire is the agent behind keeping these woods so open.  And I ran into more Longleaf Pine growing in the most fire-prone areas.  The area below Davis Mountain Shelter appears to be a restoration area, based on the fact that all the young trees are about the same age.  This open area offered great views too.

Yes, the trail in Alabama has a number of hiker shelters.  Most of them are very lightly used compared to the Appalachian Trail shelters

I passed three of them on this first leg, which ended at the 'High Point' trailhead, not to be confused with a trailhead parking area in Georgia with the same name.

Lastly, not far from the trailhead, I passed this diminutive trail greeter.  "Welcome to Alabama" he seemed to be saying.

And as a foot traveler, I did indeed feel welcome here.  The Pinhoti is a first class trail, and I recommend it to long distance hikers everywhere.

Here's a map of the route traveled, with links to many more photos.



Pinhoti Trail - Cave Spring, GA and into Alabama at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Georgia