SouthEastern Backpackers

Golden and I were together last night for our regular Thursday cigar meeting and we've picked a weekend for the next Pinhoti Backpacking trip. The weekend of April 27, 8 & 9 is the next trip. We will leave town as early as possible on Friday 27th so we can get there and get on the trail as quickly as possible. We'll probably be off the trail just before or just after lunch on Sunday, and be back home Sunday afternoon.

Let me know if you are in. Need additional info, email me at: rylanherring@gamil.com.

I've been invited to hike with some boy scouts next weekend on the Pine Mountain Trail. I'll report back to see if we might like to try it out sometime.

Golden and I were together last night for our regular cigar meeting and we set aside a weekend for another Pinhoti hiking trip. We will leave town in the late afternoon of Friday December 8th and we will probably come home on the following Monday. If anybody joins us that needs to be back Sunday afternoon / evening we'll change it to 2 nights instead of 3. Let me know if you're in, or need any further info.

I thought the Blog would notify members whenever there was a new post, but that is not the case. I've now put everyone in a google group and the blog notifies the group with each new post. This email should have links to the blog and the group. Please add anyone that you think might go with us on future hikes!

Golden has been to the blog and set-up some more pictures. I'll try to post some others soon.

Rylan commented that we could have shaved about 30 minutes from our time of arrival at the trail head. What he did not comment about was the reason we lost that 30 minutes. We were looking for a particular county road that would bring us to the main highway and then to the trail head. We eventually ended up behind two logging trucks. Therefore, you can understand that our speed drastically decreased. Eventually these trucks turned left and we continued straight until the road ended into a highway. Rylan saw the logging trucks moving toward us from the left. He proclaimed that we needed to get in front of the trucks. I quickly pressed the gas and obtained the lead. Unfortunately, we were going the wrong way. We ended up in Georgia. We had to stop to get directions and turn around. I must confess Rylan cannot carry all the blame for this funny blunder. I wanted to be front of those trucks as badly as Rylan. We enjoyed laughing about our victory in gaining the lead and moving in the wrong direction. I think there is a sermon in that experience.

On Saturday morning the trail crossed a logging road. (Pinhoti actually intersects a large number of logging roads. ) We noticed the road recently had a lot of activity because the dirt looked like it had been moved around. Rylan noticed a structure 40+ feet off the trail . We discovered a recently built shelter. The shelter journal stated it was built in March of 2006. We made the first hiker entry into the journal. Unfortunately, we could not stay longer than a break because it was only 10:00 am. The picture to the right is of the new shelter.

The only challenges we expereinced on the trail were the ticks and what looked like posion ivy. We actually would walk through small groves of stuff. I am very allergic to poision ivy. However, I did not have any reactions. Therefore, I am wondering whether this plant only looks like posion ivy. I could have just cleaned the exposed skin so well that none of the oils had the opportunity to cause a reaction. Maybe someone knows of this posion ivy look-a-like and would be willing to pass on some information about it.

The picture above shows a rock formation on the trial. Golden is on the left, Bill is to the right, and Rylan is in the rear, where he often resides.

Rylan and I are at his house on our regular Thursday night stoggie time. I thought I would write down some of my reflections concerning our recent hiking trip on the Pinhoti Trail.

This was our second hike on Pinhoti. We have completed approximately 40+ miles of this trail. We have discovered the trail to be one of our favorite ones to hike. It certainly shows some of the beautiful scenery of Alabama. We do live in such a beautiful state. In Rylan's last posting he placed some of the pictures of our experience.

This picture is of a river (not sure the name) that intersects with the Pinhoti. A very nice bridge crosses this river. We spend a long period of time on this bridge soaking up the amazing view. This is only a small example of the great views.

During this trip, I borrowed a friend's GPS (thanks Jason) so that we can begin to detail this trail. The only problem using the GPS is that I now want one myself. Eventually we are going to be able to provide all the needed information to have a great experience on the trail. The information will include water sources, camp sites, and notable views such as the above river.

I will give more information later. The power on my comupter is very low at this time.

The Pinhoti isn't well documented like the AT. We've found maps of the Talladega National Forest and those maps have the Pinhoti marked on them. But there's no real accurate mileage, water supply or elevation. The national forest maps do have the roads marked well that run in and out of the forest. Those roads aren't necessarily properly marked here on earth though.

Finding where the trail crosses roads has been a little challenging. Figuring out what sections to tackle has also been a little challenging since we really have no idea how many miles we are attempting for the weekend. The challenge, the unknown, the mystery, the absence of information has proven to be a major part of our fun on this trail!!

The trail is sooooo close. We had a leisurely departure from Auburn about 8 a.m.; we had found the trail, shuttled the cars around, and were hiking by 11:00. If we had known where we were going, we could have easily shaved a half hour off of the travel time. We had some trouble finding the roads that led to the trail, got a little lost, and wound up in another state. It was all part of the fun! Once we got straightened out, we found where we needed to be.

We like the trail, the forest, and how close it is, so we will be hiking on the Pinhoti for the next few years. My boys will be closing in on Boy Scout age in the next several years and I'm sure I'll get involved with the troop at that time. By then I want to know enough about the Pinhoti so I can take scouts hiking there. Golden borrowed a GPS unit this time and started mapping out the trail. He made notes on distances, road crossings, water sources, landmarks and anything else he could think of. By the time we finish hiking the whole trail, we will have a very accurate guide to rely on for future hikes.

We started at the Northern most point and hiked south. The first day we were in tick country. At first I despised the little blood suckers but before long we were competing to see who could pull off the most. Between the three of us we had 20 to 25 ticks on the 7 mile day. The trail has its ups and downs but not the continuous steep climbs and descents like the AT. We spend more time in valleys and strolling along in the woods. We also hike along the banks of small lakes and rivers on the Pinhoti.

Our second day took us over several streams, a river, and an earth dam with a small lake. We had a few ticks but nothing like the day before. A storm was blowing in during the night, but it didn't rain until Sunday (it didn't rain much anyway). The cloud cover and wind kept us cool and comfortable all day. The hike was about 12 miles, and we found a campsite near the top of a mountain that hadn't been used in some time. The wind was blowing hard about 30 feet up in the trees, but we only had a small breeze where we were. The gusts in the trees all night was very soothing and must have contributed to the best nights' sleep I've had on the trail.

Sunday we hiked out to the car, around 5 or 6 miles. We got there at 10 a.m., which was much earlier than we expected. We had to drive back to the start and pick up Golden's truck; on the drive we stopped at a McDonalds for the traditional off-the-trail, non-trail food lunch. We were back home early Sunday afternoon with plenty of time to get unpacked and get ready for the week ahead.

I think I set-up this blog so everyone can use it. Keep us posted on your adventures! I'll be out of the hiking world for a little while. Karen is due with our 4th child in about 2 months so I'll stay nearby until the baby comes. After that I don't think I should go hiking and suddenly dump the whole gang on Karen. I'll need to see how we are doing later in the year, but I may be able to do something in the Fall. If not I'll be out till next year.

Golden has a bunch of great pictures, I hope he'll post some.

Rylan

Golden, Bill and I are just back from our latest trip on the Pinhoti Trail. I told them I was considering making a Blog for hiking so everyone involved could help keep others up to date on our trips and they seemed to think that was a good idea. I just stepped in the door and naturally I dropped my pack in the corner and turned on the computer before I did anything else!

Golden has all of the pictures so they'll come in time and we'll post some of them soon.

I'll get started on a rundown of our latest Pinhoti trip as soon as I get some household responsibilities out of the way and I'll jot down an update on the other Pinhoti trip Golden and I did to get us familiarized with this terrific trail.