Pinhoti Trail Day 3

Today started of raining until around 10am. I decided to wait it out for a bit, so I packed up around 10 and took off. After about a mile it started up again, but by that point I was wet anyways, so I kept going, even after it started pouring. The first several miles were through a watershed, so I kept having to ford creeks and streams, some past my knees.

By the afternoon it started to get sunny and I dried off a bit, which was nice.

This section of trail is popular with mountain bikers, and quite a few groups passed me. I also had a lady stop by from the Mulberry Gap, which I guess is a popular mountain bike trip company, doing a bunch of shuttles and camping. I almost ended up staying the night there, but I wanted to get a few more miles in at the end of the day.

After I passed the Mulberry Gap place, I ran into another hiker headed north. He looked like the thru-hiker, so I asked him how far he was going. Turns out he was headed to Canada on the ECT. I guessed he was either Sterling Coleman or Lakeland. He was surprised that I knew who he was, but he had passed the group I was hiking with on the Florida Trail, so I knew he was somewhere around. We would have spent the night together, but there weren't any good camping spots, and we both wanted to move on another mile or two, so we parted ways.

I ended up camping on the side of a hill, so my hammock was definitely useful. Otherwise I would have ended up sliding down the hill.

42.3 miles down