Chance encounters

Since I was basically in the middle of San Diego, I decided to stay in a hostel in the area, rather than trying to find an out of the way spot to camp for the night. I ended up at Banana Bungalow Hostel, right on the coast, with nice beach right out the front door.

It was pretty much a standard hostel from my experience, but the coolest part was in the morning as I was about to leave. As I was heading out the door another guy was coming in the door. As he passed by I thought his backpack looked familiar, so I called out to him. It turns out that he was the same guy that I met in Tehachapi, CA, who was hiking the PCT going southbound. We stopped and talked for a bit about what had transpired since we met, and how our trips were going. He had finished up the PCT by Campo, and was taking some time off at the hostel in San Diego to cool off. He also had some plans to buy a boat at one of the marinas, so that could be interesting.

PCT

I came across the PCT today. I knew it had to be coming up somewhere close but I wasn't sure exactly where. Then I looked up as I was climbing a hill and there were two triangular signs indicating the national scenic trail. Unfortunately bikes are not allowed on the PCT so I couldn't ride anywhere. I did still stop and walk a little ways sown the trail and took a few pictures. The trail in that area was an easement through the wind farm so there wasn't a whole lot there.

On one side of the road there was a small water cache with a town map and a list of trail angels in the town of Tehachapi. I filled up one of the water bottles because I had extra and then went on my way. I debated contacting one of the trail angels in town for a place to stay but decided to leave that for hikers only.

Crossroads

While sitting outside the library in Buena Vista CO (it was closed for Sunday) a hiker walked up. He definitely looked like a thru-hiker so I asked him about it. It turns out that he is hiking the Colorado Trail and had stopped in to town for some food and a concert down in Salida. We talked a bit about long distance hiking and biking, since he had also done a short bike tour in California. He hasn't put up a trailjournal yet, but is planning on it, and his trailname is Gentle Bear.

First set of days

I just finished my first set of days off, after having Scattered on June 5th and working until June 17th. Scatter went fairly well, with my camp being the first to leave Philmont base camp for the backcountry. We got all of our important supplies for the first week or so, so we were able to clean out the cabin. The main threat is haunta virus, but after bleaching and sweeping everything in the cabin we were good to go.

The first few days in the backcountry were mainly training days, going over program activities with my staff and making sure they were comfortable with Philmont procedures. Especially interesting is the fact that my final staffer is from Zambia, Africa, as an international scouter. He missed the whole week of training in base camp, so I have spent a while getting him up to speed with the program activities.

The first crew through Dan Beard for the summer was from Mississippi. I had actually met this crew while hiking on the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama several months ago, and we recognized each other, which was pretty cool. Even more exciting was the fact that one of their adult advisers was my boss's boss back in 2006. Cliff was the head of the conservation office during my first summer at Philmont, while I was on a conservation work crew.

Right before I left camp we were getting 8-9 crews per day, so each staffer is running 2 crews through program each day on average. The main program we have is a Challenge course, which is similar to a COPE course, but more focused on teambuilding and communication, rather than problem solving and out of the box thinking. It can be fun and rewarding to see the scouts working on the events together, especially if they improves over the course of the 2 hour program. It is designed to address crew dynamics and any specific problems the crew might be having together, so it can really help to improve their overall trek.

On my days off I visited Dean Cow, a rock climbing camp, for the first night. We played volleyball against the campers and advisers, and of course the staff won. The next day I took care of laundry and shower in base camp, and then headed back out to Urraca, where I worked last year. It was nice to see the camp again, especially some of my personal projects that I worked on the past summer. My last day I spent visiting Ute Gulch, Sawmill, and Cyphers Mine with a commissary driver before heading back to base to get ready to head back to Dan Beard.

Pinhoti Trail Journal

I just (finally) finished transcribing my trailjournal from the Pinhoti trip, and copied everything over to my blog. Read it here.

Roughly 335 miles in 18 days. I had been using a voice recorder every night, and it just took a while to find time and motivation to type everything up. With an upcoming trip I finally pushed to get everything written down so I could move on to other things. Enjoy!

The Past

In addition to my future travels, I am also going to write about past travels I have taken. I don't intend to do a play-by-play of them, but I will post highlights whenever I get a chance.

Quick summary of previous trips:
Appalachian Trail thru hike
Florida Trail thru hike (twice)
Alabama Pinhoti Trail thru hike
Georgia Pinhoti Trail thru hike
Alabama trail roadwalk
Mississippi Canoe (headwaters to gulf)
Staff at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch (06,07,11,12)


I have recorded some of these trips on trailjournals, in a day-by-day format:
http://trailjournals.com/about.cfm?trailname=12603

Also, I tend to take a lot of pictures, which I have recently been adding to flickr. I think these tell a much better story than words:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61247038@N02/

Pinhoti Trail Conclusions

The Georgia Pinhoti has a lot of roadwalk. If I did it again I would probably use a mountain bike, since the whole Georgia side is open to bikes.

The entire trail isn't used very much, except for portions around Cheaha. I might have been off-season, but there weren't even many locals out.

In general the trail tread was well maintained, even with a seeming lack of hikers, so props to the maintainers.

Nice trail angels, I think I like the spontaneity and unexpectedness of it on smaller trails, compared to the AT where it is almost overdone (not that I'm complaining about free food)

No brilliant thoughts, just one more leg of the ECT completed. Also be sure to check out all my pictures from the trip

Pinhoti Trail Day 20

I got a nice early start today, due to traffic on the road. The rest of the trail was just roadwalk to get to Flagg Mountain. On the way I had two different people tell me I was going the wrong way. Apparently all the locals are used to people only going nobo, and they thought I had gotten turned around.

The terminus was pretty confusing, no real sign saying the trail ended. The trail right now goes up Flagg Mountain on a road, then turns off of the road onto another trail and ends there, with the blazing switching over to yellow blazes. There is a kiosk, but it doesn't say "End of Pinhoti" or anything like that. Anyway, I followed that yellow trail for a ways, then schwacked up the mountain, found some old abandoned cabins, and cut across to the Flagg Mountain Fire Tower and decided that was good enough.

I ended up taking the road back down Flagg Mountain to get to a road with some traffic, hoping to hitch a ride out to civilization. I had just made up a destination sign, when a guy in a pickup pulled over and told me that I was faster than they had thought. I was quite confused, having no clue who this was, or why they thought I would be slower. He identified me and said that I had talked to someone a few days ago about getting a ride out. I had no clue who he was talking about, and I didn't recognize the name he gave, but hey, if he's offering me a ride out I'll take it. He ended up giving me a ride over Flagg Mountain, and pointed out several details about new trail being built in the area.

On the way back to his house I finally realized that the hiker 'BCM' that I had met a few days earlier in Cheaha had arranged to have me picked up. He had recruited Kent to help me out by taking me back to his house and letting me clean up. Kent is active in the local trail maintaining groups, and a wonderful trail angel. Also, it turns out that I had spent last night about a quarter mile from his house. Instead of sleeping by the bridge in Stewartville, I could have walked over and spent the night at his house.

Once I was cleaned and very well fed, BCM drove over after he got out of work in Birmingham to pick me up. He offered to take me to a bus station, either Oxford (closer), or Birmingham (more convenient for him). He ended up taking me to the Birmingham greyhound, and the end of my Pinhoti trip. He made probably a 2 hour round trip to help me out, all because I mentioned in passing to him on the trail that I was planning on hitching a ride after I was done. Definite major trail angel work right there.

360.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 19

A few miles into today I hit a seasonal stream, that had a bit of water from all the rain the past few days, so I got lucky there. Then I passed through Bull Gap, which was considered the end of the trail previously. Fortunately, new trail had just been opened, adding another 12 miles of trail and eliminating a bunch of roadwalk. The new trail is more ridgeline walk, so it was still completely dry, but at least I didn't have to dodge traffic.

The rest of the day was roadwalk, but I did pass by another Dollar General near the end of the day, so I stopped for dinner and a light resupply.

I ended up camping near a bridge right by the road for the night, but I knew that it was still quite a ways to get to anywhere that I could legally camp.

346.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 18

This morning I met a scout troop from southern Alabama. They were out getting ready for Philmont, which is where I will be working for the summer. One of their leaders was apparently the head of the Conservation Department the first summer that I worked there, when I was on a conservation work crew. Also, one of the other leaders has a son who has been working at Philmont the passed few years, so I'm sure I've run into him as well.

I stopped for lunch at a large waterfall, that was engorged with all the rainfall of the passed few showers, so it was nice to look at. Unfortunately the trail forded the swollen river just downstream of the falls, which wasn't very fun. It was a nice spot for lunch, especially since it was the last reliable water for the next 26 miles or so. I filled up what I could, and drank as much as I could, so I would be all set.

The rest of the day was spent climbing up to a ridgeline, and then following that ridgeline for the next 14 miles or so. The whole afternoon I was within 100 yards of the top of the ridgeline, just heading south with the mountains.

322.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 17

This morning was really foggy. I waited at the shelter for a bit, hoping it would clear off and let my gear dry off a bit. Eventually I just gave up and packed up.

I saw a lot of hikers today, some doing day hikes and some out for the weekend. I am in the Cheaha State Park area, so there is relatively easy access for short hikes. I also met 'BCM' who was doing a loop hike in the area. Apparently he works for a local outfitter, and seemed to know a lot about the trail (he thru-hiked the Alabama portion before). The funny thing is that he actually recognized me as a thru-hiker, on a trail that doesn't get many thru-hikers.

After lunch and talking with BCM for a bit the fog did finally clear off, so I was able to catch the last few overlooks in the park. Some of the best views on the whole trail and I pass them on a foggy day.

Overall the trail today was really rocky. The guidebook goes so far as to name areas as 'rock gardens', which seems to be just a codeword for a broken ankle waiting to happen. Fortunately, my ankles are pretty strong with all the hiking I've done.

I was planning on getting to a specific water source for the night, and ended up getting there just before dark. Dark actually happened a bit earlier than usual as well, as another set of huge black clouds blew over the mountain. I was able to get my hammock and tarp all set up, and about 5 minutes later a huge windstorm swept in, bringing major amounts of thunder and lighting. Then calm. And then the rain hit. Definitely 'hit', not just 'started'. I wasn't sure if it was going to break my tarp or not, it was raining so hard.

Eventually the storm blew over, and I ended up having a relatively quite night after it passed.

298.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 16

Today there were several nice waterfalls, so I picked one to stop at for lunch, and had a nice long break there. Unfortunately it was a bit too long, since I ended up getting caught in rain near the end of the day.

At first when it started raining I set up my tarp and decided to wait it out, since the sky looked like it was clearing. In about half an hour it did clear off, so I set out again. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes later it started raining again, even harder. By that point I was already wet, so I just kept going, planning to dry out at the shelter that was a few miles away.

It poured for the rest of the day, so I was happy to be at the Blue Mountain shelter, which had a loft and everything. I spread out all of my soaking wet gear, hoping to dry off a bit. The good part about the rain is that the water source for the shelter was far away. Instead I just hung up my tarp and funneled the rain into my water bottles. No treatment needed.

276.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 15

This morning I packed up with DAH, while two young turkey hunters wandered into the shelter wondering where the nearest road was. Apparently they had gotten lost following turkeys and wanted to get back out. We pointed out the trail to them, which hit a forest service road about a mile later. After I finished packing up I said goodbye to DAH, and then headed out, only to find the turkey hunters off-trail about a half mile later. I guess they had seen another turkey.

About 8 miles into the day I stopped at the Shoal Creek Ranger Station to ask them a few questions about the town and the trail. Based on their input I changed my resupply plans. Instead of resupplying at the Cheaha State Park, I would instead walk into town from the ranger station, to Heflin, which is about 3 miles away. I left my pack in the office and took off. It can be quite nice to walk without a pack.

Once I got there I did a quick resupply, but then had to wait an hour and a half for the library to open, so I could get in touch with the rest of the world. Then another 3 miles back to the ranger station.

After the ranger station I did another 7 miles, for a total of 15 miles of trail and 5 miles of roadwalk. I also got enough food to last for the rest of the trip, instead of having to stop at the convenience store.

I have roughly 100 miles left, and am planning to finish that in 5 days to get to Flagg Mountain in less than a week.

258.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 14

I got an early start this morning, hoping to beat a bit of the heat. A local told me yesterday that it is roughly 10 degrees warmer than it normally is this time of year, so I think that might have been why I felt so slow the day before.

I stopped for lunch at a nice shelter about 10 miles into the day, and relaxed with a long nap. Even though I was still killing off time like I was on the slow day, I felt much better about it today.

Right after lunch I ran into two hikers, Blister Bob and Hiker Sue, who run a shuttle service for the Pinhoti. I had seen some of their cards in previous registers, so I knew roughly who they were. I still planned on trying to hitch a ride from the end of the hike, rather than trying to schedule a ride with them.

When I got into the shelter for the night there was another hiker there, 'DAH', who 65 had run into a few day earlier. He was out for a week long hike, ending the next day. His goal was just to see how far he could get, but he was running into some foot problems, so he was calling his hike a bit early. The shelter had a few nice waterfalls, so I took advantage of the location and timing to do some long exposure waterfall shots, which turned out nicely.

243.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 13

Today was a very slow day. I felt like I was moving in slow motion the whole day. It is probably due to yesterday being a long day, including all the time spent trying to hitch, when I was out in direct sun.

Fortunately, I had planned on this being a shorter day anyways, due to the shelter spacing, so it all worked out. After last night I had actually talked myself into doing a 24 today, based on advice from 65 that there was a nice campground and camp hosts that he knew there that were very hiker friendly. After the first few miles today that idea got scrapped.

Even with going slow today I still got into the shelter early in the afternoon. I didn't feel like I could push on so I stayed put and relaxed for the last few hours of the day. Hopefully tomorrow I feel a bit more motivated, because today wasn't a good day.

222.7 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 12

Today had a rocky start. The trail was entirely covered by a thick layer of leaves, which covered all the tough rocks underneath. Not a good situation for footing.

First thing in the morning I hit the state line and passed into Alabama. The trail is supposed to improve from there south, with almost no roadwalk until the very southern end.

About 11 miles into the day I came to the highway where I was planning on hitching into town for my newly planned resupply. The hitch down took almost an hour and a half to get someone to pull over for me. I guess they don't see too many hikers in the area. Even the guy that pulled over for me wasn't familiar with the trail, but he had been hiking on the BMT as a kid, and as a former marine. Then a 10 minute ride to town, a 5 minute stop at Dollar General, and another 45 minute wait for another ride. The ride back up to the trail actually passed me, and then turned around and stopped. The guy asked me if I was headed back to the trail, and I was almost too surprised to answer. I wasn't really expecting someone who knew that much about the trail. It turns out that he is an instructor at the local college, teaching camping and outdoor education.

After all that waiting around I was ready to get back to hiking, and ended up getting another 10 miles in to get to the next shelter. The last mile or so was well after dark, but I figured that '65' might be at the shelter, so I wanted to get there for the night. I had hiked with him on the Florida Trail, and he was headed north on the whole ECT, so I wanted to make sure I ran into him again. As I was getting close to the shelter I saw a fire going, a sure sign that 65 is at work. I yelled out to him, and we spent a few minutes going over everything we had both seen, going through the standard nobo-sobo questioning. By that point it was getting pretty late, so we both went to sleep. Then a few hours later two ATVers went blasting by the shelter. Not fun.

206.1 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 11

I woke up early this morning to make it into the small town of Cave Springs for breakfast. It was only a couple miles, and I arrived right on time. I wasn't sure where in town the meeting was, just some restaurant or diner, so I wandered around a bit, then called Rick. Apparently he had gotten lost, following blazes along the roadwalk into town. Not good for a trail maintainer.

Once I figured out which place to go, I stopped to set my pack down. Two guys came out and called me in, saying they had a meeting going on, not realizing that Rick had already invited me.

The meeting was interesting (I didn't stay for the whole thing). It was nice to see the behind the scenes deskjob type stuff that maintainers do to keep a trail open. I've been on a few trail crews and work trips, but I was always just doing the stuff in the field, nothing dealing with routing or land issues.

I also got to add my two cents to the meeting, having a fresh pair of eyes and boots on the trail, having just (almost) finished hiking through their area. I mentioned a few spots that needed clarification, as well as overall increases in blazing. The main issue just seemed to be limited manpower, so feel free to volunteer for the Pinhoti .

One thing I really wanted to find out about was the waterfall area that I missed and backtracked in several days ago. It turns out that I had been on a horse by-pass area that goes around private land that the waterfall area is on. The turnoff only had an arrow going one way, with no indication that it wasn't for hikers. It seems like the problem is that most of the maintaining is being done by bikers, who use the bypass. The other problem is that very few people hike sobo, so most of the signage is for nobo hikers. At the south end of the trail the bypass was clearly marked, but not really explained what was going on.

After the breakfast and meeting I headed out of town. According to a set of maps from Mr. Parkay, there was a Dollar General on the way out of town, that I planned on resupplying at. Unfortunately I was about 2 miles outside of town before I realized that the trail had been re-routed, and the store wasn't on the trail anymore. I looked at my options and decided to make do with the leftover food that I had, and instead continue on and hitch a ride into a town later on. I was originally planning on just resupplying at the places that were on-trail, since it saves a lot of time, but this wasn't really an option 

anymore.

The way out of town was all roadwalk, until the last few miles of the day. One I got back into the woods there was a shelter a few miles in. This was a shorter day, but with a late start due to the breakfast and meeting. Also, the shelters are set up roughly a day apart, so once I stayed at one shelter I would hit several. If I had kept going for a longer day today I would have been in between shelters for the next few nights.

In the afternoon a trail maintainer passed the shelter and stopped to say hi. He was out repainting blazes along the trail, and was part of the Alabama Pinhoti club. He shared a bit about the upcoming trail and I thanked him for his hard work before he left.

185.1 miles down

Pinhoti Trail Day 1

Today I spent most of the day in the van with Chuck Norris. He was giving me a ride from Plant City to the trailhead on the Benton Mackaye Trail, about 20 miles south of the Pinhoti.

He ended up dropping me off about 40 minutes before sunset, so I was able to get a start on the trail a bit, and had time to get to a shelter on the trail. I was planning on getting there anyways, even if it meant night hiking. The trail was actually quite nice, going by a bunch of mountain retreat homes and climbing along a bunch of nice streams.

The shelter was nicer than most of the AT shelters. Unfortunately the BMT association is limiting everything to only 2 shelters on the trail, keeping with a more wilderness setting.

One nice thing about the shelter is the register. There was another ECT hiker, "Lakeland" who passed through several days ago, going the opposite way, so I missed him.

Tomorrow I will be getting to the start of the Pinhoti, about 19 miles from the shelter.

2 miles down