Pinhoti Trail Day 8

Today was mostly forest roads and gravel roads, mixed with ATV trails. There was very little hiking trail today, which can be pretty wearing after a while, especially with minimal blazing to indicate that you haven't missed a turn.

Towards the end of the day I did get back onto some real trail, and got to listen to thunder for the last couple hours of the day. About a quarter of a mile before I got to where I was planning on camping for the night I turned a corner and came into a little clearing where I could see the sky in front of me. There were huge black clouds that were racing towards me. It was so bad that I didn't even try to get to my planned camping area. Instead, I just turned around and looked for the best trees to hang my hammock.

I had just pulled my tarp and hammock out of my pack when the wind hit, bringing a torrential downpour. I just threw the tarp over my stuff and dove under, not even trying to tie it to trees. I crouched there for probably about half an hour with the storm not letting up at all. Eventually I just gave up and hung the tarp properly, getting thoroughly soaked in the process. Once the tarp was hung I could hand the hammock underneath without a lot of trouble, and then I was set up for the night. About 2 hours later the wind and rain did die down a bit, but that was well after sunset.

142.1 miles down