Pinhoti TR: Admitting defeat on the trai l

“Usually My hiking partners and I are pretty anal retentive about the planning portion of out hiking trips, but for some odd reason we really didn't investigate much for the upcoming hike. All we knew is we wanted around 20-25 miles for a 2 night hiking trip, with hopefully a short hike out on Sunday to out of the back country around lunch. We thought the Pinhoti Trail in East/central Alabama would be a good change of pace and a trail none of us have hiked before even though it's only an hour and a half from our doorstep. Well the night before we left for Cheeha state park I find the Pinhoti Trail on my Delorme Topo 4.0 software, plot out a 22 mile trek an download the trail to my GPS. We car camped Thursday night getting our fair share of 40's (in a brown bag of course, a forty just isn't the same outside a brown bag) and some cigars. With a short 24 mile hike We planned on making 8-9 miles on a half day on Friday, about 11-12 on a slow lazy Saturday, and give ourselves a short 4-5 miles out on Sunday. We chose a relaxed pace since one of our party is nursing heel spurs and I'm nursing a pulled back muscle. The mileage and pace could give us a nice relaxed pace with little to no exertion. The storm clouds parted and it looked like it was going to be a great weekend of hiking. We stopped by the ranger station on the way out and picked up some maps and hit the trail by noon.

We were keeping up a pretty good pace with a moving with an overall average of about 2 mph. About 3:00, just a hair over 6 miles into the trail, we took a break for lunch which gave me an opportunity to pour over the maps. I glanced at the milage we had completed, and figured out how far we would could make it that day and tried to scope out a spot we could stop and make camp close to water. I found a couple of candidates on the map and started figuring out the rest of the milage we would have the next two days if we used those spots. "That doesn't seem right, it says if we make it to this spot we have another 23.5 miles to get to the other truck". I ran the numbers several times, and even took off my socks and shoes so I could use my fingers and toes to help me count. It turns out the milage recorded for the trail on the Topo mapping software was WAAAAAAAY off. The sections of trail we chose was actually 33.5 miles not ~24 like we thought!

Our easy Saturday and short Sunday started to look like it might turn into a Bataan Death March. We finished our lunch quickly and hit the trail really upping our pace. We covered about 2 mile in about 45 minutes when we stopped at a creek and refilled our water. At this point we had covered just at 8 miles and started discussing our milage situations, how much daylight we had left, how are we would have to go that day and the next to still leave us with a short hike out on Sunday. I might have been gung-ho about covering 18-19 miles about 5 years ago, but 5 years behind a desk and about 100 Bloomin' Onions later I just don't have the will, constitution, or the desire to really push myself and exert any real effort on what was supposed to be a leisurely stroll through the mountains, and my two hiking partners felt the same way.

Since this particular watering hole was nice, quiet, unmolested, and quite scenic we decided to just stop our day and make camp. In the end we admitted defeat at the hands of the Pinhoti and hiked the 8 mile back out the next day. We arrived at the Jeep just after 2pm and took a trip up to Cheeha state Park to grab the truck and acquired ourselves a spot in one of the primitive camp sites. We stole a quick shower from the non- primitive sites and went into Anniston for some real food. We stopped at the Wal Mart Supercenter on the way back to grab some ice, beer, and folding chairs, and spent Saturday night knocking back a bunch of beer and filling the air with fine cigar smoke. The bitter taste of our defeat at the hands of the Pinhoti because of our poor planning was soon washed away with the wonderful taste of Yuengling Lager.”

“Oops! I hate finding map errors that way.”

“Defeat? I think not. I think it was more like a change in plans. Sounds like you had a good time, just the same.”

“ice, beer and folding chairs. COOL! All you needed was a roaring bonfire, some bongo drums and a few wasted thru hiker hotties and it would have been like trail days!

map errors can really screw up a hike, I found out the hard way once too, at least yall salvaged it.”

“I just wished I saw more then that one 8 mile section of trail. The Pinhoti has some real character to it. Unlike the AT and other popular trails that seem more like a 4 lane highway in the middle of the forrest the Pinhoti does not have that overused feel to it. This is NOt the trail to hike if you don't like foliage touching you, because at times the trail is little more then a game trail. As much as I love the AT it's showing it's overuse and many areas are starting to look beat down.”

“I still beat staying home and doing yardwork.”

“Any hike that ends with Yuengling is a good hike. Why oh why isn't it available in Illinois?”

“What part of the trail were you on? I keep telling myself I need to find the time to thru-hike this trail. I can be on just about any part of it in an hour, but have only done the section around Cheaha.”

“The plan was to hike from FR500 parking area to the parking area at Cheeha. I was totally covered in spider webs by the time I covered the 8 miles. We stopped just short of 431. If the area around Cheeha as underused at the sections we hiked? I doubt we would have seen anyone even if we sat there for two weeks. It's nice getting on the trail for a change w/o seeing a million people :D”

“Yuengling in Ala-dam-bama?

Kiss my narrow, white Georgian arse... bastages!



My first trip there was an impromptu seein's how we got a Friday snow day. I was the last vehicle allowed on iced-in Cheaha mountain. Ghost town... Nothing was open, and I had not a map.

I "memorized" the map posted at the SP kiosk and rambled up and down and around for three days and two nights. Awesome little winter wonderland.

On my last trip - Labor Day '02 - my truck was vandalized at Lake Chinnabee P/L.”

“Oh yah, I can get Yuengling down to the Costco for $17.00/case.”

“Yep, you can get Yuengling at Wal-Mart.

D - yes, from what I've heard most areas are that desolate. The area around the SP is very different. I've been out there with the highs at about 25 and seen as many as 25 folks on an 8 mile loop.”

“D - check this out... http://alabamatrail.org/forum/”

“I learn far more from my screw ups than from trips that go off without a hitch. Like the time birch and I were at Shawnee Sate Forest and we realized our full day of 12 miles was going to have to be about 19 in order to make it to our cache (AKA BEER). We were feeding off each others exhaustion. One suggestion leads to another which leads to another. The longer the day went on the further from our plans we got.

Or 50 mile three day weekend ended up being about 30 and that’s just because we hoofed it up the road to the Jeep to make a beer run for the next night that we spent in the same place. LOL! It was one of the best times we have had hiking together.

Did you use your 11.5 pound gear list? How’d that work out?”

“Lizs and I hit a local ATL Three Dollar Cafe a couple weeks ago. four hundred different beers, but nary a Yuengling. Bastages...”

“Another reason Bama is better than Georgia!...runs for cover.”

“Well this is the first time I've ever seen Yuengling for sale in Alabama, in a freaking Wal Mart of all places. I guess I need to shop Wal Mart for beer more often!”

“D-a fellow that used to post here and I are talking about doing half the Pinhoti over a 3 day weekend in Dec. You interested?”

“Half = 55 of 110 miles in 3 days? Depending upon the milage I may be interested ;)”

“That's the ballpark we're talking about. The mileage up there isn't tough. I should say that the mileage I've done isn't tough. This one is a ways away though. I'll probably post it on TT. The guy I mentioned doesn't like crowds, but that mileage will tend to take care of that issue.”

“Yuengling bought a (Bud?) brewery in Tampa a couple years ago. But ALA-DAM-BAMA AND NOT GEORGIA?

WTFF?!

heh!”

“They have taste, what can I say?”

“I kept riding the managers arse at the local Publix about not having sushi until he finally got it.

"Build it, and they will come" I mantra'd. I was correct - it sells like hot (wasabi) cakes.

Mebbe if I tried the same tactic at the local beer store......”

“We actually have sushi in the small town where I live. Spicy crab roll, good.”