Pre-trip Report: Five Days on the Pinhoti Trail
Talladega National Forest
January 29-February 3, 2017
Thomas and I are about to go on a long section hike of the Pinhoti Trail.
We're starting Sunday evening on Flagg Mountain, the southernmost peak in the Appalachians that rises over 1,000 feet. Flagg is the southern terminus of the Pinhoti Trail, just southeast of downtown Weogufka, Alabama. In fact, the Weogufka Post Office is at trail mile 6.
Our plan is to sleep at the shelter there on Flagg to get an early start on the 17-mile roadwalk between Flagg and Rebecca Mountains on Monday morning. By Friday we hope to be at least as far as Adams Gap (where I'm parking the truck), which is mile 64.6. Yes, that's an awful long way. Yes, there are going to be a lot of hills to climb, and unfortunately not quite enough streams to cross. I'm stashing water at all the trailheads in between.
In the interim between our last hike and now, I've saved up and bought a filter cartridge for my water filter (finally, gah!) and an underquilt from Arrowhead Equipment -- the Jarbidge River. I love it. It's light, it's synthetic (less chance of it getting messed up in the rain) and it's WARM. Thomas is going to be so jealous. Best of all, it's affordable: $100 plus shipping.
I've also acquired a new base layer set on clearance at Walmart, one that's much lighter and hopefully almost as warm. I won't know until Monday morning, when the forecast is upper 20s or lower 30s.
The original plan was to hike the whole thing in one go, from Rebecca Mountain to Flagpole Mountain, in 12 days or so. That proved to be too long a time to be gone from fatherly and pastoral responsibilities, so we compromised: Five days in February, and then two or three days a month until we've hiked the whole thing. Doing this meant that I could back our starting point back to Flagg, which is the real beginning of the trail anyway. Of course, I've waffled on that a time or two, but ultimately the urge to start at the real terminus got the best of me, so here we go.
Weather looks to be glorious: Cool, dry days; cold, dry nights; no bugs to worry about. Unfortunately, three dry sections will be even drier due to the lack of rain, but we'll handle it.
Well, here we go. Thomas and I are packing by video call on Saturday. I leave right after lunch on Sunday. I plan to have a trip report up (by day) sometime week after next -- but considering how often I post stuff, maybe don't hold me to that!
Happy trails!
