Night Hiking on the Pinhoti Trail

Day 4- 13 Miles hiked 

I woke up feeling great again. The earplugs have really been a game changer. It’s interesting that the first night was the only night where I was remotely near other people but was the worst night of sleep that I had. I’m sure part of that was the first night jitters, but something about camping alone without a soul to bother me felt really safe. I had hiked so many hours without seeing a single person so the chance of someone disrupting me at night felt low, and I knew animals would be much more attracted to my food bag than me. I’m excited to meet and camp with other hikers on the AT, but it’s good to know that I can do it alone too. 

The camping options for the day were not ideal- the first site was only 5 miles away which was a little too short for my liking. The one after that was the perfect distance at 9 miles away, but comments on FarOut said that it was pretty exposed and not good for a windy night, and you could hear trains going by all night. The next campsite was 12.5 miles away, which would only leave me with 2 miles to finish the next day, and there was quite a bit of elevation gain today, so I wasn’t sure how fast I could go. I have been getting up around 8 but breaking camp around 10-10:30 ish, which only left about eight and a half hours of daylight to hike. My speed definitely varies depending on the terrain. I decided to play it by ear, but in retrospect it would have been good to get going a bit earlier.

Nice views to start the day!

I started hiking just after 10 and after a mile or so got to the first viewpoint of the day, which was a cool rocky outcropping. The views today have been really great. I decided not to explore the rocks and continued down the trail.

Cool rock structures along the trail

It was downhill the rest of the way to the Talladega creek. The trail turned onto a road which you followed for a bit, crossing the bridge over the river. As I walked up to the bridge, I noticed train tracks passed right before the bridge. There was no crossing gate before the tracks and I wondered what happened when a train crossed. I didn’t have to wonder too long before a train started blaring its horns. It was a huge freight train and took a few minutes to pass through. I was a bit annoyed that I hadn’t had a chance to cross the tracks before the train came through! But it was no big deal and within minutes I had crossed over the bridge. It seems that this area of the river is owned by a resort and there were no trespassing signs everywhere. I turned off the trail to get water at a spring some locals had set up. There was actually an old local man filling up his water jugs. He told me this was the best water in town. He and his wife live nearby and this is where they get all their drinking water from. 

After I got my water, I walked back to the trail as it passed through the resort area. It seems like it would be a nice area to camp, it’s a shame the resort doesn’t offer tenting for hikers. Once the trail went back into the woods there was a short steep climb to a tentsite where I stopped for a snack. Supposedly there’s a water source too, but there was no sign of water anywhere. I almost ate lunch too but there were so many ants that started climbing on me so I decided to wait until the next proper water source for lunch. It was a pretty steady uphill and then switched to downhill for a bit before flattening out at the campsite and water source. It seemed like it would be a nice place to camp but it was only 2:30 and I definitely had more miles in me. 

I wasn’t feeling super great, but chalked it up to hunger and thirst. I ate lunch and collected more water, making sure to drink lots too. After I continued on, I still wasn’t feeling great and felt a bit nauseous. Nothing more climbing couldn’t cure! Once the trail flattened out though, I felt even more nauseous and realized I would need a cathole stat! I walked plenty off trail and found a good spot and tried to dig as fast as I could. It was feeling quite urgent. I’ll spare the rest of the details but I felt way better after and my nausea was gone. I got back on trail and continued along, crossing a dirt road. I’d been listening to City Limits by Megan Kimball and was getting closer to the end. It kept me very engaged. After another mile or so, I reached a section of trail known as the “rock garden”. It was three miles of big and small rocks that were super unstable. The rocks were also covered in wet leaves which made it harder to gauge. Even big rocks would shift underfoot, so it was pretty slow going the entire time. The last thing I wanted was to fall on the rocks. There were a few sketchy moments but I managed to stay standing the entire time. This section really slowed me down, and it was after 5:15 when I reached the power lines after the end of the rocky sections. I finished my book around then too, which left things open ended but on a hopeful note.

Shortly after the power lines I crossed Clairmont Gap and started my last climb of the day. It was short but steep! I was thankful for the ridgelines that counteracted the steepness. This climb had the most beautiful views on trail yet. It was so breathtaking, and kept getting better the more I climbed. Finally I reached the top and was treated with an expansive view. I felt so grateful to be out here in this beautiful weather with beautiful views.

After that, I had a short walk to my first camping option. It was 6 pm and I definitely needed to eat dinner before making a decision. I got some ramen going and refreshed the weather forecast on my garmin. It was already pretty windy, which didn’t bode well for the night. All of the comments I had read agreed that it would not be comfortable to tent in windy conditions. I’m not confident enough in my tent pitching abilities and the spot did seem extremely exposed. My garmin said the winds would be about 9-10 mph all night, which was higher than I was comfortable with. I’m not sure if it would have been fine, but I decided to push on. There were still 3.6 miles to the next campsite but it was all downhill, and I knew I could move pretty fast in those conditions.

Dinner

And a view!

I got going just around sunset. After about 30 minutes the shadows started looking a little more like bears so it was time to get my headlamp on. Someone had left some sort of animal skull right beside the trail which spooked me quite a bit! As it got darker I had to start calming myself down a bit, telling myself that I was making so much noise that I would scare off any animal. There really isn’t any difference between hiking in the dark woods and camping; if anything I was less likely to be viewed as prey when I was moving. After about a mile my headlamp became much dimmer and confused, I pulled it off and realized only one bulb was on. This was just when it started to get really dark too. I switched it on and off, but it only lasted a few minutes before going off again. My watch has a flashlight, so I switched that on. I would be crossing a dirt road soon so I could figure out what was going on then. 

I reached the road in under 5 minutes. I googled my headlamps battery life and realized that all the previous nights using the headlamp on the highest setting had drained the battery completely. Another stupid moment! I was internally shaking my head at myself. That would have been a good thing to check before starting a night hike. It didn’t even occur to me that my headlamp would die on me. For all I know, it wasn’t fully charged before I left on my hike, since I hadn’t checked. For a second I thought about calling the hostel and bailing out at the dirt road, but I calmed myself down and told myself it would be fine to stop and charge up for 10-15 minutes. I anxiously watched the charge indicator. If I used the headlamp on the lowest setting it would last about 4 hours, and I only needed another hour and a half at the most. After 10 minutes, one of the four charge indicators was lit up and the second was blinking. I waited another few minutes before continuing on. I crossed the road, this time with my headlamp on low. It was really truly dark, and I sang at the top of my lungs to keep animals away and myself calm. The terrain was rocky but I kept a pretty fast pace up, and crossed the second dirt road of the night at around 8 pm. I was only 1.5 miles away from the campsite, and I continued singing and hiking as fast as I could. At 8:45, I crossed the last road and a minute later reached the campsite pin on the map! It was a little hard to see where the campsite was, and I backtracked a drop and checked comments on FarOut for guidance. I walked into the woods and saw some trash, which sadly let me know I was in the right place. I walked a bit further and reached the fire ring. There was a great spot for tenting and it was actually right along the dirt road. I probably could have just gotten to the campsite from the road, but I only realized that after. I told my parents I made it safely and set up my tent as quickly as I could. Because of the extra push today, I only had 2 miles remaining for tomorrow, so I went to bed planning to take my sweet time in the morning. It felt great to lay in my tent after hiking in the dark for close to 4 miles.

Day 5- 2 miles hiked

This morning I woke up around 8 and rolled over to sleep for longer. After about an hour or so, the sun was shining brightly, warming my tent and drying condensation that had formed overnight.

View of my tent in the morning!

I got out of my tent and got coffee going. I ate a small breakfast since I would only be hiking for an hour or two today. I was in no rush to get going. I texted Daniel at the Green Hippies hostel to arrange a shuttle at the Adams gap trailhead around 12:30-1 since I wasn’t sure how long the hiking would take. At around 11 I got going. It was downhill until the next water source about .2 miles away. I passed by quickly and started my last climb of the trip. It was super gradual and not much elevation gain. There was a nice ridgeline to follow and I just tried to pay attention to the budding trees and nature as much as I could. I passed a few lizards and some wildflowers. The trail evened out more and before I knew it I was only .1 miles away from the trailhead.

Only a few minutes later, I reached the trailhead! It had taken me under an hour to hike the two miles. I was so excited to be done and feeling very accomplished. 45 miles may not seem like a lot to most people, but it’s the most I’ve ever hiked continuously and I did it completely alone, barely even encountering any other people, let alone hikers. I learned so many lessons and it made me excited to embark on my Appalachian trail thru hike. I’ll be making a few small swaps, but for the most part I’m happy with my gear and set up. See you in a few weeks at Amicalola Falls, I’m excited to blog my thruhike!

Sweaty and happy at the end!

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