[at-l] trip report - Pinhoti

[David Addleton]

Mostly Map 2
Plans were to meet my hiking companions either Thursday night or early
Friday morning at Sweetwater Lake, or around lunch at Coleman Lake. I met
them on a briskly cold Friday morning at Sweetwater and offered to slack
pack them to the County Road 500 parking lot and trail head where I'd put on
my pack and hike with them the rest of the way. They liked that idea,
especially as I had cold beer in a cooler there for lunch. I hiked in toward
Coleman Lake to meet them and hike back out. It was hunting season there. On
the way down to the campsite we surprised a hunter who had parked himself at
the top of the gorge on the trail hoping to shoot a deer climbing out of it.
He said, "I thought the trail was closed to hikers during hunting season."
The idea of hiking through dusk to dark did not appeal to me, or to my
companions, but we found a campsite with a fire ring Friday night in a deep
gorge next to a running creek, but we had to wait until morning to fully
appreciate it in the light. We enjoyed the full moon rise over the eastern
ridge and watched as the moon light slowly approached us from the western
ridge, huddled around the fire. I was foolish and hiked in a sweater and the
sweat generated moisture the fleece caught made me especially cold; I
couldn't warm myself, and moved from my hammock to the ground under a
make-shift bivy under my tarp, covered with leaves where I finally got warm
in my sleeping bag and slept. The next day we had a short hike to a shelter
a Choccolocco Lake where it sprinkled most of the night, but the fire was
big and bright enough to warm the shelter. It sprinkled again before we
started the short hike to the car outside Map 2. My pictures from the hike
are here: http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/Jb2yY8sS
The Pinhoti, at least in that section, is a fine, beautiful trail and good
place to recover hiking legs if you've misplaced them, as I have . . .
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