91 Hours to Go

In less than four days I shall be hiking the Pinhoti Trail.  I will pick the trail up at the Trammel Trailhead which is at the southern most area of the Talladega Forest and head north-east ward.  Now it depends on how fast I move but it is possible to make Cave Spring, Ga by the 23rd if I can do a 12 mile a day pace.   If I keep to  a 10 mile pace then I am looking at getting to Highpoint, which is east of Piedmount, Al.  A course if I'm slow as a slug then I'm looking at making only the US 431 trailhead which is south of Heflin, Al. and at where the overpass for Al 281 crosses US 431.

I'm still working on my pack.  It looks like I will start out with 45 lbs, no i am not happy with that, but 18 of those lbs are food for 14 days.  So, each day the pack will get a little lighter.  

Most of ya'll are wondering, "What's on the menu".  It's a simple one.  For breakfast I have 2 pack of oatmeal, coffee; with cream and sugar.  Then for Lunch, Dinner and in-between I have 6 oz of beef jerky and 6 oz of trail-mix.  The trail-mix is my own recipe with Chinese Crackers as the base and Sesame stick as a main filler.  It also has walnuts, almonds, dried vegetable, cashews, and a few other items.  Now in the evening when I set up camp, I have a drink-mix, (No! not that type of drink-mix) that I'll add into one of my water bottles and have some "peach-tea" along with 4 oz of dried fruit.  You may have notice that this diet is high in fiber, that is because the fiber keeps down the hunger twinges and when a stool is passed; well, you're not having to linger waiting on it.  

The rest of the pack consist of a Hammock with a mosquito net, the tree straps, a stove with a fuel cell, an emergency tarp with stakes, toiletry and first-aid kits, DUCK TAPE!, A change of clothes, thermo underwear incase it gets "chilly", and a few other little paraphernalia.  A cell phone, hand GPS, camera, solar cel, and back-up batteries.  That's it.  

A lot of this trail I know because I have hiked different sections over the years but the southern area between Trammel Trailhead and Porter's Gap will be totally new to me.  The foliage will be heavier being in May but with these cool morning here lately this should be a very enjoyable hike.

If signal permits when I make camp then I will send out a quick blog post giving my GPS position and the number of miles I have traveled that day.  So, stay tuned to this blog for those updates.