Pinhoti Trail Gear

Posted on July 28, 2020August 2, 2020 by chowder_17

I made a separate tab for a quick reference to my gear for the time being, as I, but I wanted to type out a bit more of my gear planning, purchasing, and packing process.

Still being a novice, I did have a few items already that I will be using for this hike, but a vast majority of the gear listed are items purchased specifically to do this hike, but it will at least give me a starting point for other backpacking trips in the future.

To comply your own detailed list of gear and the associated weight, check out this nifty website, Packfire. Total FULL Weight: ~25lbs.

My Pinhoti Trail Pack.

I will talk about my food/water storage and plans in a separate post.

Big 3 (Pack, Shelter, Sleep)

I already had the pack, shelter, and sleeping bag from previous trips. It’s not the lightest gear, but wasn’t going to drop several hundred dollars on new gear, when I could make due with what I already had.

Pack: REI Co-Op 40L ; Pack Liner: Gossamer Waterproof Pack Liners
Shelter: Ozark Trail 2-Person 4-Season Tent (Items/weight will be split between us) Footprint: Dakout Ultralight Backpacking Tarp
Sleep: Ozark Trail 40F Sleeping Bag ; Pillow: TREKOLOGY Aluft 1.0 ; Sleeping Pad: POWERLIX Sleeping Pad
Total Weight: 10.29 lbs

Clothing

Weather is going to be very hot, humid and buggy. I really don’t like wearing pants to perform any outdoor activity. I’d rather go with higher socks/gaiters with shorts. Additionally, I prefer trail running shoes, as they’re lighter weight over standard hiking boots.

Wearing: Women’s Insect Shield S/S Tech Tee, Columbia Women’s Sandy River Cargo Shorts, YUEDGE Women’s Hiking Socks, Dirty Girl Gaiters, Merrell Siren 3 Vent Hiking Shoes, Buff, ExOfficio Underwear

Packing: Under Armour Heat Gear S/S, Columbia Heather Long Sleeve, Rei Co-Op 5″ Shorts, One extra pair of socks and underwear. (Stored in the bottom of the sleeping bag)

Rain Gear: Columbia Jacket (Will be placed in the top of the main compartment of the pack)

DITY Bag Items

This will include my first aid kit, medication, repair kit, and other health/comfort items. Will be stored in small dry bag.

Hygiene Items: GoGirl, Kula Cloth, Combat Wipes, Campsuds Soap, Travel Toothbrush, Toothpaste, hand sanitizer, Picaridin Insect Repellent Wipes, Travel Sunscreen.

First Aid Items: daily medication, daily vitamin, ibuprofen, leukotape, alcohol wipes

Repair Kit: Patches from sleeping pad, pillow, duct tape (wrapped around trekking pole), BIC mini lighter

Miscellaneous

This will include other items that I’m bringing along either “just in case” or extra comfort items.

Trekking Poles
Ultralight Camp Chair
Solar Charger 20000mAh YOESOID
GoPro Hero 7 Black (extra batteries)
iPhone 11 Pro (w/ cable, case, and headphones)

Pinhoti Section Hike Planning

Posted on July 27, 2020July 29, 2020 by chowder_17

This was my first endeavor of planning a section hike from “scratch”. What I mean by that is I didn’t use a pre-planned route like I have in past (Example: SNP Backcountry Trips). We decided that we wanted to do a section hike instead of a out and back hike or circuit hike. That way we were getting to do more of the trail without backtracking over the same area. However, with starting and ending at different points brings up different logistical planing.

Below are several resources that I used to plan and read up about this trail:

Pinhoti Trail Alliance (This was a huge resource for me to show the different sections. However, it has been designed in such a format that it is difficult to read)
Pinhoti 2014 Trail Map/Waypoints
Guthook Guides (This app has been downloaded to my phone and will be my main source of mapping on the trail)
Darwin OntheTrail 2018 Pinhoti Trail Thru-hike
- Thru-Hike YouTube Videos
Whitewater’s Pinhoti 2016 Thru-hike Journal
Greenbelly Planning Your Thru-hike 101- Pinhoti
Alabama Hiking Trail Society- Pinhoti Trail
Pinhoti Trail Alliance Facebook Group

Once I had an overall sense of the trail, read and watched as much as I could, I decided that going for an average of 10 miles a day for the 5 days that I had would be a good feasible goal. Being this my first time in attempting a multi day trip, the heat, and how much shape I know I’m in, I didn’t want to over shoot the mileage.

Next, step came “Which 50-60 miles should I do?” and that answer came through asking some questions on the Facebook page and reading through multi people’s trail journals to see what their highlights of the trail were. Nearly every thing I saw lead me to the Cheaha State Park area, which are in sections 6 & 7, so throwing section 5 on the front end and section 8 on the back end gave me a total of 53.9 miles.

2020 Pinhoti Trail Section Hike

Posted on July 26, 2020December 28, 2021 by chowder_17

The Pinhoti Trail is a long-distance trail, 335 miles long, located in the states of Alabama (171 miles) and Georgia (164 miles). The trail’s southern terminus is on Flagg Mountain, near Weogufka, Alabama, the southernmost peak in the state that rises over 1,000 feet. The trail’s northern terminus is where it joins the Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia.

Pinhoti Trail Map https://www.conservationfund.org/projects/connecting-pinhoti-and-appalachian-trails

The Pinhoti Trail is divided up into 31 sections, with 13 sections located in Alabama and 18 sections located in Georgia. We have a five day window coming up in early August 2020 and are planning on hiking sections 5 through 8 in Alabama (see below). This distance will cover 53.9 miles from Porter’s Gap to FS 500.

Sections 5 – 8: 53.8 miles on the Pinhoti Trail.

We have chosen to do that particular section as the area surrounding Cheaha State Park is considered some of the most beautiful scenery on the trail, there are a decent amount of streams/water sources in these sections (which is even more critical with the summer heat), higher elevation (cooler temps and mountain scenery), and a decent amount of campsite opportunities (perfect for us novices). So, with only a short window to get out backpacking, we wanted to see all with can, being as safe a possible, and getting our novice feet wet into the backpacking world.

In the following posts I plan on going through the trip planning process, gear list/packing, and then the trail itself.

Welcome to My Blog!!!

Posted on July 23, 2020July 28, 2020 by chowder_17

Greetings and Salutations! Welcome to my hiking blog. My intention is to share my adventures of hiking, camping, backpacking and/or anything else outdoorsy that I find myself getting into.

I’ve been fascinated about hiking, camping, and backpacking since my early 20’s. I didn’t grown up in the outdoors, so it was a very foreign world for me to learn about and it just sounded like an amazing adventure.

I’ve actively read all I could get my hands on and added to my bucket list a full thru hike of the Appalachian Trail once I was retired from the military. However, in all of my reading, most people to attempt something like this are young and fit. Being in my mid 30’s and overweight, it was something that almost felt unachievable. That thought alone drives me to want to hike more- my way. That you don’t need to be a young, the most in shape, or have all the outdoor skills to enjoy nature.

Hiking Cloud Whisperer

Month: July 2020