Pinhoti Trail continues

For this trip I started on Tuesday, Jan. 21st from Adams Gap headed to the Cheaha Trailhead.  A distance of about 11 miles.  I started at about 10:30 am and  I was trucking along at a good pace until I came to a section know as the Stairway to Heaven.  This is an uphill climb with a lot of switchbacks to get to the top and a lot of large rocks.  It was so steep that my legs began to cramp.  Just as one leg would begin to cramp there would be a switchback then the other leg would begin to cramp.  This was probably made worse with the extra 50 pound pack on my back.  By the time I got to the top my legs were just about to give out. The wind was blowing at about 40 miles per hour. Temperature was dropping.  I began looking for a campsite that would be somewhat out of the wind, preferably down in a valley.  I passed several possible campsites that were on high ridges with the cold wind blowing and decided to pass these up for something out of the direct wind.  About 4:00 I came on just the right spot to camp.  I'm thinking that I have traveled about 5 miles, but I now believe it was more like 3 or 4 miles.  I pitched my tent and climbed in.  Here is where I made a mistake.  I took my boots off and started inflating my air mattress.  This took a while and all the time my feet were getting colder and colder.  I know now that I should have changed socks immediately after taking off my boots.  The sweaty socks were beginning to freeze.  After changing socks I climbed into the sleeping bag.  I am not sure my feet ever got warm even though I used my jacket to warm them up some.  The temperature was steadily dropping but I was out of the wind which howled all night long.  I knew I needed to get my water bottles insulated so I put them in the sleeping bag with me.  About 10:00 I realized that nature was calling and I had to get up and go outside.  I discovered that I had rolled over on the bite valve of my water bag and it had leaked some into the sleeping bag.  Not very much and it had no effect on my staying warm.  I decided to keep the water out of my sleeping bag in case there was other leaks.  For the two water bottles I carried I used one of my gloves for each and I just hoped the bladder bag would not freeze in the tent.  About daylight I discovered that the water in the bladder bag was not frozen solid, but the water in the tube was frozen stiff.  Ice had begun forming in the other water bottles, but the gloves keep them from freezing solid.  I turned on the radio to find the temperature was about 16, probably lower where I was, so I decided to wait till it warmed up some before I got up.  I was able to cook breakfast, oatmeal and coffee, without getting out of my sleeping bag.  By the time I got up and packed up it was about 10:00, and the sun was coming up over the mountain ridge.  According to my water bottles the temperature never got above freezing all day long because the ice in them never melted.  I had hiked some of this trail previously on December 26, but it was about 2:30 when I got to the Cave Creek Trail connector.  Had I switch to Cave Creek Trail, I was about 3 miles from the car.  Instead I opted to stay on the Pinhoti Trail following the blue marks, which meant I had about 4 or 4.5 miles to get to the car.  About 5:00 I realized I would not finish before dark.  I could feel the temperature dropping, and decided to take a rest stop, put on my jacket and send an I'm ok message to my wife.  This is done using my Spot satellite transmitter.  My cell phone was dead so this was the only way to let her know everything was okay.  I put on my headlight and kept going.  I slipped on some leaves in the rocks and skinned my leg but I never look to see how bad it was because I have to keep going.  Other than that, I had no problem hiking in the dark and about 6:30 decided to send another I'm ok message.  About an hour later I came to a sign that said parking with an arrow pointing down a trail.  This hiking trip was finally over.  Looking back this trip was fun, but totally exhausting.  Pictures of this trip are below.

 

Pinhoti Trail continued

Finally, I am going to hike again tomorrow.  This trip will be from Adams Gap to the Cheaha Trailhead, about 12 miles.  Once again I intend to take my time so it will take 2 days.  Today the weather is 60 degrees, but tomorrow the high is supposed to be 46 with a low of 19.  Since this will be an overnight trip with full gear it will be a good test for me to see how cold I get.  I already know my sleeping bag will keep me warm and I have extra clothing if I need it, so I am as prepared for the cold as I can be.  I will post pictures and updates tomorrow.

Cold Test

Okay, so the temperature dropped to the new record low of 7 degrees last night.  What better time to test my 0 degree sleeping bag?  I decided that I would pitch my tent on my screened-in back porch and then sleep in the tent.  The temperature was 15 while putting up the tent, then once I got in my sleeping bag I was really warm.  If I had stuffed some clothes in the pillow sack I would have been extra comfy.  For this test I did not use any thermal clothing.  So now that I have tested the new sleeping bag and found it to be very roomy (much better than the other mummy bag), cozy, and warm. I am now ready to continue on the Pinhoti Trail.  I will plan on hiking a couple of days next week then post again.