Campin' in Alabama

My family and I have done several day hikes these last two weekends. The first of the series was a hike from the Cheaha Rock Gardens down to the Cheaha Lake.

We started in the upper section of the state park, and set forth from a trail beginning near the cabins. We walked downhill for some distance, as this trail goes almost straight up and down Cheaha.

The trail followed closely along the base of the sizable cliffs that were the rock garden. We soon came to a place with a pleasant stream flowing over the jagged rocks, and stopped to rest a while. The rock garden is aptly named, as this area of the state park is covered with rocks large and small, some of which make some pretty cool formations.

We all hung our hammocks over the jagged rocks.
I ventured forth to see where the stream was coming from, figuring that there would be a waterfall due to the fact that the stream was coming from the direction of the cliffs.

It is difficult to see in the second picture, but the waterfall looked to be very tall. The top of it could easily have been 80-100 feet above me. The first picture is just the stream. The view from here was excellent.

We then continued down the mountain. Looking up, the cliffs loomed ever higher.

After a while, the trail flattened out and met a large creek.

This soon let out back at the lake. It was a fairly demanding hike, if very short. There is something close to 1000 ft of elevation lost or gained on this trail, and up or down it is taxing.

A weekend or two later, Mom and I got tired of watching Netflix and went out to Pulpit Rock. Some of these pictures I posted previously.

We walked a brief forest trail before coming to the Pulpit.

The views were great, as stated previously, and we saw a deer.

Today, we went and hiked out to Hernandez Peak, the real second highest peak in Alabama. Many, including Wikipedia, claim Dugger Mountain as the second highest point, but Hernandez is 2344ft. while Dugger is 2140ft. I'm bad at math, but I am pretty sure that means that Hernandez is taller.
We set out from the Cheaha trailhead, and headed out to the Peak. It is a very wild mountain.

Its nice when the rest of the family comes on hikes. Usually it is just me and Dad or me and someone else.
Here is me and my youngest sister, Jeffery.

We carried on until we came to the cliffs of Hernandez Peak. Upon reaching the top, we stopped to set up our hammocks and enjoy nature.

There was a lot of poison oak, and it will be miraculous if none of us got any on us. But we tried to be careful in navigating it. Mom and Dad both ended up moving theirs due to sun, and I eventually set up my rainfly to block some of the sunlight.

It was a great place to hang.
Recently an article was published confirming the presence of the massive and fascinating golden Eagles in the national forest, and while we hung there someone spotted a pair of strangely gold-colored large birds flying in the distance. We couldn't tell if they were the birds from the article, but they were huge and decidedly not vultures. I would love to see a Golden Eagle in the wild, as they are beautiful animals, and if that is what these were it would be very cool. The officials are keeping the Eagle's locations and area of habitation fairly secret, as certain members of our local population tend to shoot anything that is special or rare or different, so as to keep them as trophies. The article also said that they would be heading back north at some point soon, as they are migratory.

We soon made our way back.

I would like to add that I found myself rather impressed with the little point and shoot camera we have been using for a while now.

Anyway, it has been a fun couple of weeks. I also finished my second semester of college during those weeks, and am now about to begin a May semester. Hopefully it will be survivable.

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains of the moon.

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known. - J.R.R.Tolkien

This weekend we did the northernmost Talladega National forest section of the Pinhoti Trail.

We began at CR-94 with 4 people: Dad, Oliva, Clarence, and Me. Dad and Olivia were only planning to go the first few miles to the next road, Highway 70. Clarence and I planned to continue to the distant north, to the High Point trailhead at 278. This route involved the climb of two fairly sizable ridges, the Wilson Ridge and the Augusta Mine Ridge. Both were not easy. We set off Saturday morning and drove north through Piedmont, where we saw Dugger Mountain looming above.

On CR-94, just down the trail from where we parked, the Ladiga Trail intersects with the Pinhoti. There is a very nice campground there in the valley called the Ladiga Trail campground.

Terrapin Creek runs along its edge, and the mountains towering around it give an alpine feel.

From there we set out down the Pinhoti to the north.

We met a nice man who was coming down from the summit of Wilson Ridge, who warned us about the fallen trees. He was the last person we saw on that hike. The trail promptly became switchbacks as it snaked up the side of the mountain.

As we climbed, we began to notice the views of Oakey mountain opening up behind us.

The pines furthered the high mountain feel of the climb. We could see the campground down several hundred feet below us.

Soon the trail turned again, showing us the mountain before us.

The terrain began to get rockier as we rose, and soon we reached the rocky area which was the highest point that the trail would bring us to on this ridge.

The four of us stopped to look at the view.

As we continued on, it became apparent that some violent force had fallen upon the mountainside.

The trees were bent and broken in an unnatural manner. Large pieces of wood were splintered and cast about.

Here you can see large green trees pushed over as though they weren't huge, old, deep-rooted structures.

Eventually we decided that it had to have been the ice storm a few weeks ago that did this, although it was hard to believe that enough ice could have built up on leafless hardwoods to bring them to the ground.

After navigating the trees that had fallen across the trail with some difficulty, we came to a dirt road. We walked down it a bit and found a flat spot to eat lunch.

It was extremely silent there. Quieter than seemed possible in the modern world. We all fell asleep after lunch, though only for a few minutes. We then made the descent into Maxwell gap, the space between Wilson and the Augusta Mine Ridge.

This sign claimed that we had six miles to go.

Clarence and I stopped there to wait for Olivia and Dad to go drop a car off at the other trailhead.

In that 45 minutes, we only saw a couple of cars, and I saw what I am fairly confident were Coyotes. A little ways away there was a small stream bubbling by.

Soon they returned and gave us the key to the Camry, which was then at our final destination. Clarence and I said our farewells, and began the nearly vertical climb to the summit of the Augusta Mine Ridge. The trail took us through some short pine trees, many of the needles of which had fallen in the ice making a green carpet of sorts along the trail. It also gave the air a strong piney aroma.

Views of the Wilson Ridge appeared to the south.

The trail in this segment was so little used that the leaf litter was all but undisturbed in the place where the trail was supposed to be. If not for the blue blazes, I am sure we would have lost the trail.

The slopes of Oakey Mountain were visible behind us, with the late afternoon sunlight shining through the clear sky upon it.

We continued to climb further and further up, until the trail reached the top of the ridge and began to flatten out. The views on both sides from the top of the ridge were amazing.

They got increasingly better as we walked on.

In the last picture above, that silvery surface under the far mountain is Weiss Lake, and in the two above it Piedmont is visible in the valley. On the opposing side the view looked out into Georgia, with Cedartown's lights shining in the distance. The eastern sky remained a bit brighter throughout the night, which I suspect was a little of the Atlanta metro light pollution.

Soon, the sun began to set, coloring the sky a bright orange.

We decided that this would be a good view to wake up to the following morning, and began to make camp.

Clarence and I both use hammocks when backpacking. They have many advantages, the most noticeable one here was the ability to sleep above rocks.

There was a small fire ring here, but it was obvious that no one had used it in a very long time. This lack of use coupled with the tree-stripping ice storm meant that firewood was plentiful. The sun set a short while after making camp, casting beautiful multicolored rays of light across the sky.

Here you can see the lake more clearly

After setting up our sleeping areas, we made dinner. Clarence ate something made by Hawk's Vittles, and I ate my usual mountain house meal.

It took a while for darkness to actually fall. The sky stayed Salmon colored for some time.

The valley appeared to be mostly farmland during the day, but nightfall brought with it the revelation of the city of Piedmont.

When the sun did eventually set, the stars began to come out.

It was odd, somehow my subconscious knew that i was at a very high altitude when I looked up. Almost as though my eyes could tell that I was closer to the stars than usual. Those few sticks above were the only things for miles around closer to those stars than me. We were just two tiny people with a tiny campfire, sitting on a precipice jutting off the side of the planet with the vast, unimaginable space beyond. If somehow gravity could be reversed, we would fall until we hit those stars, and if we were somehow falling at the speed of light, it would take a thousand years to hit one. (Or at least the center star of Orion's belt)

All of this really puts life into perspective. The walking, the mountains, the views, the stars, all of it.

After hanging out for a while, we both went to bed. I woke up a time or two during the night, and heard a distant owl. The wind was fierce that night, not being extremely cold but extremely strong. The moving trees rocked my hammock back and forth, which was unsettling at first, but eventually put me to sleep. Around 5:45 in the morning, a great howl echoed throughout the valley. Coyotes celebrating a good night, or cursing the morn. They were impressively loud, and quite creepy. As I had gone to bed around 8:45 the night before, this was an adequate amount of sleep, so I got up and made breakfast.

The sun rose over Georgia beyond my hammock soon after. During breakfast, we had a visitor to our camp. Some sort of subterranean creature began pushing up from beneath the ground. It pushed up in a few different places, and seemed able to move rather swiftly underground. It never fully emerged though.

Hammock camping really is the best way to sleep in the woods. It is pretty much unfair to tent campers.

The views had not gotten any worse during the night.

We soon packed up our stuff and hit the road again. After a few hundred feet, we saw several other campsites with views on both sides. The ridge became rockier as we reached the summit.

The last picture is of a plaque placed in memorial of the person who donated that land for the trail to go over. Robert R. Furgerson.

The trail began to follow a four-wheeler road down the side of the ridge from here.

The rocky top loomed over us on the left.

Soon the trail turned and descended into Lanie Gap.

Looking back we could see the Augusta Mine Ridge from which we had come.

We passed through Lanie Gap, which was dry, and carried on. We passed a microwave tower after the Gap, and then went down into Lanie Hollow, after some distance.

We got water and rest here, and then continued on through the valley.

After a good stretch, we came to a creek crossing on Lanie Creek.

It was a pretty mountain creek running through the valley. I had difficulty crossing, as where I stepped was over the waterline of my boots. The water seemed to dry fast though. Somehow Clarence had gotten across without getting wet.