Pine Mountain Backpacking Trip 6/22

Tuesday, June 22, 2010






I arrived at the office at FDR State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia around 7:45 a.m. to await the arrival of the 4 other Traildames that were going to backpack the 23 mile trail with me. Sandy arrived shortly after me, then April, Nanci and Sunny pulled in the parking lot shortly after that. We went into the office to get our backcountry permits, and to take a quick restroom break. There was one lady ahead of us in line, and man, I swear, she must have asked a million questions. At one point, I almost told her I would pay her fees if she would just SHUT UP and go already. But I calmed myself down, practiced a little patience, and finally she was through. We made our reservations, Tuesday night was to be Big Knot campsite, 7.8 miles into the trail, and Wednesday was to be Sparks Creek campsite, around mile 17. Then we would finish up the last 6 miles on Thursday, and go find a really big cheeseburger!


Sunny left her car at the office (which later would prove to be a godsend), April and Nanci drove to the country store at Callaway Gardens where we would begin our hike, and Sandy and I drove our cars to the TV tower, where we would finish the trail. We left Sandy's truck there, and headed to the store to meet the other dames. We made final adjustments to our packs, asked a couple to take our before picture, then headed up the trail. It was just around 10:00 as we left, and it was already in the 90's. We have had a ridiculously hot June so far. When I planned this trip, I searched the historical weather reports, and knew the averages for this part of June were highs of 85, and lows of 63. Well, let me tell you, this was not an average June day. Not a cloud in the sky, nor a breeze in the air. It was hot and very humid. Within a half a mile, I was already drenched in sweat.

I have hiked this trail before, back in April 2008, and knew that the office was just short of the 4 mile mark, so I didn't need to worry about water. I drank as much as possible, as often as possible to replenish all sweat that was pouring off me. We followed the blue blazes for a couple of miles, then took a snack/water break. So far everyone is hot, but still in good spirits, and feeling good about the hike. We put the packs back on, and head on up the trail. Sandy leads the majority of the time, sometimes I hike with her, and then I will drop back to hike with the others. Since this was the first Traildames event I have been the leader for, I felt an additional sense of responsiblilty to keep my eye on everyone, although I have hiked with all of them before, and knew they were capable of doing the miles, and that they would tell me if they were having issues.

About an hour later, we reach the picnic area at the office, take the packs and shoes off, and claim a picnic table for lunch. I did score a ice cold diet coke at the office, which if you know me, is the one single item I miss the most on the trail. We eat and rest a little bit, then Sandy says she is treating me to an icecream, which they sell at the office. Of course I take her up on it, I know that will be my last cold item until we finish Thursday afternoon. According to the thermometers a couple of the girls had, it was already around 92 degrees. In the shade it was a little better, but still very hot. I made sure that everyone rehydrated at lunch, we all took a final "real potty break" in the office restroom, then we took off again on the trail. Shortly after we began this part of the trail, we came across some huge pinecones, for some reason, I was in absolute awe of them. Yeah, sometimes I am weird like that.

Most of my backpacking has been on the AT or in the Smokies, and the Pine Mt. Trail does not compare to the difficulty and longs climbs I am used to. We had quite a few ups and downs, but they were small bumps, not long relentless climbs. After we left the office, the heat and humidity began to really take a toll on all of us. We drank as much as we could, but I know I was getting close to having heat exhaustion, and I began to suspect that a couple of the others were too. We took more frequent breaks, for longer periods of time to try to keep our body temperatures down. We finally reach the mile 7 marker on Indian Mountain, and know we have a little less than a mile mostly downhill to camp. Sandy had gone ahead I thought, but after we took a good long break, I headed on down the trail, and found her just ahead of us resting. She and I took off together, and headed down the hill towards camp. We finally get to the camp sign, and cross over the wooden bridge, that I remember being over a creek the last time, but now there was no water at all in the creek. I had made a point to ask the rangers about the water sources and they said they were fine. I was very apprehensive at this point, so I went up the side trail to camp, and immediately went down to where I knew the water source was. There was water there, but it wasn't looking very good. It was very murky, and barely running.

I went back up to camp, and heard the others coming up the side trail, so I sat down to rest. I was very tired, very hot, very thirsty, and was getting very grumpy. I helped Sandy set up her tent, as this was her first backpacking trip, and I had loaned her my Big Agnes Seedhouse 1. As everyone else was setting up camp, I went a little way from camp and found 2 perfect trees to hang my hammock. After I got all set up, we all went down to the creek to get water. I filled up my bottle and even after filtering through a bandana, the water was greenish and murky. Thank goodness April had her filter, I dumped my water, and we all took turns using her filter. We had to clean the filter after every bottle because the water was in such bad shape.

We walk back up to camp, I start a fire to help combat the bug issue, and boil water to get my dinner rehydrating. I had dehyrated some pasta, chicken, and peas with some spices added for flavor. I added some olive oil and a babybel cheese to the mix, put it in my cozy to rehydrate and decided to go lay down for a minute. After about 15 minutes in the hammock, I finally began to cool down. I rested for a little while longer, then changed into camp clothes and made my way back to the fire. I drank about a liter of water, then ate my dinner. I was very pleased with the meal, most of the time when I am backpacking, I don't feel like eating the first night. (I wish this was the case at home, but alas, at home, I am constantly hungry.) I was amazed at how good the meal turned out, I ate every bite, and immediately began to feel more human again.

We hung out around the fire for a little while, then Sunny showed us how to hang the bear bags PCT style...man I need to learn this method, it is much better than the way we normally hang food. Food hung, everyone rehydrated and fed, fire dying out, so around 9:00 everyone decided to call it a night. I made my way to the hammock, turned the IPOD on, and drifted off to sleep.

Stay tuned for day 2.


You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
-Rosalyn Carter