Pine Mountain Trail

With the holiday weekend and a late call at church tomorrow, I decided I could handle a longer trip today, so I headed back down to Pine Mountain to do another section of the Pine Mountain Trail. Since I have already done all of the loops, this would be an in and out hike. Because of the popularity of this area, I almost changed my mind at the last minute over concerns that it would be too busy.

I decided to start at a parking lot at mile marker 18, and head South to the Boot Top Trail at mile marker 14, and take that trail back to the intersection with the PMT. On my way through the park, I noticed that none of the parking lots had any cars. So much for being too busy! When I got to my lot, there was one car. As it turns out, in 4 ½ hours of hiking, I would encounter only one family. That was surprising to me given that when I visited for my snow hike, it was quite busy.

I soon found out why business was so light. It was a warm day, and with rain yesterday afternoon, it was very muggy and unpleasant. Hiking in warmer weather is quite a paradigm shift. Gone are the days of half-full water containers, jeans to protect me from the poison ivy, and long hikes with no breaks. These will have to be replaced by shorts, full water containers, and shorter hikes. I am already looking forward to Fall!

I got to mile 14 and had a bit more energy, so I elected to continue for a bit. I would later regret this decision. I got as far as mile 12, and after standing briefly on Sunset Rock, I headed back. My water would run out before the trip was complete, as my energy almost did on a few occasions.

I finally hit the parking lot again some 11 miles and 4.5 hours later, having dropped at least 5 lbs in water weight. I headed straight for the Purple Cow, where I got a light lunch, a less light cup of ice cream (Moo Tracks and Chocolate-covered Cherry), and all the tea I could drink (which was a around a gallon). It was a nice if exhausting day.