Introduction
Welcome to The Pinhoti Phenomenon. A dozen or so years ago, I left my last paying job as an aerospace engineer in my early 40s, and became a full time hiker. I entered a world of Type A Overachieving Nutty People who walk over mountains for half a year or so from Mexico to Canada, or some similar thing. You may have met someone who has walked thousands of miles on the Pacific Crest or Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and believe you have briefly entered my world. Sorry. An easy stroll like that is just an early initiation fee...
One kind of overachieving wacko in my world once took a hike like that, and decided it was too easy, or took all the hikes that are sort of like that, or wanted to go where few people go. One reason that such people might move on to something tougher than the Appalachian Trail is that they don't want the simplicity and ease of having a book or phone app which tells them every step they must take. They might want to look at a big map and consider all the options. Another reason is that there might be too many people taking these simplified routes. These days, silence and peace are not easy to find on the more famous hiking routes, and wildlife acts differently and is more scarce along the heavily populated National Scenic Trails. Solitude might be more easily found on a trail which is less famous, which does not have easily obtained maps, guides, or apps, or which is not so well maintained. To hike such a trail, one might track down maps and information from as many sources as possible and still not really know how some segments will be crossed. But they will go anyway, and figure it out along the way.
This word of mine is populated by people who happily select goals other people would consider so impossible as to be foolish, and then plug away at them with dogged determination, and further, work to standards of quality so tight others might never appreciate, or even notice the effort applied. But that is what it takes to achieve success, and that is what they do.
That makes them ideal candidates for something much tougher than finding their way along obscure trails all the way across the United States. And that is to create more and better trails.
Before there was a 300 plus mile Pinhoti Trail connecting to 6 major interstate hiking routes, there wasn't. 50 years ago, there was no Pinhoti Trail, and there was no plan to build the Pinhoti, and there was no idea that someone ought to come up with the plan. But in 1972, in response to the need to provide recreation for people living in and between Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, the Talladega National Forest began to build a trail the full length of their Talladega and Shoal Creek Ranger Districts. The project required endless planning and people working and cooperating, and buying of inholdings in the forest, but in 40 years or so, there was a very nice trail the length of the forest. And in the meantime, other visionaries saw that if the trail were to continue beyond the north and south ends of the forest, one might walk entirely across the United States on this and other similar interconnected routes. So they got to work, finding routes, convincing landowners, building trails, and then endlessly maintaining them, and providing maps, guides, apps, or whatever else the hikers would need to find and follow the trails.
One goal of this book is to introduce you to these Pinhoti People, both the Super Hikers and the Trail Creators (often the same people). I find them fascinating and hope you will enjoy hearing why and how they accomplish what they do. What they wanted and what they achieved are examples of the best in the hiking world. Generally, various good ideas fought it out and only a few won. The trail was better after the vast majority of the battles. But everyone who does this is a strong individualist. No dust settles, and long afterwards each will explain in great detail why they were right. That's why I like them, and I hope you will enjoy the stories and ideas.
Today, the Pinhoti Trail is a critical link in a vast network of hiking trails connecting the east coast states. Proceeding clockwise from the south:
From the South
There are hikers starting in Key West (or even in Dry Tortugas by boat), and walking up through the Florida Keys on highways, and heading west of Miami on roads. In Big Cypress, they pick up the Florida National Scenic Trail, heading north up the peninsula and west across the panhandle. Just short of Pensacola, they turn north, crossing into Alabama's Conecuh National Forest. After a day or so, they run out of public lands and in the woods trails, and spend almost a week walking on highways ever northward. They spend a day on the Coosa Trail in Alabama's State Coosa Wildlife Management Area, and return to the roads for most of a day. They finally start on Alabama's beautiful Pinhoti Trail at Flagg Mountain, once a state park.
To the North
After a couple hundred miles, one might leave the Pinhoti near Summerville, Georgia, and proceed north on the Great Eastern Trail. Veering left, more northerly, one might leave the Tennessee Cumberland Trail and follow the Sheltowee Trace across Kentucky towards the North Country Trail in Ohio.
To the North North East
Or staying on the Great Eastern Trail, [on the Tennessee Cumberland, West Virginia Allegheny, Virginia Tuscarora, Pennsylvania Mid State, and New York Finger Lakes Trails], one could proceed to Upstate New York's Niagara Falls, and into Canada (Bruce or Trans Canada Trails), or east (Adirondacks, Vermont Long Trail, Appalachian Trail, New England Trails, International Appalachian Trail) or west (Ice Age Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail, Buckeye Trail, Superior Hiking Trail) through the northern tier states on the North Country Trail.
The Dyer Gap Northern Terminus of the Pinhoti Trail
Half surrounding the Great Smoky Mountains is a vast network of hiking trails, National Forests, and wildernesses. From the Cohutta and Frog Wildernesses proceeding east and north to Asheville, NC, are hundreds of miles of trails and hundreds of square miles of public lands.
To the North East
From Dyer Gap, a Pinhoti walker might proceed southbound on the Benton MacKaye Trail to the Appalachian Trail and turn north. This might be known as the Eastern Continental Trail, or if one is more interested in hiking up the Canadian Coast, the International Appalachian Trail.
To the East North East
A hiker could take the Pinhoti to its northern terminus at Dyer Gap, Georgia, follow the Benton MacKaye Trail north, and walk North Carolina's Mountains to Sea Trail to the Atlantic Coast.
To the East
One can follow the Pinhoti to its northern terminus at Dyer Gap, Georgia, follow the Benton MacKaye Trail north or south bound, connect to the Bartram Trail, and follow South Carolina's Palmetto Trail east to the Atlantic Ocean. North Carolina's Mountains to Sea Trail is another option for walking to the Atlantic Coast.
To cross the country, a northbound direction is typical for hikers reaching Alabama and Georgia in the spring, while those passing through in the autumn are generally walking southbound. But these being individualists, a few will prove me wrong.
The Pinhoti Trail is also great for short walks to creeks or overnight stays, but being one of the aggressive overachievers, I'll often write about its value to super hikers on interstate journeys.
No trail is ever finished. Someone is always planning a new route or shelter. A storm has always taken out a bridge or dropped trees to block the trail. Bushes endlessly grow over the trail. Paint fades and flakes away. A landowner who was once happy to host the trail must ask for it to be moved.
I hope to write extensively on these problems that trails experience, on how maintainers have handled them, and on how hikers are affected by them.
Over the past 15 years, I have been immersed in this crazy and interesting project to build and maintain one of the many critical links in the network of walking trails in the eastern United States. I hope you will enjoy the stories of The Pinhoti Phenomenon.