Section 10 of the Pinhoti Trail

Two backpacking friends and myself packed the Pinhoti trail this weekend from Pine Glen Campground to the Burns Trailhead.  We covered about 16.5 miles under partly cloudy skies and moderate temperatures.  The trail was in excellent condition and well marked except a small section prior to FS 540 but even that was not a big deal.  You will go by three lakes on the trip-Sweetwater, Coleman and Choccolocco.  In my opinion the best part of the hike was the area where the trail goes through Chipmunk Canyon.  There is plenty of water in the creek and a nice small campsite where we spent the night about a mile and a half past the road.  

There were two shelters on the trail:the Laurel Shelter and the Choccolocco shelter.  We visited the Laurel shelter but the Choccolocco shelter was not on the trail but was well marked and not far from the trail.  The middle of hike takes you through some thinned out pine hills that were somewhat overgrown and the trail got a little boring at that point.  Fortunately it did not last too long and went into the canyon.  

Hunting season had started that weekend and we were not aware of that until we passed almost directly underneath a tree stand with a hunter in the stand.  I would recommend wearing hunter orange during this time of the year because the hunters were out in force.  We also ran into several groups of riders on horseback using the horse trail that came near on several occasions.  

We also visited the Shoal Creek Primitive Church on the trail which was very interesting with its old cemetery.  This was a great place to take a break as there are some portable toilets on the grounds along with some nice picnic tables. 

A very nice trip and I highly recommend this section for a weekend packing trip.