Just hiked a section of the Pinhoti

[DeShazo]

What a great time and an awesome section of trail. I started at Bull Gap and went north to Porters Gap over the weekend. Lots of water falling over the spill way section at Scott Lake.

[Cuffs]

Thats it?  Theres got to be more to this story than just good water!  What did you forget at home?  Any animal life?  How were the hammocks?  Do tell, inquiring minds want to know!

[dogwood]

I hiked that section the weekend before - it is now one of my favorites!  Saw several turkey-vultures(we call em buzzards in Alabama), and lots of other birds and butterflys, plus many lizards.  Heard coyotes in the valley on Friday night.  The water at the dam is a pretty sight, and the creek was pretty high.

[DeShazo]

Ok, ok Cuffs, sheesh...lol 
Well we got off to a later than I wanted to start. We arrived at the trailhead about 5:45PM Friday. So we only hiked about 2 miles before setting up camp right at dark. It was me, my 2 teenage sons, and my dog Reese. I have attached pics of camp the first night. Hopefully they will work, as this is my first attempt to post pics on a thread here. It was great other than all the scorpions the first night. We were in a very rocky area and killed 6 of them while sitting around the camp fire. We awoke at about 7AM. When we went to sleep that night it was warm enough that I only had a light weight sleeping bag liner on in the hammock, and was using my sleeping bag for a pillow of sorts. I wound up crawling into the sleeping bag about an hour or so before daylight. It was awesome. I will post more on the next day after awhile. I have to go run some errands. BBL

[DeShazo]

One more pic. File was too large to put both in the same reply.

[DeShazo]

Ok, on the second day, we broke camp at about 8. Let me start by saying we came in with only 2-32oz Nalgene bottles each. None of us wanted to carry a bladder full. When we broke camp we had one bottle and 12 miles to Scott Lake on a 86 degree day. After 6 miles we were totally out. So a prayer to God later, the trail came onto a road for about 300 yards before crossing the other side. While on this road the dog darted to the edge and stuck his head way down in this hole. I could see water at the bottom, YES! I got out the Kaytadyn Hiker and was able to get each of us a bottle before it emptied. This got us to mile 12 where we were out again. At about 12.5 I noticed the trail was somewhat damp as we were headed down. I pulled a huge rock out of the side of the hill and water quickly filled the hole where the rock was. I had found a spring. We toped off all bottles and hiked on in to Scott Lake where we set up camp right on the spill over waterfall section. It was beautiful. We waded up and down the creek below the lake for an hour or so cooling off. As for wildlife, I didn't see alot other than birds of course. Other than them, I saw what is know as a "fence lizard", it was huge. Got a good pic of it. I also saw and photographed a nice "Eastern Garter Snake".  Saw a few turkey tracks as we crossed the road at mile 12 but didn't see them. After spending the night as Scott Lake, we hiked the remaining 3.5 miles out to the Porters Gap trailhead where we were picked up in time to beat the race traffic out of Talladega. I will pick up from there next time.

[dogwood]

Bull's gap to Scott's lake is a pretty dry 14 miles!  When my bro-in-law and i hiked it a couple of weeks back, we each had 2 Nalgene's and a full camelback, and ended up running out just before the lake.  Mountain Dog told me about a source near the microwave tower, here is his posting:
"I was up there a few weeks back and I saw water running in all normally dry run offf beds.  So I would expect to find some run off between Bull and Scotts but I would not plan on it.  That stretch is dry.  That said, there is a fairly reliable source of water less than 1/4 mile from the radio tower on top.  I flagged it a couple of years ago so I would expect the flaggs to be gone by now.  Here is where I found it.  When headed north, go about 3/4 of the way around the radio tower and you will see a good size piece of land headed out towards the east.  This land is relatively flat and wide.  While standing on the trail, look at that piece of land and watch it drop off towards the south (I'll call this slope 1).  Look further back or south east of the trail and you will see a finger of the mountain sticking out and sloping rather quickly towards the east (I'll call this slope 2).  There is good water where slopes 1 and 2 meet but more at the base of slope 2 than slope 1.  I've found water in that creek bed in some relatively dry weather.  I had to go further down the bed the dryer the conditions.  Again I recommend that you not plan on finding the water and possibly end up with dry bottles."

[DeShazo]

Thanks for the info. If it would have been a dire need. I would have left the trail and gone in search down in the valley's below. You are right indeed about it being a very dry hike between the two. It was an adventure which is what we were in search of, so mission accomplished. It will probably be quite sometime before I hit that section again as I am going to try and section hike the whole Pinhoti this year. What about the next few sections? How are they for reliable water?

Here is a pic of my boys setting up their hammocks in a primo location at Scotts Lake.

[dogwood]

From Porter's gap to Talladega Creek is a 3-mile stretch.  The creek is a very reliable source.  A couple of miles beyond it, you'll find a stream that looks fairly reliable before you get to Clairmont Gap.  *Note* on the hill above the Clairmont Gap trailhead is a terrific campsite with a 270degree view of the valley.  It's fairly small, but should have plenty of room of a couple of tents or some hammocks.  There are a couple of sources between Clairmont Gap and Adams Gap, but the best of these is about 1 1/2 to 2 miles from Adams.  It's a pretty good sized creek that's a great resting spot, also.  Between Adams Gap and the trails intersection on top of Caney Head, there are a couple of seasonal sources, but the spring at the intersection is usually reliable(during the drought the past couple of years, it was dry at times!).  I hope that i didn't bombard you with too much info!  One piece of advice - i would hike south from the top of the mountain to Adams Gap.  The Stairway to heaven is a tough climb!  I've done it three times, but it was always going downhill(praise the Lord!).

[Cuffs]

Great report and awesome photos!!   

What stove(s) did you take and use?