A few hiking and gear pics from 10/12-10/13

[OwenM]

These are from Cheaha State Park and Talladega National Forest near Talladega, AL. I did a loop connecting the Chinnabee Silent Trail, Pinhoti Trail, and the Skyway Loop Trail, along with some detours that added several miles, and brought the total up around 21.

These look similar, but were an hour apart, and not of the same mountain...

 

[OwenM]

The bad news is you get into a couple miles of this crap, and get to climb a mountain with it underfoot, and because of the drought, the streams are dry or just patches of mud:

The good news is that the view is pretty good at the top! Wish my camera were good enough to have captured this at even a fraction of how beautiful it looked in person.

Pic of my bivy for a friend who didn't know what a bivy is. It was raining last night, and as I packed up this morning. And one of the tremendous amount of trash I generate on an overnighter...

Didn't take many more pics, since I had a lot of miles to cover.

 

[OwenM]

Took the opportunity yesterday to play with a S2S collapsible bucket I hadn't used, and to try packing my stuff in a BlueWater rope bag. The bucket makes gathering and filtering water really convenient, and I think the rope bag would be particularly great if used with a toploading pack if the size is appropriate. Specs are 21.25" x 8.5" x 4.5", 7oz. and that's 1000D Cordura.

Pumping up your water made easy, though the bucket needs some help if not on a flat surface:

And the rope bag with all my gear except the sleeping pad and a small TNF base camp duffel that fits on top of it in my pack w/fire, first aid, batteries, bug repellant, etc:

Seem redundant with this tri-zip pack? How about as a removable 800+ci pack pocket when you strap it to any pack with compression straps?

Oh, here's some frogs:

and a copperhead with a video of him rattling at me:

[youtube]4_LquI4yw_o[/youtube]

 

[Doc13]

A lot of cool pics, thanks for sharing:thumbup:

 

[dipbait]

The copperhead was beautiful.I didnt know they would rattle their tail like that. I saw a hognosed snake do the same thing.

 

[tknife]

Really stunning scenery there, I love it :thumbup: Thanks for taking the time to post pics. Trip pics are my favorite part of this forum!

 

[OwenM]

Thanks, guys.
I had debated doing this loop at Cheaha or one in Sipsey Wilderness this week, and a friend of mine suggested Cheaha. Talked to her on the phone last night, and was complaining that both of my maps were off, and a trail mismarked(that's why I said there were some detours-had to go cross-country a little, then follow a local highway to a forestry road to connect where I could feel confident I was on the right trail). I was having some serious doubts about myself for a little while, since the maps weren't matching what I was seeing.

Something cool came of that. That friend is involved in re-mapping the Pinhoti, and invited me to go with her for a few days next month. Since I have a week's vacation left, that will work out well.
Won't be the same section, but she'll be using a GPS to establish routes, and we'll compile trail notes, mark water sources, etc. Should be a great time, I'll get to learn something new, and we'll actually be doing something about the problem instead of just complaining:thumbup: