Rained Pinhoti

So last weekend (Jan 29-31 2010) we were supposed to hike a section of the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama. It was our friend from Woodruff, Zack Shaw's birthday trip. The trip started at 10am on Friday but we couldn't be there that early because of work. So we drove out later that day, leaving Atlanta about 3pm. It started raining as soon as we crossed into Alabama. We tried to drive the Danger Ranger up a dirt road to a trail crossing near the first nights camping spot at Rock Garden. Unfortunately the little two wheel drive pickup did not have the spunk to get us there...from the south. We drove around in the dark on county roads until we reached the opposite end of the dirty road (alabama county rd 600-skyline motorway). Then another hour of crawling the truck over ravines and above average sized gravel until we reached the Pinhoti Trail crossing that we wanted to be at. We then spent the night in the back of the truck, under a tarp, in the rain. The next morning we woke early enough to pack up and be on the trail by 8am. After a quick one mile walk we found the group just opposite rock garden from where we started. It turns out that in the rain they had been through a rough night Including but not limited to collapsing tents, run away dogs and tents pitched in flood drains. So instead of hiking the rest of the trail north to Adams gap as planned we walked back to our truck, loaded gear and dogs and most of the people and drove everyone back to their cars at the trail head. When the whole group was finally back together we drove into Talladega for a merry and thoroughly enjoyed breakfast meal at the huddle house at 1pm. Over all a good but short trip, Happy Birthday Zack-maybe better luck next year.