Date: 2015-03-11
To: Practice Hike - Foothills Trail
Miles today: 0.0

Continuing to engage in physical training, this time with a trip to the Appalachian foothills for a real hike in some mountainous environs. Regardless of how good you may feel with the local challenges of the sand hill area of SC, it is eye opening to again enter something other than hills. Below is a daily summary of my 5 days in somewhat real life AT type conditions. Day 1 (friday) drive for 3.5 hours to Oconee State Park near Mountain Rest, SC. Started hiking on the western end of the Foothills Trail just before noon in 40 degree temps and clear skies. A beautiful day to hike. Hiked for 4.5 hours (8.2 miles) on a nice smooth trail with one climb of about 700 feet up to an elevation of 2200 before descending down to about 1800 ft to camp. All afternoon and all night did not see another sole. Set up camp, changed clothes, ate, hung bear bag and had nothing else to do as of about 5:30 pm. Made for a long night.   Day 2 (Saturday) - started hiking about 8:45am. It was quite cold overnight. Was told by another hiker I saw later that a nearby camp to mine got down to 21 degrees. I believe it. My fingers were numb as I ate breakfast, brokedown camp and packed up to go. I was cold over night and on several occasions added to my clothing and covers to stay warm enough. I actually zipped up my rain jacket and slipped it over the foot of my sleeping bag and ultimately got out an emergency high tech foil blanket to wrap around as well. Today I hiked about another 8.2 miles taking a total of about 7 hours. However, I made several stops for breaks and views. Todays hike was much harder than Fridays. A good part of it was along the Chattooga River with many spendid views of rapids. However, there was lot of ups and downs, roots, blowdowns that had not yet been cleared, etc. Saw many hikers today including several at my destination of Burrells Ford USFS campground. It was a beautiful; but, hard day. This night got down to around 30 degrees, a noticable improvement.Day 3 (Sunday) - Another nice sunny day. Saw about 8 other hikers today in my 5 hour hike of about 7.8 miles. Most notably running into an impressive young lady named Whitney who was out hiking the entire length of the Foothills Trail during spring break with a friend who I met later (Eric). We hiked together for about a mile carrying on a converstion before she pulled away on an uphill climb. I later ran into her at a road crossing while she waited for her friend. At that road crossing I turned back west to start my trek back to may car. At his point I was 20.3 miles from my starting point. Also at that road crossing, I was fianlly able to get a text out to Wendy letting her know I was OK. Had no signal up until that point. I hiked back to the same Burrell Ford Campground I started from that morning. After a short 45 round trip hike to a nearby waterfall (see pic) I set up camp in the same site as last night. Much warmer conditions now. This night there was a group of about 15 Lee University students from Cleveland, TN. They invited me over for a spaghetti dinner. But by the time 8pm occurred and they had not started cooking yet, I told them I needed my sleep. Day 4 (Monday)- Today I did the same hike as day 2, only in reverse direction. Did not seem as bad this time, doing it in slightly less time. Even though the week-end hikers were now gone, I saw 2 hikers, 2 fishermen, 2 trail runners and some late afternoon walkers checking out waterfalls nearby.. One of the hikers was a Clemson student who thought he'd hike the entire trail in 5 days. However, he did not start hiking until around noon today from his overnight camp. I doubt he'll make it doing that. Started out the day with light rain which made for hauling a wet tent. Set up camp around 3pm allowing plenty of time to spread tent and clothes out to dry. Two older couples past by my site twice and we talked quite awhile. They saw evidence of bears clawings on the path on both sides of my site. I was there alone and it was the first time I slept with a whistle around my neck. My bear bag was expertly hung and I never saw or heard anything. However, at one point during the night I smelled a very strong strange odor that I'm told is evidence of bears. Day 5 (Tuesday() - Started hiking aound 8am in light rain (and a wet tent again) and got to my car right at noon. Saw a group of about 10 seniors out on a day hike. Changed into some dry clothes and started for home.All in all, a successful training mission and shakedown hike. The only thing I forgot was earplugs that I could have used one night with the university students. In total, I did about 42 miles in conditions not that much different than the AT. I was a little surprised with effort on the inclines in the mountains again. Still, I could leave for the AT today and manage to work myself into somewhat better shape. In total the elevation differences were from 1500 to just over 3000 feet. The Foothills Trail in total is 77 miles and the parts I saw were very scenic. The Chattooga River is simpley wonderful to see. It separates SC and GA and is generally about 50 yards wide.So, until the weather seems good for heading out on the AT, I'll be doing chores at home and continuing to prepare physically.P.S. There are a few other pic from the Foothills Trail in the photo journal.