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Alabama Pinhoti Development Plans

An Introduction to Myself and the Pinhoti Trail

Pinhoti Trail 2004 - 2019 Trends
After completing a through hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2003, I moved to Marietta, Georgia. In 2004, I began to spend some weekends hiking and maintaining the Pinhoti Trail. In 2008, I moved away, but I still worked on the trail while making weeks long visits with Mother Nature's Son once or twice a year. One way or another, I've been maintaining the Pinhoti, and chatting with other maintainers for 15 years. What follows is some trends I've noted over these years.

Pinhoti Trail Maintenance Status
In 2004 and 2005, parts of the trail were abandoned in every way but in name. John and I used to camp nearby so we could work from dawn to dusk. Often a section was so covered with blown down tree trunks, brush, and limbs, that a whole day would be spent cutting the logs across the trail and a tunnel through the overgrowing plants. The entire day's work might have cleared less than a mile so that someone could just walk along in the old trail tread. There were a small number of other tough volunteers who did similar work. John kept in informal contact with them and when we saw recent work, he pretty much knew who had done it by their style.

Today, Alabama's section of the Pinhoti is easy to find and easy to walk on. Still, the rain and warm weather Alabama is famous for causing limbs to grow over the trail tread, and every storm drops more trees to block the treadway. Many volunteer maintainers continue to seek out and fix the continually developing problems. But it is possible for a long distance hiker to make 20+ mile days. (These 20 mile days are what it takes to walk all the way across the United States in a season.) The trail is in much better condition than it was in 2004, and many people are working to keep it that way.

John and I have slowed down. There are no more overnight or all day work sessions. Typically, John works less than a half mile from a trail access point, clearing the area very thoroughly. I have him drop me 5-10 trail miles away, and I lop or lop and saw my way back to him. We're done by early afternoon.

Pinhoti Trail Shelters
There used to be just a few shelters. Many more have been built. Today, John and several other people have proposed locations for regularly spaced shelters along the Alabama Pinhoti, and some of these have been incorporated into a Pinhoti Trail Master Plan. In all of my previous visits, there was nearly always a bible in good reading condition in every shelter. On my fall 2019 trip, there was no bible in the four shelters I visited. Maybe whoever once kept the shelters stocked with bibles has stopped. I have been replacing register notebooks and brooms since 2004. John has loaned me a six inch stack of old registers, which I intend to study for trends this winter. The cedar shake roof of the Blue Moutain Shelter is mossy. From inside, one can see that water is now damaging just a few structure boards beneath the shingles. The shingles should probably be replaced in the next few years to avoid damaging the roof structure and the more expensive and extensive repairs that would be required after the roof structure rots.

Pinhoti Trail Workers and Clubs
Many workers have come and gone. But they are not forgotten and I thank them for turning the Pinhoti Trail into the great trail it is today. Clubs too seem to have a moment in the sun and then fade away. Groups which once accomplished great feats of maintenance, construction, etcetera, are barely heard from now. New volunteers and groups appear. Let's hope there are always enough people and the trail always gets the work it needs to survive.

Pinhoti Trail Extension Dreams
It used to be that most of the people I worked with on the Pinhoti with hoped that the Pinhoti Trail would be continually extended southward until it eventually hooked up with the Florida Trail, completing a network of in-the-woods trails from southern Florida up the east coast states into Canada. Today, it seems like the big thinkers and big organizers have given up extending the trail southward beyond Flagg Mountain, and are content with mapping and marking highway walks. I hope a new generation will pick up on pushing a wild version of the trail south to Florida.

Road Walks and the Incomplete Network of Interstate Hiking Trails
Certainly, it is my vision that the Pinhoti ought to be a part of a continuous network of interstate enjoyable, off the highways hiking trails. The idea that the system of Appalachian trails ought to terminate forever at Springer Mountain or at Mount Oglethorpe because they are high points or because it's easy to organize seems arbitrary, unambitious, and unfortunate. There's no reason the network of east coast long trails should not continue north across Canada on the Bruce or International Appalachian Trails. The Florida National Scenic Trail southern terminus is at a random spot north of Everglades National Park. Those who wish to walk from the bottom of the United States endure a sometimes dangerous road walk of hundreds of miles from Key West to Big Cypress National Preserve before they start north on the Florida Trail. Those walking northbound from the Pinhoti on the Great Eastern Trail have many road walks in Tennessee and Kentucky before reaching fairly continuous trail north to upstate New York.

Pinhoti Road Walks
Likewise, terminating the Pinhoti at Flagg Mountain is arbitrary. It is meaningless that Flagg is over 1000' or that is has some historic structures. Alabama is beautiful to the south and people are out hiking the connection to Florida. My vision of the Pinhoti is that it ought to connect to the Florida Trail to the south, and to the Great Eastern and Eastern Continental Trails to the North. To do this, we must eventually eliminate the two day long road walks on the Georgia Pinhoti, and the hundreds of miles long road walk south to Florida!!!

Eastern United States and Canada Long Trails Map
The map below shows the long gaps in trails / road walks an Eastern Continental Trail Hiker would deal with in the southern end of the hike. Although the Great Eastern Trail Terminus is officially in Alabama, those wanting to walk the full length of the continent would follow the same route. The Florida Trail and Pinhoti Trails do not have parallel alternatives like those further north. People talk about and hike the GET and the ECT, but: Note that a third north south Trans National Route is fairly practical: Florida Trail - Pinhoti Trail - Cumberland Trail - Sheltowee Trace - North Country Trail East or West Bound to Canada - Trans Canada Trail. Let's call it the Pipe Dream Trail!

Trans Canada Water International AT Bruce North Country NST Ice Age Cohos Vermont Long Northville Placid NY Finger Lakes Appalachian NST NY Long Path Erie Canal New England NST Ma Mid State Bay Area Circuit Rhode Island NS Bucktail Path

Pa Mid State Susquehannock Standing Stone Horseshoe C&O Canal NHT WV Allegheny Tuscarora Sheltowee Trace Tn Cumberland NC Mountains Sea Benton MacKaye SC Palmetto Pinhoti Natchez Trace Alabama Florida NST

Pipe Dream Trail Great Eastern Trail Eastern Continental Trail Trans Canada Trail Continue N on Finger Lakes Tr, Canada? International Appalachian Trail North Country NST PA Mid State Trail Appalachian NST Standing Stone Tr Sheltowee Trace Tuscarora Tr WV Allegheny Tr Tn Cumberland Tr - Road Walks Tn, Ky - Many Road Walks Benton MacKaye Tr Pinhoti - 2 Ga Road Walks S Alabama Road Walk Alabama Tr Conecuh NF Florida National Scenic Trail Road Walk Key West to Big Cypress NP

Map of Eastern US Long Trails
North is Up.
Image Mapped; Use Cursor to Identify Details.

More details Regarding the Above Trails
The following links are more detailed maps of some of the trails above and of paper maps that one could hike or plan to.
Map of Southeast Trails and Maps
Map of Northeast Trails and Maps

Pinhoti Trail Long Distance Hikers
Whether their route is called the Eastern Continental Trail, the Trail of the Ancients, the International Appalachian Trail, the Great Eastern Trail, or something else, I believe that the number of people who are hiking the Pinhoti Trail as a link in a much larger hike is increasing. The Florida Trail and the Pinhoti Trail are the only in-the-woods developed trails available from southern Florida across Georgia or Alabama. There are several parallel options north from the northern reaches of the Pinhoti; see the southeast and northeast trail network maps elswhere on my website.

Should the Pinhoti Trail be part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail?
No! The number of hikers per day on the AT causes much damage to the trail and the surrounding woods. Wildlife stays away and acts differently due to all the traffic. The Pinhoti is much nicer than the Appalachian Trail and will stay nicer until it becomes the AT. I think that hikers are smart enough to remember to follow the Florida Trail, turn north on the Pinhoti, turn east on the Benton MacKaye Trail, etcetera. The Pinhoti does not need the AT, and would be severely damaged by joining it.

Dreams and Plans Versus Practical Considerations

Impractical Schemes
Just as one example of a fairly impractical scheme, not so long ago, someone's plan for the Pinhoti circulated. It included fancy log cabins to replace the existing plywood and 2x4 shelters of the Pinhoti. Hundreds of signs would be replaced with signs cut from logs. Although I applaud the desire to have all of the improvements along the trail appear rustic and woodsy, I feared that the existing system of volunteer labor and virtually no budget would condemn these signs and cabins to rot away since they would require much more difficult maintenance than than those improvements that previously existed.

Volunteers Work and Spend with No Remuneration
While some maintenance of the Pinhoti is done by the US Forest Service, clubs with grants or budgets, etcetera, most is done by volunteers with no budget. It is my experience that volunteers show up with their own loppers, saws, brush cutters, gas, etcetera, and cut the overgrowth and fallen trees off the trail. If they notice that a sign is missing, or a shelter needs new stairs, etcetera, they either go to a hardware store and buy whatever is required with their own money, make the new stuff, and go out and install it on a later trip, or they ask another volunteer with better equipment or experience to do the same. The point is that volunteers offer their own time and money to do the vast majority of work on the Pinhoti Trail.

Extra Work on Fancy Structures
Lets take the example of log cabins versus plywood and 2x4 shelters a bit further. I have personally replaced stairs, shelves, etcetera in several shelters because they were rotted, broken, etcetera. As a hiker or bush lopper, I probably would not have a measurng tape. Maybe I tie some strings to the length of the boards needed, and jot down all screw, nails, brackets, tools, etcetera that are needed. I buy the boards and hardware, and cut everything to length at home. Someday I load the boards, hardware, and tools in a pack, walk in with them, and fix the shelter. Maybe it takes a month overall, but no one task is particularly difficult or expensive. But if it's a log cabin, I need to drop a tree to get wood that is not rotted. I need to cut it to size. I need superhuman strength to put the log in place. A normal home does not have equipment for milling logs. How does a normal guy fix the super log cabin to super log cabin standards???

Special Order Signs
Another impractical example is signs that have to be ordered from some special and possibly expensive place. Is it fair to ask people who already work hard on the trail to also spend a lot of their money to buy special stuff? If it takes months to order things, will the jobs just go undone? The things that we require for the trail ought to be easy and fairly inexpensive to buy or make. Simply put, simple things will get done, and expensive and complicated things won't.

Fancy Plans Don't Consider Maintenance
It seems to me that the people who actually fix the stuff out in the woods propose very practical things. The plans which seem crazy to me usually come from someone neither I nor the other maintainers ever heard of. And the extravagant plans never seem to include a long term budget or plan for maintenance. Things are just stuck out in the woods and left to either rot away or be maintained by already busy volunteers...

Vandalism and Theft

In my experience, deliberate damage to improvements related to the Pinhoti Trail mostly occurs in a few specific circumstances.

Lonely Road Crossings
Where the trail crosses certain roads, there may be little traffic at night, and someone can make trouble unobserved. Whether there is a developed trailhead or just some makeshift parking spots, eventually someone will shoot, smash, or uproot signs or kiosks. Dumping of truckloads of rubbish is also popular. It might just be daily household trash, or big residential items like couches and refrigerators, or light industrial junk like tires or construction debris.

It is my observation that any sign which is easily visible from the road and less than 10 yards walk is a target for shooting, smashing, and uprooting. A sign placed so it is easily visible from the trail but not visible from the parking spots lasts much longer. Signs placed behind trees seem safe, and vandals seem too lazy to walk 100 yards into the woods to destroy a sign, even if it is visible from the road. However, some volunteers feel so strongly that signs should be visble from the road that they move carefully placed signs into the high vandalism zone. It is quite frustrating to visit a crossing and see that a sign has been moved and then shot full of holes...

Kiosks & Shelters with Useful Information
It is somewhat common for people to steal maps or directions to shelters, etcetera, from kiosks. Maps and directions also go missing from shelters. I have purchased a surprising number of brooms over the years, sometimes replacing a certain shelter's broom repeatedly. I'm sure I'm not the only broom replacer. I'll give my recommendations later in this page...

Souvenir Hunting
A great example of a place where signs go missing almost as soon as they have been installed is the Cheaha Trailhead with the Leaf Gate Sculpture. A couple of minutes walk from the asphalt parking lot is a junction between the Cave Creek Trail and a short connecting trail to the Pinhoti. The Cave Creek Trail sign is stolen occasionally, but any sign that points the way to the Pinhoti is gone almost every time I visit, in spite of frequent replacement. Signs go missing most typically near popular trailheads or at shelters. When I've installed signs, I've used Phillips screws and then deliberately chewed up the screwdriver recess to make it unusable. Somehow, people still get the screws out. I'm not sure what more could be done. Obviously, popular trailheads are among the most important places to have clear directions posted.

Dan's Comments on
The Alabama
Pinhoti Trail
Built Environment Master Plan
Guidelines for Design, Construction, & Maintenance
June 2019

A Very Informative Plan
Although what follows this paragraph contains a great deal of criticism, I wish to first say that the plan is very informative and contains some good suggestions. Anyone who wants to know a whole lot about the Alabama Pinhoti ought to read it. It can be downloaded at the link below. For even more information, I also provide a link to Solo's website, the most informative Pinhoti website, period.
Alabama Trails Foundation Plan Download
Solo's www.pinhotitrailalliance.org

Pages 4, 5
Wayfinding
A dozen pictures here illustrate well how much work must continually be done to keep the trail marked. As a super experienced hiker, I have to think hard to understand where an inexperienced hiker might get confused or lost, and how to make things obvious. And then, markers rot, fall down, are shot, etcetera. It will always take dedicated, thinking volunteers to continually update markers so inexperienced hikers can find their way. And the debate wether a certain section is under or overblazed will never end.

Paragrah H mentions the pictured scenes do not comply with the Eastern Wilderness act, but most pictured scenes are clearly not in a wilderness. One picture is of a properly installed and decent looking wilderness boundary sign. Another appears to be in a riparian area, and probably not in our Dugger or Cheaha Wildernesses. It would be over blazed were it among the sparser vegetation of the montane wilderness areas, but properly blazed for the fast growth of riparian areas. No other picture is in a wilderness.

Pages 52, 53
Trailhead Kiosk
A new standard for kiosk design is discussed.
Pages 10, 11
Kiosks
10 pictures here show various kiosks. The most glaring problem is discussed in the fourth paragraph; Maps or descriptions of what might be found along the trail are missing from many kiosks.

The Real Kiosk Problem
Maps and directions may never have been posted, they may have been stolen by someone who wanted to carry the map on their hike, or they may have faded or mildewed to an unreadable state. Weathering or vandalism of the clear plastic windows also makes directions unreadable. In a 30,000 mile hiking and trail maintaining career, I have only once met someone with the key to a kiosk. There needs to be one volunteer who drives to all the kiosks every few months. They should be equipped with a big pile of USFS Pinhoti Maps and Solo Guide Book Pages so they can replace missing or illegible information. They need a stapler and scissors, and pliers to remove the junk and install the good info. They need a small bolt cutter to chop off the cheap little rusted locks with lost keys, and they need a box of 100 cheap little padlocks keyed alike so that the main volunteers will all be able to open the kiosks and help out. They need a supply of transparent plastic to replace broken and opaque windows. They need tools to cut and install the plastic. Plastic is not cheap. Somehow, there needs to be some funding. They need some hinges, hasps, screws, etcetera. Most importantly, they need to have all this junk available in their vehicle one or two days every quarter and visit and fix up evey kiosk. Otherwise, the kiosks will always look junky and have missing or outdated information.

Pages 50 - 51
Pinhoti Logo
The complaint is made that the plastic and aluminum versions of the Pinhoti diamond, nail-on blazes are a little inconsistant. Then 9 different, never seen before versions are suggested. Consistency should be a goal, and would be best accomplished by making any new blazes look very much like the old ones. Introducing new logos works against consistency. The old plastic and aluminum blazes will still be out there for many years...

Pages 56, 57
Trail Marker
A 6' maximum height, 3" thick wooden post with several brightly colored aluminum panels is proposed as a marker at some spots. I have two arguments against this suggestion.
• The posts are UGLY! This type of post is appropriate along busy downtown sidewalks or bike paths where the signage must stand out so people can slow down and look at it. In the wild, a much more rustic sign will be noticed without being an eyesore.
• Commercially available posts are 3½" thick. To replace these 3" posts, a maintainer would have to cut down standard posts or buy specially milled wood. The aluminum tags must be bought, cut, painted, and lettered. The parts are not something that can be bought at a standard hardware store and made up in an average garage. So these signs can not be maintained by the average volunteer, and will look cruddier and cruddier over time.

The plan also recommends 1⁄8" aluminum painted panels for kiosks, road signs, etcetera. There will be a temptation to steal them for their recycling / scrap value...

Bridges
Few bridges are really needed on the Pinhoti. Existing road / Ladiga Trail bridges are used for the most dangerous creeks. Elsewhere, bridges are needed only during floods. During floods they are dangerous to use, and cause erosion of the banks of the creeks and the footing of the bridge. The less the better.

Pages 84, 85
Cheaha Realighnment
I understand that a trail has been built to connect the Leafgate Parking Lot with the main entrance to Cheaha State Park. Previously, to use the park's store, restaurant, and motel, one would have to walk the margin of busy, sloped Scenic Highway 281 on a blind curve. I also think that many hikers would like to see the many historic CCC structures in the park. I am very happy to have this short connector trail. But I'm not sure why one would abandon a big, nice parking lot and call the tiny, busy lots in the main park area the Pinhoti Trailhead.

Pages 84, 85
High Point / US278 Realignment
According to the Plan, it is safer to walk along fast, busy US278 near a blind curve than to walk through the woods and cross perpendicularly. Baloney. Regardless of what is called the official Pinhoti, I hope that the safety of hikers will be protected by clearly marking the safer traffic bypass route. I also feel that any volunteer who tried to mow the margin of US278 so hikers can walk it would be in unnecessary danger.

Shelters
Pages 88 - 93, 101
Shelters
Pages 12 - 15
Shelters
10 shelters are shown and discussed.
Pages 60 - 61
Shelters
Rules for where and how to build a shelter are discussed. I disagree with parapgraph A4, specifying a 10 mile minimum distance between shelters. See my discussion of shelters immediatly below. Also, the siting of a shelter should be such that rainwater runoff does not carry discarded food and poop into the water source.

Shelters: Dan's Thoughts
• Hikers do not need shelters. Even if they plan to camp at a shelter, they can and should carry a tent because someone else may be using the shelter.
• Shelters do not exist for hikers. Shelters exist to protect the environment from hikers. Shelters are so attractive to hikers that very few people camp elsewhere nearby, limiting smashed bushes, fire rings, litter, compacted soil, etcetera to the area immediately surrounding the shelter.
• However, more people will camp at the shelter than would camp nearby if there were not a shelter. A shelter is the perfect thing for an area already blighted by many ad hoc campsites.
• Shelters should be built where many people camp anyway, and where there is a suitable, damage resistant area. A rocky soil, for example, will be more resistant to boot damage and subsequent erosion than an organic duff soil.
• Shelters that are closer to a good, open dirt road than a 10 minute on trail or cross country hike will be used for beer parties. Frequently, litter and vandalism result. A gated, closed dirt road more than ½ mile long can allow closer access for vehicles during construction and maintenance.
• Choccolocco is a good example of a shelter which is too close to vehicle access. It accumulates staggering amounts of trash and abandoned hiking gear.
• The plan suggests a minimum of 10 miles between shelters. I can't see why keeping shelters far apart would be a priority. To the contrary, provided there is suitably isolated land and decent sites, I think for the Pinhoti that beginner backpackers in decent shape ought to be able to walk to the next shelter every day. That means, perhaps, a maximum of a dozen miles between shelters, with some even closer. Think about keeping a family with a few teenagers happy. 12 miles would be a tough day, some days would need to be easier. This would encourage local backpacker use of the Pinhoti.
• It might be smart to to have one volunteer visit all shelters periodically, like my suggestion for kiosks. That way, they would have waterproof pens, notebooks, and bags to keep the logbooks in good shape, and brooms. Maybe a jar of brown paint and a brush could repair damage or cover graffiti. With a measuring tape and camera, and repairs needed could be noted, and made later. Finally, though it's a shame, a big trash bag and plenty of empty space in the pack could clear accumulated trash.
• The table and map below illustrate some differences between shelter plans by John Calhoun and those in the Master Plan.

Alabama Pinhoti Proposed Shelters

Alabama Pinhoti Map

I found it necessary to build the below map to understand the very complex 2019 plan. Its data is sourced from the plan, from various USFS maps, and from personal communications with John Calhoun.

US431 Trailhead Proposed Morgan Lake Shelter B Blue Mountain Shelter Cheaha Trailhead - Hotel, Restaurant, Store Proposed McDill Point Shelter C Talladega, Alabama - All Services Adams Gap Trailhead John's Double Springs Shelter Proposal John's Talladega Creek N Shelter Proposal Porter's Gap Trailhead Proposed Scott / Joglama Lake Shelter D John's Bull Gap N Shelter Proposal Bull Gap Trailhead Sylacauga, Alabama - All Services Proposed FR675 / 603b Shelter E Trammel Trailhead Alabama 21 Trailhead Weogufka, Alabama - Stores Coosa Shelter Flagg Mountain Trailhead - CCC Buildings

Jackson Chapel / Cave Springs Th - All Services Spring Creek Shelter Hawkins Hollow Shelter Davis Mountain Shelter High Point Trailhead Piedmont, Alabama - All Services Oakey Mountain Shelter North Dugger Mountain Shelter FR500 North Trailhead Pinky Burns Trailhead / Rabbittown Road Coccolocco Shelter Laurel Shelter Pine Glen Trailhead Lower Shoal Shelter FR500 South Trailhead Heflin, Alabama - All Services Proposed Bobo Branch Shelter A Talladega National Forest

Map of Alabama Pinhoti
North is Up.
Scale: 1 Segment = 10 Miles, 4 Segments = 40 Miles
Image Mapped; Use Cursor to Identify Details.

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