Saturday, Matt and I did 7+ miles at Flagg Mountain, the southern terminus of the Pinhoti. Though we did not complete the 5+mile trail section there due to lack of shuttle car, I feel like we have BEEN to Flagg Mountain now.
Let me talk about the location a bit. It's down at the Clanton exit off 65, about an hour north of Montgomery. Google maps and Waze will do turn by turn, but once off the Interstate, there's no cell signal, so a cached or paper copy of the directions is good in case your phone craps out, which Matt's did and we drove around until we got a connection again.
There is one sign at the next to the last turn. The last turn looks like you are driving to your chainsaw-centric death down a long, winding, red mud road with views to the left of some heavily logged land. Matt's car weighs about 700 pounds with us, our gear, and a full tank of gas. We thought we were going to live in that mud puddle until summer sun dried us free. But it dug deep and surprised us both almost as much as the huge deep swath of red clay we found ourselves floating on. I was glad we had shelled out for new front tires just last month!
The trailhead is clearly signed, so just keep driving. It's out there, is an oasis of gravel parking, has a picnic pavilion (no trash) and a kiosk with the only printed map of section one I have ever clapped eyes on. Even the official Pinhoti trail map starts at section 3. Section 2 is still all road walk. In Swedish, kiosk is pronounced 'shosk' and I spent some time pondering if the English word 'shop' came from that. Welcome to my scattered thought process, you should see what I filter out. I'm actually writing another blog post for a different blog along with writing this one because why not embrace the fact that I am a non-linear thinker. Which makes me a JOY to talk to IRL, no doubt.
From the parking area, we walked down the trail to the trail register and took the trail UP to the tower. It's a new trail, and not flat yet so walking was tilted and very steep in places. We decided to take the road back to the parking area and just restart the trail.
Flagg is the southernmost mountain in the Appalachian range over 1000 feet high.
There is a big push to move the southern terminus of the AT to here.
It will never happen until the road walk sections have been moved to a trail.
We took the road back to the car and the trail back to the turning off. That was 2.55 miles.
It was cold, but the trail was steep enough to keep us warm!
The shelter is on the hill up above a wide, shallow creek.
I loved this rock work on the trail!
It was getting dark and my camera died immediately after this pic, so use your imagination for the next bit.
Around a mile from the parking area is an intersection with a sign pointing back to the CCC cabins. So we opted to take that route thinking we would avoid that steep first mile.
hahaha
The trail went up and up and then past the CCC cabins-which really were worth seeing-and then up and up more and there's the tower again! We managed to climb Flagg Mountain twice, the second time to...avoid a climb. And there's a drivable road that goes to very near the top. We walked down that twice, too. The second time I jogged it. Cause I'm a badass. Really, I just want thigh muscles and downhill is easier on my cardiovascular system.
The northbound rest stop on the way back up 65 has devils food Zingers, which are worth checking out.
