March 18
End: Blue Ridge
Miles: 41.5
Total: 1808.0
My night up on the forest hill finished without incident, and I got my stuff together and started walking, excited to be nearing the end of the Pinhoti Trail. This portion of the trail seemed to coincide with mountain biking trails, and the bikers were out in force.
But bicycles were not to be my only obstacles. Nearing the end of the trail, I had to cross about ten major creeks. A few of the crossings had good stepping stones, but several did not. I successfully crossed all but one, at which point I fell off of a slippery log and got my shoes and socks soaked. Thankfully the rest of me stayed dry, including my iPhone.
Finally the Pinhoti was complete, and I took the South Fork Trail to connect with the Benton MacKaye Trail, fording more water. Upon arriving at the junction, I followed an arrow to the Benton MacKaye Trail.
On my new trail I soon found myself going up and down an extraordinary amount. With no switchbacks in sight, I huffed and puffed straight up mountains. At one point, I had trouble finding the trail’s white diamond blazing, so I enlisted some help from a world wide web trail angel, only to make a startling discovery: I was going the wrong way.
Apparently, when I turned left from the South Fork Trail, I went the wrong way completely, walking North instead of South. Now I was nearing Tennessee, and in a very foul mood. I dejectedly walked back to a forest road, then trudged towards a bigger road to try to hitch. Finding darkness approaching, I found a spot right on the shoulder of the gravel forest road, and started to unpack my bag, until a pickup truck came along.
I flagged down the truck and asked for a ride to a motel, explaining what a doofus I was. I met the Payne brothers, who were very gracious and talkative. I learned of the outsourcing of industry in the area, and of heavy snowstorms in early March.
Finally they dropped me off in Blue Ridge. I was quite happy. Now in a real town, I got a hotel and a ton of food, and pigged out while watching television. It had been a hectic day.
