Pinhoti/Cave Creek--Into the Heat

I have not posted to this blog in a while because it has been so damn hot that I have not wanted to hit the trail in any form or fashion.  This has also been the case with most of my hiking buddies because they have not ventured out either.  However, there is always someone in the group that has to get things started, so the other day my Birmingham Adventure Club came up with the idea of hiking the Pinhoti Trail/ Cave Creek Loop out of the Cheaha Trail Head on Saturday morning.

This hike is close to 8 miles and has quite a bit of up and down a great deal of rocky terrain.  The hike is rather dry with only water to be found in Cave Creek.  The forecast the week before showed temps in the low 90's and cool nights.  Unfortunately, that forecast did not hold true as the humidity was high and the temps were in the high 90's.  Back in my military days when we had a forecast like that we kept the troops indoors and low activity.  Of course at that time I was all of 24 years of age and weighed about 150 pounds soaking wet.

My friend Mark was joined by his friend Charlie.  Dick Echols who I had not seen since the Chinnabbee Hike was there.  Mary Allison, Larry, Jennie and Justin joined all of us on the days excursion.  I could tell it was going to be hot when we were leaving the parking lot down the trail.  It was 8:45 am and you could already feel the humidity.  Ideally, the time to have left the parking lot was around 6 am but people were coming from different locations with different lengths of travel.

Curbie was joined on the trip by Dill a beagle mix that belonged to Larry and Jennie.  Dill is an older dog that knows how to behave himself unlike Curbie the Wonder Dog.  Curbie has been housebound all summer and has been itching to get back on the trail.  When she saw my hiking poles she was ready to go.  But she was also very rambunctious and overly friendly.  Above is a picture of the two taken at McDill Point.

Other than seeing a large snake identified as a water moccasin the morning leg was fairly uneventful.  I was walking in the middle by myself and came to an intersection that made me a little unsure of which way to go.  Curbie had gone on ahead with Dill so I just did not know which way I wanted to head.  Just at that moment, Curbie came back to check on me and then I knew the way.  She never gets too far away from me and if she has not seen me for a while she comes back and checks on me.

We had lunch at McDill Point and enjoyed the scenery.  Unfortunaltely, there was no breeze and its was beginning to get very warm.  We started the return trip and most of the first half was uphill over some fairly rough, rocky terrain.  After a couple of miles I felt very warm and just laid on the trail with my feet up and caught my senses again.  After that it mostly downhill to the trailhead.

We arrived back at the trailhead around 2 in the afternoon.  We were hot, sweaty and beat.  We usually head out somewhere to eat afterwards but I was not hungry at all.  The truck was going to be too hot for Curbie to stay in so I headed back to Birmingham.  I had a good time but I do not do well in 95 degree heat and high humidity.  I think my next hike will be when temps at least fall into the 80's.