A (somewhat) wordless Wednesday- Pictures of Section 3 Pinhoti

I can’t go wordless. If you know me, you know this to be as true as the sun…

But I’ll try to go mostly or somewhat wordless.  All pictures are from day 1 of woods hike of Pinhoti. Roughly section 3, specifically from FS 603A to White Gap (? maybe….).

Here goes…. ::holds breath…jumps into the unknown::

I took tons of pictures of this tree… I didn’t know if it needed a pair of glasses, or a bra! Either way, unusual humanoid features in nature amuse me to no end…

I loved all the gentle slopes and clear woods we saw… it encourages you to just throw down your pack and wander.

This copse is very strange… it doesn’t show in the picture well but they all seemed to grow along the ground several feet before shooting up left or right. There were several groups like this on top of the mountain (off trail) where we camped. It felt very magical… like if you walked through the middle it might take you somewhere else…

I liked to call these L trees… but it would be better named a U tree I suppose… I saw several of these too. Pic taken from our campsite off trail.

The size of the mushrooms never failed to amaze me. I wish I could identify edible ones!

Despite how far away geographically we are from Cheaha, there are rock formations all along this beginning part of the Pinhoti that liken back to Cheaha’s rock thick woods… ❤ it.

These flowers were huge!! No idea what they are… Suggestions?

The Pinhoti makes use sometimes of existing roads, or at least crosses them (a lot) throughout Alabama. Here we passed by a tower and travel along the road for a ways. At the time we hiked Pinhoti Section 3 there was nothing available on the internet to tell us what we were passing where. The only directions were the old “road walk” directions. So I have no idea where we were or what this was. Still… interesting. Apparently I may have to do this same sort of “blind faith- trust the blazes” hiking up in GA as I hear they’ve recently completed “some” more woods trails but there is nothing online about its path. I say “some” because even the article I read didn’t say how long the new section was… Could be a mile, could be several… who knows!

It was so hot and muggy my camera kept fogging on the lens… I like the result though… even though it’s a “woods walk” you do cross over several roads. I think this was a power line maintenance road.. But honestly I don’t know…

If you want to see more but don’t mind wading through an onslaught of words you can visit these other posts on my Pinhoti trips…
Pinhoti Section 1
Pinhoti Section 2
Pinhoti Reflections
Also, the Skyway Motorway runs very close, over, and by the Pinhoti for much of its way. Several places you can leave water drops, help thirsty hikers (as we did) or just get out and enjoy the Pinhoti from various spots.

Happy Hiking!
g&w

PS. This would be a good section to take your dog on. I didn’t take mine because I was on for over a week and was unsure of the terrain, as well as Whiskey not being able to handle long week long hikes like this. But if I go back for a quick section hike I’d say- bring the dog, pack lots of water, camp on Rebecca Mountain and do it as an overnighter 🙂