One Friday evening, some scouts and adults from Troop 96 headed out for the Talladega National Forest.  We arrived at Pine Glenn Campground at about 8:00pm.  The moon was bright and we made some very long hikes to gather firewood for roasting marshmallows.  The fire became a warm friend indeed as the temperature started dropping.  We climbed into the tents at about 10:30pm.

Shortly after daylight on Saturday morning, we woke up the fire and started breakfast.  One of the scouts did an amazing job cooking his pancakes over the fire.  By about 7:30am, most of the breaksfasts were over, and we started packing.  Our hero, you can call him Al, came that morning around 8:00am to shuttle our van to the destination end of the trail. 

We started up the Pinhoti toward Coleman Lake shortly after 9:00am.  The walk up the Pinhoti is easy and beautiful as it winds up the northwestern bank of Shoal Creek.  Eventually, you wind up at Sweetwater Lake.  Sweetwater Lake is a large lake in the middle of the forest.  There is a boat launch and we stopped and had lunch.  After lunch, we started up the trail again.  Watch for the right turn across the stream right after you leave the lake.  We missed it the first time.  Next, we ran into Laural Shelter.  A typical three sided shelter of the AT variety.  From there we quickly made our way up to Coleman Lake and the parking lot. 

The Pinoti Trail is part of the much larger Eastern Continental Trail.  The ECT is over 4400 miles and includes the International Appalachain Trail, the Appalachian Trail, the Benton McKay Trail, the Pinhoti Trail, the Alabama Road Walk, and the Florida State Trail.  Only a very few people in the world have thru-hiked the entire ECT trail. 

Pinhoti Pictures