Day 21, Northern Terminus to Gennett Poplar

Derrick, the shuttle driver we hired, arrived a few minutes after 7 a.m. When I made arrangements with him on Day 16, I asked him if he could drive us to the terminus. I didn't think to ask him if he knew how to get there.

After we had driven several miles out of town this morning, Derrick happened to mention he didn't remember driving anyone there. He also failed to enter the route in his car's mapping software.

Tengo and I had been to the terminus before, but only in an indirect sort of way. We hiked past it when we thru-hiked the Benton MacKaye Trail together in 2020.

By the time Derrick said he was unsure how to get to our destination, we were nearly outside of cell service. Thankfully, I had just enough signal on my phone to work out a route using Google Maps.

The directions weren't the best, taking us over some rough roads, but Derrick didn't seem to mind. Later, as we got closer, he changed his mind and said he remembered dropping off someone in the same area.

When we got to Watson Gap, I saw a sign for Cohutta Wildlife Management Area, and I remembered walking past it during our BMT hike.

"This is good enough," I said, and Derrick dropped us off there.

It might have been possible to drive closer to the terminus, but the map wasn't detailed enough to show if a small car could cross Jack’s River. Besides, we weren't going to shorten the walking distance much by driving farther. No roads lead to the terminus. It is only an intersection of two trails.

Tengo and I began walking from Watson Gap at 9 a.m. We had to walk two miles on the BMT to reach the terminus. This section of the trail was up and down, sometimes steeply.

I didn't remember so much elevation change when we were here before, though this was hardly a memorable section compared to so many others on the BMT. We were also walking in the opposite direction when we were here before.

Nevertheless, returning to this trail, even for a short distance. brought back many memories of the enjoyable times Tengo, Just Awesome, Polecat, and I spent on the BMT in the fall of 2022.

When Tengo and I arrived at the terminus, we stopped to take selfies and eat a snack.

The last time we were here, we met a hiker named Tide Walker. She had just finished her thru-hike of the Pinhoti Trail. I remembered now that I asked her about the Pinhoti, and she said she skipped some of the long road sections.

Now that I know what they are like, I couldn't blame her for doing that. I would have skipped them too if I didn't have a goal of walking every mile of the trail. Unfortunately, there is still another long stretch of road walking we must complete when we get closer to Dalton.

Since our start on the Pinhoti three weeks ago, we haven't seen a lot of rhododendrons. Today on this end of the trail, it grew everywhere. Seeing so many, I was not only reminded of the BMT. Many parts of the AT also look like this.

I felt at home.

Tengo and I didn't walk far before arriving at a stream crossing where we had to ford across. It was the south fork of Jacks River. I knew by looking at the map that several more crossings were ahead, so I decided not to take off my shoes and socks. Stopping at each crossing to take them off and put them back on would be too time-consuming.

Tengo put on his Crocs for the crossing and kept them on because of the many others ahead.

Besides crossing streams today, we also had to cross blowdowns. The first we saw had been cut and cleared, so we didn't have to climb over it. Trail maintainers didn't clear the whole trail, however. We found several downed trees later.

The first three miles from the terminus gained roughly 650 feet in elevation as we climbed to Buddy Cove Gap, the highest point on the Pinhoti. At 3,164 feet above sea level, no other spot on the trail came close to that height.

The last part of the climb passed through a wildlife clearing and then joined an old forest road. That road then joined a gravel road at Buddy Cove Gap, the top of the climb. We stopped there for lunch.

Most of the time, crossing Crenshaw Branch was an easy hop, usually with the assistance of a large rock or two. The stream gradually grew wider as the trail descended alongside it. For the whole section, we lost 1,000 feet of elevation.

Occasionally, we passed little cascades and mini-waterfalls on this lovely part of the trail. Honestly, though, the whole day of hiking was beautiful.

One stream crossing was trickier than the others. By now, the stream was flowing more swiftly. The trail crossed just a couple of feet above a waterfall with no rocks to step on. Fording the stream required concentration to not step too close to the falls, but it wasn't dangerous.

The bad blowdowns we saw today appeared after the trail made a turn and left Crenshaw Branch. The worst one was a tree with several branches spread in different directions. Most had to be climbed over because they were too high to step over.

Besides many rhododendron trees and shrubs, we began to see azaleas. The time of year was too early for rhododendrons to bloom, but there were many bright yellow flowers on the azaleas. Seeing these and the variety of other trees, like poplar, maple, and oak, was a change from the steady supply of pine trees we had seen the last three weeks.

The trail made a sweeping curve, then connected to Bear Creek Trail before following the downhill flow of Bear Creek. That trail was also part of a loop route for mountain bikers, but I didn't see any.

The area for tents wasn't perfect, but it was reasonably flat and not far from Bear Creek. I hung my food away from the site after dinner because I saw bear scat nearby on the trail. I guess that should be expected on Bear Creek.

The section we walked today was the best I've seen so far on the Pinhoti. It felt like we were walking on an entirely different trail. The 9.6 miles of the Pinhoti, plus the two extra miles we hiked on the BMT, were thoroughly enjoyable and made me wish more of the Pinhoti was like this.

I'm hoping for more of the same tomorrow because I know after that, we will have nothing but road walking.