Foothills Trail: Day 5 (end)

Today’s miles:  10.8
Total miles: 76.2 – the end!
Camped:  At a La Quinta in Tennessee

Woke up this morning and had a short hike to the peak of Sassafras Mountain. Not surprisingly, I was the only one there just before 9am on a Monday morning.  I was excited to get to this point and blown away by all the surrounding mountains!  Snapped a couple photos and headed on.  About 4 miles in, I heard the howling and occassional barking of a dog that sounded in pain or upset in some way.  I am slightly terrified of unknown, unleashed dogs and was praying I would not encounter it.  The trail eventually turned in a new direction and I stopped hearing the dog.  I made note of this and felt a wave of relief.  I stopped for a pee break and out of the corner of my eye, I see this medium sized brown dog barreling down the trail coming right for me.  I panicked and grabbed the lipstick sized container of pepper spray from my bag (my mom wanted me to take it, and I would be lying if I said having it wasn’t reassuring).  I’m all set for this dog.  The dog is wearing a radio collar and orange vest, it looks like a hunting dog.  She approaches and starts to quickly sniff my bag, sniff me, and makes odd yelping noises.  I talk to her sweetly, but have my pepper spray on hand just in case.  The dog calms down and I decide to forget the pee break and continue hiking, waiting to see what happens with this dog.  She follows me.  And then runs up ahead of me on the trail.  She stops and waits me for to catch up and then continues on.  What I thought was going to be a killer dog turns out to be the sweetest dog ever and thinking she may be hungry, start thinking of what I have to offer.  I don’t think she’d be interested in skittles, Ramen noodles, or Cliff Bars so scratch that idea.  We hike together for a mile or so, sometimes me leading, sometimes her.  Eventually we come to a logging road and see three men.  The dog seems excited so I ask the men if she is their dog.  Nope, they are doing trail maintenance, but think she may belong to a group hunting hogs awhile back.  Hmm…I didn’t even know hogs were out here.  The trail maintenance crew are heading in that direction and get the dog to follow them instead.  I hope she found her owner!

The rest of the day was pretty gentle terrain-wise.  Once I hit the spur trail to pinnacle mountain, it was literally all down hill.  The ascent to pinnacle mountain was steep, and the guidebook said it was wooded, so I didn’t think the views would be that good anyway.  Unless a feature was on or within site of the Foothills Trail, I didn’t investigate it.  I took the approach of Blue Moon, a gentleman we met on the PCT.  His goal was to the finish the PCT without adding the tax of sidetrips (including forgoing Mt. Whitney, which pretty much every PCT hiker does even though it is not technically on the trail. After Dom and I did Mt. Whitney and honestly didn’t think it was much better than other views, I regretted adding the extra strenuous miles and envied the wisdom of Blue Moon).  I even ripped the spur trail maps out of the guidebook before hitting the trail.  No regrets about this, as the trail itself had plenty to offer and being my first solo trip, I thought it safer not to add in the extras.

So the last four miles or so were all down hill and the excitement of finishing kicked in.  I saw lots of day hikers and chatted with a couple ladies for awhile.  They were asking me all sorts of gear questions and I actually felt knowledgeable and helpful.  I started to swell with emotion as I was reaching the end, proud of myself for sticking through the whole thing (Jim, the shuttle driver, was telling me about people he had to bail out in the middle of the trail).  I was also excited to get pizza on the drive towards home.

This trail boosted my confidence in myself and in my path in life.  I am so grateful for places like this that let us explore the natural world, our inner selves, and the connection between the two.  Modern civilization seems to be built on separating ourselves from the natural world or using nature as a way to “progress” (expressways, building infrastructure, climate control, fossil fuels, dams, etc.).  While this separation is sometimes necessary, we must break free of this artificial separation when we can.  The mountains were calling me to South Carolina and I answered the call.  Stepping out of my comfort zone and doing a solo hike was invaluable.  Being able to immerse myself in nature for even a few days was refreshing and I look forward to spending the summer experiencing other offerings of the natural world.  There may even be another solo backpacking trip sometime in my future…