18 October 2021
Today I hiked 10.6 miles. Thank goodness I got a great night’s sleep. I went to bed around 8:30 pm and waked around 12:30 pm and needed to pee. I know, TMI, but my urination schedule has been so disrupted, I’m thrilled I can get back to my twice a night routine.
Since I was up, I took the opportunity to put the 50F sleeping bag inside my 30F sleeping bag. I slept the rest of the night toasty warm. I did wake up around 5 am, had my second pee, and went back in the bag but about that time someone’s car alarm went off for about three minutes. I was fully awake. I felt badly for them because I’ve done the same thing – accidentally hitting the panic button on the key fob.
Breakfast was oatmeal and coffee again. That really works out well for me. I use my jet boil (propane backpacking stove) to boil the water and I have a single cup drip for the coffee. What’s left from the coffee water I add to the oatmeal.
I’ve also gotten washing dishes down pretty well. I add some Ivory liquid detergent (biodegradable) to my empty coffee cup, add cold water, and use the sudsy water to clean the drip cup, my oatmeal cup and spoon. I rinse in cold water and then heat up some water with the jet boil and do a final hot water rinse. So far that’s good enough to keep me from getting diarrhea.
I hit the trail at 8:03 am. I started out on the Beach Trail near my campsite.
The entire Beach Trail is 1.9 miles but I veered off to the Office Trail (1/2 mile). The Office Trail is supposedly marked by a deep pink color. Just about the time I thought I needed to change trails, I came upon a red marking. What do I know about colors? I assumed their deep pink was my red. I followed it through the woods and kept running into a sign. I should have realized something was wrong when I couldn’t find any sign of a beaten down trail.
I pondered it a while and then it dawned on me the park may have been marking boundaries for hunting within the state park. It is also deer season. Here I am walking hunting boundaries during deer season in a green outfit. I quit following the red markers.
I back tracked to the original trail head for Beach Trail and then found the actual “deep pink” trail markers for the Office Trail. The Office Trail then merged with the Cliatt Creek Nature Trail Loop (3.5 miles) and it goes past the park office. I stopped at the park office for a rest break and a snickers bar. I know the park heard I was coming and they stocked them just to tempt me.
The Cliatt Creek Nature Trail does briefly follow Cliatt Creek and then loops back to the park office.
I would have liked to hike the Rock Dam Trail but it was 6.5 miles by itself and AllTrails stated there are several areas you have to wade creeks and some of the respondents on the AllTrails site said they had to wade in waist deep water. I figured I could do without that since the temperature was still in the 50’s by the time I got to the crossing.
I finished the Nature Trail Loop which merged with the Canyon Loop. The Canyon Loop is not really a loop and is only 0.3 miles but it is supposed to be handicap accessible. However, if I were in a wheel chair, I wouldn’t attempt it. It was paved with some soft spongy, material and at several areas along the trail you sank into it.
It’s called the Canyon Loop due to poor conservation practices during the depression years and farming practices caused the land to erode to form the canyon.
I then back tracked to the Office Trail, Beach Trail and then merged with the Campground Loop Trail. I tried to find the trailhead to this earlier and couldn’t find it. It loops you down to Clark Hill Lake, the name of the portion of J. Strom Thurman Reservoir that is part of the park.
I admit I’m tired from today’s hikes. But the good news is I needed to pee twice during the hike. Sigh, back to biological normal for me!
Eleven miles is a stretch for me, even on level terrain. That didn’t stop me from later biking through all the campsites. There are some really nice sites in this park. Some have multilevel decks that overlook Clarks Hill Lake. There are 99 campsites and 4 walk-in sites along with 10 cabins.
So far, I think this is the nicest state park I’ve been in Georgia.
Tonight’s low is predicted to be 48F. Looks like a double sleeping bag night again.
Tomorrow, I head to Greensboro for a visit with my cousin Jimmie and her husband Stephen.
Stay tuned!
