Today was absolutely beautiful and brutal all at the same time. Today we did the Stairway to Heaven (we gave it a different name) and most of the Cheaha Wilderness Area all the way to Cheaha State Park.
The day started off super cold; took a long time for my toes and fingers to warm up to where I could feel them again. Thankfully, it was pretty much uphill as soon as we got out of camp, so the heart was pumping which helped them to warm up quicker than what they would have.
The Stairway to Heaven wasn’t exceptionally bad; in fact, I thought it was kind of fun. What sucked was that it wasn’t well marked and we lost the trail for most of it. Due to this, it took a while to make it through.
Was the climb worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!! The views at the top were absolutely breathtaking!
The fun didn’t stop there once we were done with the Stairway to Heaven. We had rock field after boulder field after rock field to make our way through. Our pace for the day was about one mph! So slow going!
It was during one of the boulder fields that Ripley suggested it might be a good idea to get off at the state park instead of trying to for shelter due to the time. The plan was to go to the shelter and go into town tomorrow night to resupply and have a zero. But she was right. Suspenders also liked the idea.
The only thing that kept us enjoying the trail was all the views and different points of interest. Between the Stairway to Heaven and Hernandez Peak, you will get to the McDill Overlook trail. It was here in 1972 when a 50-year-old pilot who had 500 hours under their belt crashed here, flying from Texas to Georgia the day after Christmas. He survived.
Due to time constraints, we didn’t see the actual crash site, but someone brought pieces of it up to the trail junction. Why can’t people leave things alone?
We had one last climb to do: Hernandez Peak. It honestly wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, but it still required several rest breaks on the way to the top.
We finally made it to Hwy 281, where we met our shuttle driver. It was a long, long, long day and we were all exhausted!
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