Pinhoti Trail Day 26 & 27: Laurel Shelter to Burns Trailhead & a Zero Day

After a poor night’s sleep, we woke up, had breakfast, and headed out. The plan was to go to a shelter 1.5 miles from the Burns Trailhead.

I felt like I was dragging my feet and going so slow. However, according to Ripley and Suspenders, I was hauling butt. After looking at my watch, I realized we were making really good time, even if it seemed like I was hiking in slow motion.

The highlight of the day was coming upon Shoal Creek Church and Cemetery.

I forgot there was a cemetery until we walked right into it.

It was a great spot to stop and have a snack. They had a covered pavilion as well as bathrooms! Granted, it was a porta-potty, but they were clean and stocked.

Once we were done exploring, we headed back out on the trail around Coleman Lake and saw our first real “wildlife”. A very curious chipmunk sat inside a tree, watching us.

It was a beautiful hike around the lake, and before long, we had already done 6 miles or so.

We stopped at FS 540 and took a small snack break. While we were there, I suggested we push past the shelter and go into town so we could have a zero instead of a nero since we would be tackling the Dugger Mountain Wilderness area the following day. The shelter was only 1.5 miles from the road; it was still early in the day, and we had already pushed out 6 miles. That meant doing 6 miles instead of 4.5 to the shelter. After some phone calls for a ride and to make sure our Airbnb could accommodate us arriving a day early, we set out to get to Burns Trailhead.

We reached the trailhead about 10 minutes before Brandon with Elevated Grounds picked us up. Talk about perfect timing. We headed to Elevated Ground and had some of the best sandwiches we have ever had! We highly recommend grabbing a bite to eat there (or get yourself a coffee).

Once we were done eating, Brandon took us to our Airbnb, and we settled in for the night.

Pinhoti Trail Day 26 Video

Pinhoti Trail Day 27: Taking a Zero

Today, we took a zero. We started the day by walking to Elevated Grounds to grab breakfast, which was amazing! Once we finished there, we headed to the grocery store to grab some snacks and resupply. We have decided to do three days of slackpacking to get us through the Dugger Mountain area. This will make it a little easier and allow us to do bigger miles.