Cheaha Wilderness Backpacking

One of the most fun trips we've been on and our first backpacking trip, our adventures into the beautiful Cheaha Wilderness was a fun and relaxing weekend break from school. Located in Talladega National Forest, the Cheaha Wilderness is about 2 hours from Tuscaloosa and offers spectacular views and great hiking in what is considered the southern tail of the Appalachians.

Our hike started at the Cheha Trailhead of the Pinhoti Trail, where we hiked south along the Cave Creek Trail before it intersected again with the Pinhoti Trail and we started making our way north again. After setting up camp at McDill Point we continued north on the Pinhoti the next morning and finished the loop back to our cars. All told, the hike was about 5 miles on Saturday and 2 miles on Sunday; a total of 7 miles.

The Cave Creek portion of the hike provided some beautiful scenery. It was apparent that this trail wasn't too frequently traveled and the nature was relatively untouched. There were a few good overlook points of the valley below and some cool mountain streams provided an opportunity to filter some water to drink. The weather was great as well: barely a cloud in the sky and a very comfortable 60 to 70 degrees.

After a relatively steady incline to the top of the ridgeline, we intersected with the Pinhoti Trail. The Pinhoti Trail is the very well maintained and well-traveled southern leg of the Appalachian Trail. It is a long distance trail (over 300 miles!) and leads north to the Chief Ladiga Trail, which is 33 miles long and connects to the Appalachian Trail. A two mile hike on the Pinhoti Trail brought us to McDill Point, where we would set up camp for the night.

McDill Point was a nice little place for camping. There was plenty of space to set up our tents and hammocks as well as a fire pit for our evening campfire. A campsite not too far away featured the interesting wreckage of a small plane from many years ago. However, probably the most amazing thing about McDill Point was the McDill Overlook. The rocky outcropping on the south end of the geologic feature provided one of the best views in all of Alabama. We got to catch the entire spectacular sunset from this point and it was absolutely amazing. Our guest for this trip, Travis, took some great pictures.

An evening campfire complete with some warm dinner rounded off the night for us, and an hour of stargazing and constellation spotting topped it off. Everyone was happy with how the day had gone and eventually settled in for a good night's rest.

We kicked off the morning at a reasonable time and after some delays in waking everyone up, we got started back on the Pinhoti towards where we had started. Our short 2 mile hike this morning included a relatively steep ascent up and over Hernandez Peak followed up by some more great views of the area around Cheaha Mountain. After we made it back to our cars we took a group photo and then headed into Cheaha State Park, where we visited the highest point in Alabama. After hanging out in the observation tower at the peak of Cheaha Mountain for a little while we headed out, back to Tuscaloosa. Who knew such great nature could be found so close to home?

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