{"id":2480,"date":"2017-03-23T02:58:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T02:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/?p=2480"},"modified":"2017-03-23T02:58:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T02:58:08","slug":"foothills-trail-day-5-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/?p=2480","title":{"rendered":"Foothills Trail: Day 5 (end)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>Today\u2019s miles: \u00a010.8
\nTotal miles: 76.2 \u2013 the end!
\nCamped:\u00a0 At a La Quinta in Tennessee\n

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.\u00a0 I was excited to get to this point and blown away by all the surrounding mountains!\u00a0 Snapped a couple photos and headed on.\u00a0 About 4 miles in, I heard the howling and occassional barking of a dog that sounded in pain or upset in some way.\u00a0 I am slightly terrified of unknown, unleashed dogs and was praying I would not encounter it.\u00a0 The trail eventually turned in a new direction and I stopped hearing the dog.\u00a0 I made note of this and felt a wave of relief.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019t reassuring).\u00a0 I\u2019m all set for this dog.\u00a0 The dog is wearing a radio collar and orange vest, it looks like a hunting dog.\u00a0 She approaches and starts to quickly sniff my bag, sniff me, and makes odd yelping noises.\u00a0 I talk to her sweetly, but have my pepper spray on hand just in case.\u00a0 The dog calms down and I decide to forget the pee break and continue hiking, waiting to see what happens with this dog.\u00a0 She follows me.\u00a0 And then runs up ahead of me on the trail.\u00a0 She stops and waits me for to catch up and then continues on.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think she\u2019d be interested in skittles, Ramen noodles, or Cliff Bars so scratch that idea.\u00a0 We hike together for a mile or so, sometimes me leading, sometimes her.\u00a0 Eventually we come to a logging road and see three men.\u00a0 The dog seems excited so I ask the men if she is their dog.\u00a0 Nope, they are doing trail maintenance, but think she may belong to a group hunting hogs awhile back.\u00a0 Hmm\u2026I didn\u2019t even know hogs were out here.\u00a0 The trail maintenance crew are heading in that direction and get the dog to follow them instead.\u00a0 I hope she found her owner!<\/p>\n

The rest of the day was pretty gentle terrain-wise.\u00a0 Once I hit the spur trail to pinnacle mountain, it was literally all down hill.\u00a0 The ascent to pinnacle mountain was steep, and the guidebook said it was wooded, so I didn\u2019t think the views would be that good anyway.\u00a0 Unless a feature was on or within site of the Foothills Trail, I didn\u2019t investigate it.\u00a0 I took the approach of Blue Moon, a gentleman we met on the PCT.\u00a0 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\u2019t think it was much better than other views, I regretted adding the extra strenuous miles and envied the wisdom of Blue Moon).\u00a0 I even ripped the spur trail maps out of the guidebook before hitting the trail.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

So the last four miles or so were all down hill and the excitement of finishing kicked in.\u00a0 I saw lots of day hikers and chatted with a couple ladies for awhile.\u00a0 They were asking me all sorts of gear questions and I actually felt knowledgeable and helpful.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 I was also excited to get pizza on the drive towards home.<\/p>\n

This trail boosted my confidence in myself and in my path in life. \u00a0I am so grateful for places like this that let us explore the natural world, our inner selves, and the connection between the two. \u00a0Modern civilization seems to be built on separating ourselves from the natural world or using nature as a way to \u201cprogress\u201d\u00a0(expressways, building infrastructure, climate control, fossil fuels, dams, etc.). \u00a0While this separation is sometimes necessary, we must break free of this artificial separation when we can. \u00a0The mountains were calling me to South Carolina and I answered the call. \u00a0Stepping out of my comfort zone and doing a solo hike was invaluable. \u00a0Being able to immerse myself in nature for even a few days was refreshing and I look forward to spending the summer experiencing\u00a0other offerings of the natural world. \u00a0There may even be another solo backpacking trip sometime in my future\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Monument at the peak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sassafras View 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sassafras View 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
John L. Cantrell homesite, remnants of one of the area\u2019s earliest settlers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Burn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
My new hiking pal (you might need to click on the picture to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Last waterfall of the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Obligatory \u201cend\u201d pic. Much warmer now than at the start!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s miles: \u00a010.8 Total miles: 76.2 \u2013 the end! Camped:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I was excited to get to this point and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-yoga"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions\/2496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}