Thru hike of BCT from western end to eastern end
My two hiking buddies and I got a shuttle from Black Creek Canoe in Brooklyn and were on the trail by 2:00 pm on 1/13. We went 7-8 or so miles that afternoon, stopping about halfway between road 316 and the non-numbered forest service rd. We used the maps from Johnny Malloys book on Long trails of the Southeast even though it is somewhat out of date. It is better than the confusing printout "map" the usfs gave me. We hiked 20 miles (longest one day total for any of the 3 of us) on 1/14, stopping in the wilderness section giving us about 14 to finish up on 1/15. We were hiking by 6:30 to 7 AM those two days. We stopped by dark around 6 PM on 1/13 and hiked an hour or so into dark and stopped about 7 PM on 1/14. We made it out at Fairley Bridge landing about 4:25 PM on 1/15. That will give you a little bit of the time line and now I will try to give a description.
If you read my posting from back in September, I mentioned the high grass, snakes and mosquitoes. Well, find the perfect, cloudless, cool weekend in January like we just had, combine that with the fact that the trail has recently been mowed and the trail condition couldn't have been any closer to perfect. It is almost like walking a golf course at times. The trail is mowed about 12 feet wide most of the length of the trail which makes it a little less primative, but better than the aforementioned grass, snakes and mosquitoes. I would advise not setting your tent up at night in the middle of the trail either as based on the tracks the trail is a super highway for deer and hogs. They might run through your tent. The wilderness section is much closer to what a wilderness trail would be, but all in all in very good shape itself.
The trail leaves Big Creek landing skirting along the creek with great views and about 2 and 1/2 mile without any road crossings. There were no creek crosssings (the entire length) that were not negotiable either as it was dry this time of year. As I mentioned in my previous entry the entire length of this trail could be a very scary, dangerous place in a high rainfall event. After the first 3 miles or so the trail crosses 4 or 5 roads including hwy 49, a railroad track, and the trail has about a half mile walk along a driveway/road, a gas pipeline and would be hard to find a place to camp through here, without being very close to a road. Even the place we found to camp which was on a high ridge in hardwoods, was not secluded enough to get away from the noisy traffic of hwy 49 (even though otherwise it was secluded). After walking in temps in the 50's, temps this first night dropped to about 24 degrees. We saw one white tail deer that afternoon and heard several coyotes during the night.
Walking in sub-freezing temps by 7:00 AM we crossed the high point of 270 ft of elevation (according to the Malloy book) and dropped in to a lower flat area of mixed hardwoods and pines (which is most of the forest along the trail), where we came to about a gravel road walk of a little less than a mile. We then walked parallel to the creek stopping for a 10:00 am breakfast on a sand bar in the creek. Shortly after walking the trail again along the creek bank we ran into the first person we had seed on the trail (a man from Baton Rouge who was doing a combo canoe hike, I think, he said).
One of the surprising things about this trail is the hill climbs which we reached about mile 10 the the 2nd day of our trip. The few areas of elevation on this trail areas a bit surprising. After climbing some hills and crossing a couple of forest service roads, we entered a magnolia grove and shortly came by a cypress swamp. We then reached the point along the creek bank where we had camped back in Sept. The sand bar that was across the creek which we swam across to and walked along was completely gone. The creek is ever changing. At this point we are about half way along the length of the trail. We also then reach the area of the trail that has been re-routed away from the long knee deep water walk that we went through in September. The new route goes along a forest service dirt road for 3/4 of a mile or so (not an official road) and rather un-inspiring, but not through the water. We enter the wilderness section at hwy 29 at Janice about 5 pm om Sat the 14th. We had also done this section from the east and were somewhat familiar and planned to walk at least a mile in. There are some great areas with high bluffs above the side creek but not many great campsites through here. We continued on with the headlamps until we reached the hwy 29 bridgewalk. The only real negative experience on our trip was here in that we didn't realize the trailhead for the continuance of the trai was tucked up under the bridge and walked about a half mile up the hwy looking for the entrance before back tracking and finding it...Not marked well for finding in the dark.
We walked on until we were probably a half mile past the trail leading to what used to be Andrews Chapel but which is now a bar. We found a tight campsite (for our 3 tents), and we could hear some cars but it was nice enough. We heard what we thought may have been a bob-cat during the night but don't know for sure, and some coyotes again as well.
The last days trek was the best, I think, as we were in the wilderness section where we saw a couple of groups of 4 men camping and hiking and a family of 4 out for a day hike. The only negative to the wilderness section was around the Black branch area and the cypress swamp area there were several trees blown down across the trail which required some scrambling over, under and around (effects of Hurricane Katrina still evident). Once across Black branch heading eastward on trail this is the best area for campsites as it is high, flat, hardwood areas. (Like the AT and other trails you can find a suitable campsiste with in a mile or so from any point on the trail). I saw where some of the previous posts mentioned some work they had done and it was noticable. It is greatly appreciated.
Crossing Mill Creek was really no problem if you go up stream about 20 feet and find the log bridge. Leaving the wilderness section and hitting the final 7 miles of the trail is back into the mowed, wide area of the trail and some surprising hills, open areas crossing gas lines, and back to parallel the creek (where we had lunch), a side trail mowed out to reach the sand bar and the last view of the creek before fairley bridge landing and the best hill section on the trail.
If planning to do the AT or some other mountain trail this is your training area. On either side of FR 318B (Malloys book again) you can find climbs to rival climbs in the mountains. You probably would have to see them to believe it but the climbs are there. We saw a couple of wild turkeys in this stretch of the trail and one man out dayhiking from Lucedale.
This was a great experience and a truly great trail with in the condition it was in and with the cool weather. It actually got up to 72 degrees and I thought we might see a snake on the trail, but didn't.
I know this is kind of long and rambling but I tried to point out the highlights.
I need to also post our section hike of the AT in NC from October and the snow we got into. Thanks to the usfs and the individuals for keeping the trail up. It was really nice. For anyone in the south MS, LA or AL area wanting a great easy to reach trail in cool weather The Black Creek Trail is a great experience.
3 Attachment(s)
here are the pics from above trip