Welcome to Breakfast in America
I’m a Brit who unexpectedly emigrated to the USA in 2008, and this is my photo journal.
It’s an eclectic mix of things; there’s no guiding theme or topic. It is whatever catches my attention, what I’ve been thinking, doing, or piques my interest. Currently that’s mainly backpacking and clearing some of the backlog on my ‘honey-do’ list.
Popular posts
Trending pictures and short posts.
Popular pages
Trending longer content.
Memories
A dozen pictures, picked at random from my favorite memories. You can see my portfolio here.
Camped overlooking McGarr Spring
Frozen Stock Pond at Compton Hollow Conservation Area
Yew, Pumpkin, & Feather
Gary and Ginger at Compton Hollow (365:016)
Ginger’s studio at night
Chapel Cross
The lake was low, very low
Peter Knob from Popcorn Overlook, Georgia
How near, how far?
Today we drove down to see Carol & Jim (365:323)
Portrait By Oil Lamp
Day Four — Eclipse glasses
Recent Posts
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Dry — Whites Creek was dry
Dry — Whites Creek was dry. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I’ve seen the water level just a few feet below the cave mouth. But not this time.
The hike here was good, taking me and hour and fifteen minutes to get to Whites Creek. The rain had eased off, and I used a compass bearing to get me from where I’d camped overnight back to the trail. As is usual for this section of the Whites Creek Trail, I lost the trail often, sometimes getting misled by game trails, and sometimes just my own mental aberrations. I used the compass and set my own track as I didn’t have time to waste. Sticking to the southern edge of the ridge proved to be a good ploy.
Whites Creek in February 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I had made good time to the point where the trail drops down to White Creek, and then I somehow lost the plot, convinced myself I was going in the right direction, despite all the evidence — and the GPS — telling me I wasn’t! I went round in circles for a while until I stopped, looked at where I was, and got a compass bearing to where I wanted to be, and headed off, finally, in the right direction. Given my tight deadline to nightfall, I couldn’t afford to waste any time.
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Day Three — View from my hammock, rain and more rain
Day Three — View from my hammock. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It started raining early in the morning. Over seven hours of rain. I can’t complain, I knew it was in the forecast, and we need it.
Collecting water wasn’t a problem — I decided to wait until one PM before packing up. The rain was looking to stop around two. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I had a good, undisturbed night, and awoke to the sound of rain on my tarp. Heavy rain.
The forecast was for showers of around a tenth of an inch per hour. The reality was a lot heavier than that!
I didn’t fancy hiking in a downpour, and studying the weather radar (I had cell coverage on the top of the ridge), I could see it would ease off around 1-2 PM. I did some math, checked my notes from a previous hike of the trail, and reckoned that if I left at 2 PM, I could make it to Fiddler Spring before it got dark, though I’d have to move fairly quickly. No dallying on the way.
One good thing about the heavier-than-expected rain. It allowed me to top up my water reserves so I wouldn’t need to stop for water before I got to Fiddler Spring.
The only problem with this revised plan was that any delays would have me descending a treacherous and steep social trail in the dark. I decided that if I got delayed, I could wait the night out on the ridge above Fiddler Spring if necessary.
At 1 PM, I started the slow process of packing up camp under the tarp, and by 2 PM I was ready for the trail.
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Gary at the Eleven Point River Scenic Overlook, Irish Wilderness, December 2024
Gary at the Eleven Point River Scenic Overlook, Irish Wilderness — I must have moved, my beard is all blurred. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Lunch eaten, and water topped up, I headed along the trail and up on to the bluffs, which offer the only scenic overlook on the Whites Creek Trail, pictured above. From there it didn’t take me too long to get to the ridge overlooking Orchard Hollow. But there were no overlooks of the Eleven Point River to be had. I could have still camped at the end of the ridge, but several potential widow makers made up my mind to head back along the ridge and find somewhere else to stop. It would also cut down — ever so slightly — on my next day’s hike. I finally settled on a spot quite near to the trail, 4-500 yards or so.
I spent ages looking for a pair of ‘Golidlocks’ trees, at just the right angle to the forecast wind and rain. It was getting quite dark by the time I finally got my hammock set up for the night.
Day Two
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Eleven Point River Scenic Overlook, December 2024
Eleven Point River Scenic Overlook, Irish Wilderness — and the only overlook on the entire trail. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I had a lot of fun getting here. The Whites Creek Trail North Loop was tough to follow, and the downed trees across the trail made for many diversions.
Trail Journal:
1050 – Ready to go. 44°F
1115 – Bawley Pond jct. 3.9 miles – Bliss Spring.
1332 – Bliss Spring. Lost the trail many trees down. Hunters camped near the spring.
1430 – Back on the trail – with water.
Bliss Spring was very low but still running — I should have taken some pictures. I collected enough water for the night and tomorrow morning’s hike as far as Whites Creek. I’m not sure that there’ll be water in Fiddler Spring. If not, there will be water in the big pools along Whites Creek.
I saw the hunters’ camp while I was descending into Bliss Hollow. As I got near to the bottom, I saw one of them on the trail below me. I gave him a shout and checked he knew I was around. When I got to the bottom, we stopped to chat. There were two of them — brothers — They had hiked in from Brawley Pond that morning. He was hunting for squirrels for supper, and His brother was hunting deer on the south ridge of Bliss Hollow. I told him my plan to hike along the bluffs, follow the trail a short way, and then camp on the next ridge over, north of Orchard Hollow.
When I stopped at Bliss Spring to make lunch and collect water, I spent a bit of time rearranging the hunter orange on my pack to make it more visible. I must admit I was not expecting to encounter any hunters. My previous chats with people out hunting, had led me to believe that no one would want to carry a load of meat more than a mile or two. Lesson learned.
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Hammock Camping in Irish Wilderness
Hammock Camping in Irish Wilderness — Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Hammock Camping in Irish Wilderness — Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. If you don’t like this view of the trees, then Irish Wilderness is probably not for you. The view of 90% of the Whites Creek Trail looks just like this.
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Day Two — Breakfast
Day Two — Breakfast. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Toe Socks. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Mountain House doesn’t appear to be shipping my favorite breakfast, the South West Breakfast Skillet, so for the foreseeable future, it’s going to be Biscuits and Gravy. I cannot eat any of the egg-based products; they make me violently ill, which is not good on the trail. Reading various blogs, etc. I’m not the only one with this issue. It’s not just Moutain House. I have the same problem with other brands. I now steer clear of any processed egg products.
I no longer drink tea or coffee — though I’ve not dropped caffeine entirely. I have ‘Dew O’clock’ every afternoon, and on the trail I carry caffeine pills.
The hot drink seen here is an orange and ginger infusion from Stash.
As usual, I’m heating my water on my Fancee Feest alcohol stove. And I’m using my boxed Firebox Nano wood stove to keep the alcohol burner off of the ground.
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Dawn, Day Two on the Whites Creek Trail
Start of Day Two. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I was up with the sunrise, not that sunrise is particularly early at the moment 🙂 The evening and night had not been without incident.
- Setting up my hammock, I noticed it was close to a big rock. I was checking that the very pointy rock wasn’t right under my back when I managed to, once more, fall out of the hammock. Okay, so that’s just amusing to any bystanders — I’m sure the squirrels were chuckling at my expense, except I landed on the rock, fortunately, not right in the middle of my back, but on my shoulder. It was quite tender and probably bruised, though I never checked.
- Later in the evening, I was lying in the hammock reading when I heard something approaching. For some unknown reason, I froze. That’s not happened before. Previously I’ve either shouted at or got out and shooed off any encroaching critters. In the dusk and dead of night, I’ve been nose-to-nose with deer and shouted at bumbling razor-back hogs and feral hogs. Freezing quite disconcerted me.
On reflection, I felt better when I remembered the posts of solo backpackers on the forums who wear earplugs at night so that they are oblivious to nearby critters. That’s something I don’t do. And then there are the people who flat-out refuse to go out solo backpacking for fear of the forest creatures. - Finally, in the middle of the night, some alpha doe took exception to my camp and started huffing (barking is the proper term) and stomping around in a failed attempt to drive me away. That amused me, they always seem to do this during the deer hunting season!
It was 41°F when I set up camp, and it dropped to 37°F overnight. I was nice and warm with my summer quilts.
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Dusk in Irish Wilderness
Dusk in Irish Wilderness. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. A couple of hours later and I’d left the trail in search of a spot to stop for the night. It was just about to get dark as I selected some suitable trees for my hammock.
It’s the first time I’ve hiked the Whites Creek Trail this soon after the leaves have dropped. As I expected, it was tough following the trail in places. It also looks like a big storm passed through at some point since my last visit. There were a lot of big trees down over the trail.
I was happy with my progress, I had crossed Whites Creek, which was dry, and climbed back up onto the ridge, which was my objective for the day. I carried on for a while before the impending sunset decided me to head off and find a spot to camp.
Day One
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Camp Five Pond, Irish Wilderness. December 2024
Camp Five Pond, Irish Wilderness. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. What a wonderful afternoon to be hiking in the woods! This is the view from the trail across the Camp Five Pond earthen dam.
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Camp Five Pond, Irish Wilderness. December 2024
Camp Five Pond, Irish Wilderness. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Camp Five Pond, Irish Wilderness. Whites Creek Trail, counter clockwise — December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
