Welcome to Breakfast in America
My photo journal is an eclectic mix of things; there’s no guiding theme or topic. It is whatever happens to catch my attention, what I’ve been thinking, doing, and whatever my current obsessions are. At the moment, they are clearing some of the backlog on my ‘honey-do’ list, backpacking, hammock camping, and, I’m always, taking pictures.
Recent posts
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Lollygagging
Lollygagging — it was quite cold early in the morning, I was glad I bought my big puffy jacket and some base layer pants to wear. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Once again camped at ‘Deep Hollow’
My ‘Deep Hollow’ camp from the south. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Summer tarp time. The bugnet was needed, the moths and insects flocked to my hammock as soon as I turned my light on. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Day Two — Starts with a lazy morning
Day Two — Enjoying a morning cuppa at ‘Deep Hollow.’ 
Enjoying a morning cuppa at ‘Deep Hollow.’ Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Yesterday Evening I arrived at my campsite just before six-thirty. I used my compass to get me in the general vicinity, and then the GPS to save me spending too long playing hunt the trees.
It rained briefly while I was down at the creek getting water and started up again in earnest around half past eight. By then, I was all sorted out and settled in for the evening.
Despite turning in around nine-thirty last night, I didn’t wake up until nine. I must have been tired!
The days are much longer now, sunset isn’t until eight o’clock, so I planned to lollygag in camp and leave between one and two. I had decided to hike the Pees Hollow Trail tomorrow and set up camp at ‘Wahoo Point’ tonight, which is pretty much the start of the trail going clockwise. If I leave on time, I should be at my next campsite by six, six-thirty.
Meanwhile, I’d enjoy sitting and watching the trees shaking off the night’s rain and the vultures soaring on the uplift from the nearby bluffs. There was also breakfast and lunch to be prepared and consumed!
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Here’s where I leave the Pilot Trail
Everything has gone green in the last few weeks. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Everything has gone green in the last few weeks. This is the point where the forest road I take to my ‘Deep Hollow’ campsite joins the Pilot Trail. Neither are that obvious from this viewpoint, looking southeast across the Pilot Trail which is running left to right just beyond the grasses in the foreground.
It started raining just before I arrived at the Devil’s Den Trail junction and stopped around forty minutes later when I took this picture. With all the drips falling from the trees, I left my rain gear on, even though I was getting a bit warm.
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Trailside curiosities
Not allowed — It seems that another ATV has been on the trail. Not the ATV I met, this is a much larger specimin., and in a different section of the trail. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
New Witness Tree, old sign. The original tree blew down a few months ago. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.The last time I hiked this trail, it was night, and I met a lost farmer on an ATV. This trip I noticed that another, much bigger, ATV has been on another part of the trail. From what I could see of the tracks it looked like it came in from the Tower Trailhead and made it about two-and-a-half miles down the trail before turning around and going back. My tracking skills, even of large heavy beasts like this, aren’t well honed so I could be wrong, but it definitely went both ways.
The second thing I saw was that the sign marking a witness tree, bearing tree, or something else had been fixed to another tree. The original tree blew down some time last year. I’m not sure what sort of a mark it is, as it is illegible (to me). I’m not sure why someone went to the effort of setting it up again when the markings have faded so much. Maybe there are plans to come back and replace it. Who knows.
