The adventure begins

Today (Sunday Feb 18) is the day I head off on the backpacking adventure. Why is it an adventure and not a trip? Well, for one thing, it's cold and snowing here in Knoxville, where I live. I think, when I woke today, we had a few inches on the ground and it was in the low 20's. So anyway, I leave the house by 7am and head over the mountains to hopefully sunny and warm SC. The drive was a bit hectic, only one lane each direction was drivable on I40 and either people were driving way too slow, or they were taking way too many risks, I did manage to survive due to my superior old pizza guy driving skills. I arrived at Tablerock SP with temps in the mid 50's and not a cloud in the sky, a perfect day to start the trip.
The first day was spent pretty much going uphill, Tablerock is about 1100ft and the trail pretty much ascends the whole way up to Pinnacle Mtn at about 3000ft and 3 miles later. The climb for the most part wasn't back, except for a few short sections where you actually had to climb with your hands and feet. There were tons of water falls along the way, and the most spectacular thing was when the trail opened up onto the big rock face near the peak of Pinnacle Mtn. It was like standing on the edge of the world, except that the world was below you, so that didn't make sense. Anyway, it was super clear, you could see for miles and miles. I could see the road that I drove in on, lakes way off in the distance and mountains all around. It was definitely worth climb.
I ended up hiking a few more miles up, then descended a little, then hiked up to make camp on Hickorynut Mtn, at about 3200 ft. I hiked only about 7 miles today since I started late.
I set up camp on the side of the trail, at dinner, and was in my tent by 6pm. Weather was forecasted to be a low of 23 at low elevations and be very windy.