March 30th Day 1 Mileage 5.1
We started the trail around 4:00pm on Friday afternoon and WOW!!!! Our packs are too heavy! 80 lbs on Kenneth and 55 lbs on me are not light loads when we are planning on climbing the tallest mountain in SC soon. We only saw 2 couples on the way in who were just day hiking in the State Park. Pinnacle Mountain was absolutely beautiful. The view from the top was one of the best on the whole trail! Well worth the climb, maybe not for Kenneth though since he was carrying the bulk of the weight and was already starting to feel the load wearing on him. We took the opportunity to soak in the scenery, grab a snack and rest for a few minutes before getting back on the trail. We managed to hike in the 4 miles on the Foothills Trail (plus the additional mile to get to the actual trail itself from the state park parking lot where we started) that we had planned to hike and found a campsite that we thought was marked in the guidebook as “The Lighthouse”. It was a really nice campsite right at an intersection with an old logging road. There was not any water there but it was still one of our nicer campsites on the trail. We started planning our meals by weight, since we were carrying more poundage than we originally had planned, we figured we’d eat the heaviest meals first. So keeping with that strategy, we had fruit punch, red beans and rice with summer sausage for dinner and split a Snickers bar for dessert. It was not as good as Smores but it fixed the chocolate craving for sure! Kenneth’s pack was now 1.5lbs lighter! Hey… it’s a start! We hung out in the tent and listened to my MP3 player for a while… there was some odd stuff playing on the radio, and we never could find a weather forecast, so we decided to turn in. Overall the first evening on the trail treated us right and we got a good night’s sleep under a full moon and looked forward to starting the “real” hike the next day.
March 31st Day 2 Mileage 7.4 Total 12.5
We woke up fresh and ready to start hiking. Oh yeah, our packs still weigh too much (just in case you forgot)! So we started out of our campsite around 10:00am after having a breakfast bar and some instant Swiss mocha. We would later come to realize that this is WAY too late to be getting started every day but for now we are still inexperienced hikers. Maybe 5 minutes into the hike we came to the area known as “The Lighthouse” and the designated campsite .1 miles past it (where we thought we were last night). It was a nice campsite but ours was better! This was a very nice area, as there were several large boulders, caves and rock walls that could be seen easily from the trail. We had a nice walk through the woods, and started to realize just how peaceful and quite the Foothills Trail is. We filled our Camelbaks in a creek we crossed, then kept on trucking up, up and away… towards the peak of the tallest mountain in South Carolina. We stopped for lunch on top of Sassafras Mountain after arriving in the parking lot and having to look at the Guidebook to figure out where to go (come out of the woods onto the paved road, hang a right on the paved road and go up the hill until you see the trail head). We had left overs from the night before and pretty much nothing for a view. I thought that we would have a great view especially after the never-ending ascent but there were too many trees. We mainly just ended up sharing our lunch with the ants and the gnats… but hey we are in the woods right? After lunch we started on section A3-A4 and we actually saw our first people of the day!!!!!! We passed about 8 scouts and a couple of leaders heading South to North. We were heading back down Sassafras so this section was mainly a descent for us. The day was pretty uneventful compared to the days that were to follow but we were running low on water. We ran into 13 students from Brevard who were camping for a few days and one of them headed out behind us on the trail to get some water. She shot around us… since she had NO backpack on, and was only carrying a water bottle. We followed her for a while but then decided to give her some space and never saw her again or her water source. I guess we would have to find our own! We did come across some bear fur on the trail. I thought it was a dead rodent or something. It did not resemble fur that is for sure. We kept on trucking looking for our section to end and when it did I wish there had been a camping spot there. There was a beautiful creek that was calling my name. It was deep enough to have a nice cold bath but we settled on filling our bladders instead. There was absolutely nowhere to camp at the end of section A4 and we contemplated setting up our tent in the parking lot but there we a lot of cars still there and it was right off of a main road. We scoured the area and set up camp at the end of the parking lot, behind some rubble on an incline and right before a No Trespassing sign! See why I say Friday night’s campsite was pretty sweet? Anyways it served the purpose and we decided not to cook dinner and ate a PB&J bagel instead. It was kind of a good thing that we were on an incline though because it poured from about 1:00 am to 4:00am and we stayed pretty dry the whole time. We just had to do the occasional scooch up to get back into position as we were sliding downhill all night. I had a pretty restless night with all of the rain. It sounded like Jiffy Pop on the top of the tent and at one point I remembered that there were some wild hogs running around and the rain started to sound like hog snorts to me. It could have been that it was mixed in with someone’s snoring though! At least one of us would get some sleep.
April 1st Day 3 Mileage 15.7 Total Mileage 28.2
We started the day off with no rain and decided to take advantage of this and get out of camp fairly early. We ended up leaving around 9:30am and just had a quick granola bar and mocha breakfast. The first part of the new section was considered moderate by the guidebook but we considered it strenuous due to steep ascents and lots of stairs. It leveled out and became moderate after the designated campsite somewhere around mile 3. The trail today was by far the best looking we have seen so far. There were two waterfalls in this section and we followed a stream most of the day crossing over it several times on various bridges. Some of the bridges were made up of a few wooden planks while others were suspension bridges. We crossed seven small bridges in just under a mile… one bridge was even a fallen tree that had side rails added to it. ALL of them were slick considering the fact that it rained pretty much all day long and Kenneth paid the price. He was crossing over the tree bridge and I was behind him getting ready to take a picture when he slipped and fell catching himself before he fell into the creek below. His poles went flying and he wound up with some pretty nice bruises for the rest of the week (and later physical therapy for a twisted knee)!
At one point it stopped raining and we decided to try and have some lunch but of course as soon as we took our packs off it started to rain again. We set up a tarp to stay dry, had some trail mix and checked our mileage before getting started back on the trail. We were trying to meet up with our friend Jason who was going to camp one night with us and carry out some of our extra weight, so today was all about pressing on. The trail was washed out in one spot and it looked pretty fresh. We literally had to climb down a mud embankment into a gully and then dig our way back out the other side. Hopefully that will be fixed for future hikers. We passed a beautiful waterfall and many large campsites along the river on the left side of the trail before stopping for a break. At mile 8.1 we decided to stop and try to figure out where Jason was. There was a sign at our resting spot that said there was boat access at .3 miles to the left. We assumed that there had to be car access somewhere around there to because of the amount of campsites, and the large waterfall, but we did not see it anywhere. It had been pretty nice weather for the last mile so we figured now was as good of a time as any to stop, but considering that it was April Fools day the rain was playing a pretty crappy game with us and starting back every time we seemed to stop. We finally got Jason on the phone and realized that he had only made it about one mile in our direction on the Foothills Trail. He’d started hiking the Canebrake trail from Gorges State Park and that was an additional 4 miles he’d already came today… with his dog Luna in tow. We later found out he’d gotten to the dreaded Steps of Jocassee and turned around! We don’t blame him. We were still going to have to hike another 5 miles or so to get to him and it was pouring now! Blazes were scarce starting out but we just stayed to the right and soon they started to appear more frequently again. We were pretty tired from hiking all day in the rain without really getting to stop any, and from all of the stairs that we had climbed already, so the extra 5 miles that we were going to have to hike did not sound that appealing to us. We pressed on though, as we wanted to meet up with Jason and have some company for the night. We forced ourselves to keep walking and came to the first designated campsite at Jocassee. It was on the right and there was enough room for 6-7 tents or more. VERY nice spot. There were two tents there already set up, and they were hunkered down inside because of the rain. Kenneth yelled out to see if anyone would answer. Some long-haired dude peaked his head out of his tent and we asked him how much farther up the next campsite was. The guy said it was only around 1 mile or so and that it was not that bad of a hike. That sounded like a dream come true and when we started out we realized that that damn hippie lied!!!!! It was actually a little over a mile but he did not tell us that we would have to climb the “dreaded steps of Jocassee”. Everything that we had read about the Foothills trail mentioned the insane person who built 500 steps into the side of Jocassee and we were finding out why. It was by far the worst experience of the trip for me because I was already so tired from no sleep, my boots were soaking wet, the stairs were slippery and it was getting dark quick. We finally made it to a large bench in the side of the mountain on the right with an overlook (noted in the guidebook) and in my delusional state I started calling Jason’s name out like he would come and rescue us. This continued off and on for about 10 minutes and like a mirage there he was at a campsite on the left of the trail!! His dog Luna came running out to greet us and we finally got to stop the April Fools Day hike. Jason is a chef and he made us vegetable goulash for dinner with whole grain rolls. It was nice to have a good warm meal, dry clothes and a good friend to keep us company. Not too many people would be willing to hike all day in the rain just to have one night of watered down camping and we definitely appreciated it! We set up the tarp to hang out under and sat around talking and fighting to keep a fire in the rain until a little after midnight.
April 2nd Day 4 Mileage 5.9 Total Mileage 34.1
This morning was soooooooo much better! The rain had stopped around 1:00am so we managed to get some sound sleep. We woke up to clear skies and great views of Lake Toxaway/Jocassee. We used the fact that we hiked extra miles yesterday to have a slack off day today. We cooked egg and bacon burritos for breakfast… NEVER eat powdered eggs! BLAH, the dog would not even touch them. Once the sun came out we decided to head down to the lake to get freshened up. It felt great to be clean and dry for a change but the water was still pretty cold for April. We ended up leaving camp around 1:00pm after drying our clothes by the fire and hanging out for a while. We said goodbye to Jason and Luna at the Canebreak sign and good riddance to the 15 pounds or so that he was carrying for us. We started our 5-mile trek to the next campsite after crossing over a suspension bridge, and then pretty much climbed vertically for the next 2 miles. We saw two hikers coming from Bad Creek access that chatted with us about the trail. We asked what the road ahead would hold for us and mentioned the guidebook saying it was “strenuous”. Their comment to us was more like “Freaking Strenuous” and they were going the easy way!!! They did not lie although I wish they had. The trail eventually leveled off and we made it to camp somewhere around 5:30pm. We set up camp on the left right after crossing Bear Creek. We thought this was the designated campsite but after reading the guidebook we did not quite make it there. We were probably .2 miles short. The campsite was great though. It was right on the creek, and it was very large… big enough for 4 or 5 tents. We had a fire and washed some clothes. We had chicken fettuccini for dinner. Lipton Sides are pretty tasty but they are not so good on the non stick cookware. After dinner we decided to hang the bear bag and call it a night. 45 minutes and 5 broken limbs later (pine trees suck) we hung our bag and were ready for bed. Kenneth gave me a surprise that he had brought with him on the trip… tickets to see John Mayer in Nashville. Awesome!
April 3rd Day 5 Mileage 10.5 Total Mileage 44.6
We got up this morning around 7:00am and cooked breakfast. We had oatmeal and coffee. We managed to get hiking around 8:30… we’re finally getting out of camp earlier. The morning section of the hike was fairly easy and there was not a whole lot to see. We ran into two men and a boy who were hiking the entire Foothills Trail as well. One of the men said that this was his second time hiking it and he agreed that south to north is the way to go for sure, and we whole-heartedly agreed, seeing as how North to South is almost all uphill. We crossed three bridges within the first 2 miles and we eventually came to the steps that descend to Horsepasture River. We thought that this would be a nice spot to take a picture and then we could snap another one once we were on the bridge. Notice that we have the picture going down the steps but not on the bridge. That would be because while standing on the 115 foot bridge, camera in hand, somehow it managed to fall into the river. Events from that day are still a little cloudy but what I know for sure is that Kenneth stripped down (bare white butt and all) and went for a swim in what was probably 50 degree water. He managed to get the camera from the water where it sank, and amazingly enough, after drying it out at home for a few days, it still works! (Here is where we endorse Canon PowerShot) After our eventful morning we decided to stop around 1:00pm for some lunch. We ate at Bearcreek camp, which is a very nice campsite with plenty of room. After lunch we started on an ascent that lasted 5.3 miles. We ran into two girls at Thompson River that agreed with the fact that we seemed to be going up more than down and talked with them about the weather that was headed our way and losing the camera. They planned to hike to the same campsite area as us, but were planning on camping on a spur trail just off to the right of this, as they were getting picked up at Whitewater the next morning. The rest of the afternoon was pretty easy. Mainly it was a lot of switchbacks. We made it to our campsite somewhere around 5:30. This campsite was not the best we had seen on the trip but we were not planning on being there long. It was flat (which was the best quality!) and had a stagnant water source running through it. Where was that bug spray? By this stage in our trip we were like an old married couple. Upon arriving at camp Kenneth and I would set up the tent and then I would go inside and “make our beds” and get out all or our supplies we would need for the night while Kenneth started a fire. We would pick out a Bear bag tree and get our rope situated so that after dinner we just had to get all of our food together and hoist it up. We were operating like a well-oiled machine once we learned to avoid pine trees! We were just getting ready to choose a tree fairly close to us when we saw a guy hiking who told us to pick one that was far away because he had just seen a bear about ˝ a mile back. His name was Sem and he told us that the bear going the other way but we had just finished cooking some tuna and rice so we figured we should heed his warnings. Kenneth started talking with Sem and told him about losing the camera. Sem mentioned that he was being picked up that night at Bad Creek access and that he would tell his girlfriend to bring a disposable camera if we wanted him to. We offered to let him use our cell phone to call his girlfriend and slipped him a 20 for the camera. He finally got service and got in touch with her and she agreed to pick up a camera for us. Sem told us he would leave it in the public restroom that was at Badcreek and that he would text us or call us and leave a message letting us know where we could find it. Things were starting to look up for us as we went to bed that night. In the morning we would have a camera to document the rest of the trip and we only had to hike 32 more miles!
April 4th Day 6 Mileage: 11.1 Total Mileage 55.7
It rained again last night accompanied by heavy thunder, lightning and very high winds. It lasted for about 3 hours and we woke up around 7:00am expecting to see a message from Sem on our phone but we were disappointed. We decided just to eat a breakfast bar and get moving so that we could get to Badcreek access before it rained again. We hiked the extra .6 miles one way thinking that it would be well worth it because we could get fresh water at the restrooms and have a chance to get cleaned up a bit. Imagine our surprise when we got to the “public restrooms” and realized that they were nothing more than two porta potties set up in the corner of a gravel parking lot! There were definitely no pay phones in site either, so Sem got lucky we bartered with him and he got to use our cell. Kenneth started looking for the camera in the porta potties while I searched the parking lot but we came up empty handed. He kept trying to call Sem’s girlfriend to find out where they left the camera but we could not get an answer… we also had no messages on our phone. Just when we thought we’d gotten totally screwed over by this guy Kenneth managed to get his girlfriend on the phone and she said that we could find it inside the porta potty on the left taped underneath the urinal. I got the job of feeling around underneath it to see if I could find the camera (aren’t I lucky?)… but we found it! So the day was looking up once I found my hand sanitizer. The weather today was absolutely perfect. The skies were clear and a steady breeze blew all day. The temperature was probably around 60 degrees or so. Once we hiked back to the Foothills Trail the first part of the trip was easy. We mainly walked through a forest on level ground right next to the river. There was some campsites there, and a sign stating that Duke Power was no longer managing the land in the direction we were going. The Upper White Water section was 2.3 miles and was supposed to take around 2.5 hours but we knocked it out in a little under an hour and a half. It was a nice change in terrain from what we had been hiking for the last 5 days. We climbed over a lot of boulders and ascended and descended several different ladder steps after crossing the river on a steel bridge. We came to the side trail for the White Water Falls Overlook, we hiked the additional 100 feet or so and it was well worth the trip! The falls are 400ft tall and are the highest falls this side of the Rockies! When we started the next section it was marked “Easy” in the guidebook but the first part of it can still be considered at least moderate because you have to climb out of the valley. We continued hiking and ran into a man and woman who were going to camp at Whitewater for the next few nights. They had parked at the Chattooga River parking area and hiked in from there. They told us that our section ahead should be all down hill since they had been climbing for the last hour or so. They were somewhat right, but we still laughed at their “uphill” story, as we’d seen MUCH worse in our last 5 days. Soon after that we came to the highway where we crossed and entered the Nantahala National Forest. We started our ascent to the top of the ridge and once we were there we saw excellent views of Lake Jocassee. The trail eventually leveled off and we decided it would be nice to keep hiking to the Chattooga River so that we could have lunch there. We made to the parking and picnic area somewhere around 3:00pm and used a small bathroom to change into our swimsuits so that we could freshen up. This was a nice little park, and even though they had no running water, it still felt very civilized to us by now! There were several small tables and access to the river was very easy. This would be a good place to park if you were planning a short day-hike or overnight trip. The bathroom was decent, but with no running water it was a little funky. We managed to get freshened up a bit and do our dirty dishes after dodging the people fishing up and down the river, but man that water was frigid!!!!!! Afterwards we ate some lunch and started back on the trail to try and get in a few more miles for the day. We ran into a group of older men who had started out right before us and they let us pass them. We continued on hiking and decided to set up camp somewhere around mile 2.7 of Section A9. It was right after a bridge that was constructed of three 2X4’s that were bolted together. Our campsite was small but nice. It had a slight water source and we slept on an insignificant incline. The weather was beautiful all day long but was beginning to get a lot cooler and that night we had a fire and some broccoli and chicken rice with marshmallows for dessert.
April 5th Day 7 Mileage: 20.9 Total Mileage 77
Well last night we reviewed the mileage that was left for our trip and realized that it was only a little over 20 miles! The remaining sections that we have left on the trip are marked “Easy” in the guidebook except for the Burrell’s Ford to Cheohee Road stretch. It is marked “Strenuous” but just due to length (at least we hope). It was pretty cold out last night and considering that we gave most of our warm clothes to Jason to pack out for us, we really don’t want to spend another night in the cold. Are we really thinking we might be able to finish today????? We got up pretty early (somewhere around 7:00am) and ate some oatmeal and drank some mocha for breakfast. We managed to get started hiking about 8:30 after wrapping our feet and Kenneth’s knee. A ˝ mile later we finished up Section A9-A10 after crossing over SC 107. We started the Fish Hatchery to Burrell’s Ford section of the hike, which essentially followed switchbacks along the Chattooga River for about 4 miles. Our goal was to make it to mile 5.1 of Section A11- A12 and then stop for lunch but we ran out of steam about a mile before that and basically collapsed in the middle of the trail. That is definitely one of the cool things about this trail… it is basically undiscovered and by day 7 we felt like we owned the place. We had only seen two people today, fishermen with their Coors Light beers (insert drool here). After refueling we decided to keep going and try to make it to the Bartram Trail campsite, which was supposed to be beautiful. It was at mile 8.1 which would have been about 13 miles for the day. The ridge led us away from the river and high above it and then back down do it again. Let me just say that the Chattooga River was one of our favorite sections of the entire hike. It was absolutely incredible! We’re looking forward to going back this summer and camping there as much as possible. The water was clear and cold and there were huge rock formations, perfect to lounge on during a hot July day. There were plenty of campsites along the river that could accommodate a large group of people (warning though, Georgia state websites state that you should camp at least 20 feet way from the river in case of a flood). This would be a great day hike for any one who is interested. About 1 mile before our campsite we ran into our third person of the day. He was actually hiking the entire Foothills Trail as well. He had started that morning in Oconee State Park and was planning to camp his first night at Burrell’s Ford. We chatted for a while and wished each other well and pressed on to make it to camp. When we arrived at The Bartram Trail campsite it was perfect. It was right on the water and huge! It was right around 4:30. This was it, decision time. To make matters worse there was a sign taunting us that said Oconee State Park 8.9 miles. It might as well have said “SHOWER” and “YOUR BED” 8.9 miles! So press on through the pain or start setting up camp. We filled our bladders and ate a Snickers (chocolate fuel) and decided to go for it. After all it was only 9 more miles on top of the 13 we had already hiked. We knew that we had to get moving because it was already 5:00 and we did not want to be hiking at 10:00 at night. The next 6 miles or so are basically a blur to me. It pretty much became a death march fueled only by the thought of a shower for me, and Burger King for Kenneth! We needed to get in touch with Kenneth’s dad Miles who was planning on picking us up and let him know that he needed him to come a day early, otherwise we would be camping out again, only this time in another parking lot. Cell phone service was scarce out there but we finally managed to reach him and told him our plans. Now we had no choice in the matter, we had to press on no matter what! So that is just what we did. The rest is pretty much a blur, with many minutes passing without saying anything at all. We were exhausted, and mainly just kept on trucking, even though we could’ve both collapsed right there in the middle of the trail. At 9:15pm we crossed over the Foothills Trail west end trail head spur sign hand in hand and collapsed in a heap on the ground (not really but it sounds dramatic right?) Miles picked us up about 5 minutes later and took our picture to commemorate this monumental occasion- the survival of our first long distance trek together. It was definitely a success- 6 ˝ days, 78 miles plus, one submerged camera and zero fights. All in all a great trip and one heck of an accomplishment!
April 6th Day 8 Mileage: 0 Total Mileage 77
Our bed all day!!!!!!!”