PAW PAW

Back in July, Jack and I had planned a car camping trip with a couple of days of hiking and waterfall exploration. At the last minute we had to switch the weekend plan to just a dayhike. To compensate, we planned not one, but two car camping trips for August. The first was at the beginning of the month, and featured a hardcore hike to Wintergreen Falls on the Toxaway River as well as some bushwhacking to some obscure waterfalls in South Carolina.

We planned the second trip for a couple of weeks later. This would be an unusual car camping trip though, as we wouldn’t actually be camping near our cars. Johnny suggested a primitive camping trip in Gorges State Park. The campsites at Raymond Fisher Place are ¾ mile from the parking area on Grassy Ridge Road. I decided that the campsites were close enough that I could treat it like a car camping trip. I ended up regretting this decision a little, but I managed.

Originally I planned to meet Jack on Friday, but at the last minute I had to push my arrival back to Saturday morning. Jack went up solo on Friday afternoon, while Darrin and I drove up early on Saturday. Johnny arrived later that afternoon. So, the four of us managed to drive four cars to the park, which was very American of us.

The dogs and I were up at 5am on Saturday. We made it to the Grassy Ridge Trailhead parking area just after 8:30. Jack and Darrin were already there. Jack had just finished breakfast (which he cooked on the tailgate of his truck), while Darrin was organizing his gear. We all headed to the campsites from there, and Jack leant a hand carrying some of my gear. The trail actually starts out towards the Horsepasture River, before doubling back to cross Grassy Ridge Road. It then follows a new tread over to Raymond Fisher Place, an old homestead.

There are actually two shorter routes to the camping area. The most obvious is to simply walk down Grassy Ridge Road to where the trail crosses. This is slightly shorter, but not by much, and the trail is certainly more attractive. The most direct route follows an old road from the picnic area and reaches the campsites from the opposite direction. This route is less esthetic and steeper, but much shorter. Jack timed his hike on the official trail – downhill, but with camping gear – at 15 minutes. It’s worth noting that Jack walks fast. At the end of the weekend I took the short cut and hiked out (uphill, with camping gear) in 11 minutes. The downhill return empty handed took 8 minutes, and I walk slower than Jack does.

Jack had reserved two adjacent campsites at Raymond Fisher Place, which is a nice little camping area surrounding a small pond. Although two other campsites had been reserved for the weekend, we ended up having the entire area to ourselves. Well, except for the aliens, but more on them later.

Darrin and I set up our tents before we began preparing for our hike. Our plan for the day was to hit a bunch of waterfalls on Bearwallow Creek. I was eager to visit Upper Bearwallow Falls again, as I hadn’t been there in 9 years. However, I was even more enthusiastic about visiting Paw Paw Falls. Paw Paw Falls would be a new one for me, but it isn’t really just one. It’s actually a series of 4 waterfalls. Recently the park adopted names for each. From the top down, they are Indian Camp Falls, Split Rock Falls, Chute Falls, and Paw Paw Falls. We were hoping to hit all of them before returning to meet Johnny at the campsites that afternoon.

We left the campsites, following the old road uphill past the toilets. It was along here that we ran into a park ranger, which was inconvenient, since the dogs were running free. That’s a clear violation of park rules (one of several we violated during the weekend). Luckily this particular ranger didn’t seem to care. In fact, he seemed primarily concerned with how many cars we’d left at the trailhead parking area, as apparently they have to account for every car each evening.

We continued up to a fork and turned right. The left fork leads out to the park road and the trailhead parking area (i.e. the shortcut). Instead we followed the old road down towards Bearwallow Creek, passing several spur roads leading to old homestead areas. Before long we reached a sharp left turn where the road drops steeply towards the creek. At this point I suggested that we leave the road to the right and head directly down to the creek. The old road crosses the creek a short distance upstream from Indian Camp Falls, but my plan was to bushwhack down the adjacent ridge to the lowest of the falls. From there we could work our way back upstream past the other waterfalls.

The bushwhacking wasn’t too bad, but any sort of precise navigation was sacrificed to the god of following the path of least resistance. As a result, we ended up reaching the creek too soon. We actually came out at the base of a waterfall, but it didn’t look like the photos I’d seen of lowest waterfall in the run. So where were we exactly? Should we head upstream, or down?

Honestly I wasn’t exactly sure. The waterfall we were at was pretty nice, but not overly thrilling. My best guess was that we were at the base of Split Rock Falls, but I wasn’t certain. We decided to head upstream, as we had definitely seen another waterfall up there on our way down. Then we would backtrack downstream to catch the rest.

We scrambled back up the steep hillside and worked our way back over to the creek. We came out just downstream from a steep, sliding cascade. At the bottom, the creek encounters a sheer cliff and makes an abrupt 90-degree turn to the left. We took a bunch of photos there before contemplating our options.

I thought that we were at the base of the first waterfall, but I wasn’t certain. After a brief discussion, we decided to head downstream. We could only hope that we hadn’t missed anything.

The scrambling, bushwhacking, and creek walking had been fairly reasonable up to this point. However, the next stretch of creek was nasty. Walking in the creek was slippery, and the surrounding terrain was rugged. At one point I watched Jack and Darrin fall in exactly the same spot. So I attempted to go up and around that area. All that earned me was a close, personal experience with some monster briars. I eventually reached the base of a cliff and gave up, returning to the creek bed. I followed it to the brink of the next waterfall. I descended alongside it cautiously, and made it the base eventually.

This was clearly Chute Falls, as Bearwallow Creek cascades down through a narrow passage before emptying into a deep pool. That pool had our complete attention, as there was no way around it. How deep was it?

Jack waded across first, and the water rose above his waist. Darrin followed, and then it was my turn. I followed a slippery sloping rock down into the pool, in an effort to stay as shallow as possible. Despite this, the water still came up to my chest. I hoisted my pack over my head and tiptoed along, first on the fin of rock, and then through silt and mud. Darrin gave me a hand with my pack on the far side, which was a relief since my camera was inside.

From there we crossed to the east side of the creek and continued downstream. We actually picked up the remains of an old roadbed, and followed it above the creek. A few minutes later we passed above another waterfall. Once beyond it, we abandoned the roadbed and bushwhacked back down to the stream. We then followed the creek back upstream to the base of the final waterfall. We stopped there for a quick lunch and photos before assessing our options.

Our descent of Paw Paw Falls had been successful, but nobody really wanted to go back the way we’d come. I consulted the map from the Bill Thomas guide, and noted that the old roadbed we had followed actually climbed out of the gorge to meet another old road. This old road follows the ridge above and east of Bearwallow Creek. More importantly, it intersects the old road we had hiked from the campsites. If we could find our way to it, the old road would offer an easy hike back. More importantly, it would also take us fairly close to Upper Bearwallow Falls. We could probably still squeeze that one in before returning to camp.

My navigation skills were firing on all cylinders early on, but it didn’t last. I misjudged our location at one junction, and when we reached the old road we were looking for, I didn’t realize it. As a result, we actually turned down that road, but in the wrong direction! Fortunately I realized my error quickly. We backtracked, heading back north above Bearwallow Creek. What is more puzzling is that we somehow missed the junction with the old road that leads up to Upper Bearwallow Falls. We missed the junction, but somehow ended up on the road, heading back towards camp. We realized our error when we found ourselves below power lines, with Bearwallow Creek below us to our right. At that point it was getting late, and we didn’t have time to backtrack again. We continued on, descending down to the ford of Bearwallow Creek upstream from Paw Paw Falls. After wading, a steep climb brought us to the point where we’d left the road earlier. It had been one hell of a loop hike, but I was ready to get back to camp!

The rest of the hike was uneventful. We returned to camp around 3:30, having left that morning at 10. Johnny arrived a few minutes later, so our collective timing was great. He set up his tent and we once again contemplated our options.

We decided to hit Lower Bearwallow Falls that evening. Jack and Darrin had never been, and I consider Lower Bearwallow to be one of the prettiest in the state. Getting to Lower Bearwallow Falls generally involves a fairly long hike, a river ford, and a difficult bushwhack. However, it’s possible to get closer to the falls with a high clearance 4wd vehicle. Luckily, Jack’s truck fits that description.

We hiked back out to the trailhead and piled into Jack’s truck. We headed down Grassy Ridge Road, which is steep and rough in places. There aren’t many open roads in North Carolina that my Corolla can’t handle, but this is one of them! I was glad we had Jack’s truck for this occasion.

We parked at Turkeypen Gap at the State Park boundary, right where Grassy Ridge Road joins Auger Hole Road. From there we hiked Auger Hole Road past a gate down towards Bearwallow Creek. Some easy, uneventful hiking led to the creek, and we stopped briefly to check out some cascades just upstream. There is a series of falls and cascades that starts a ½ mile upstream from the road, but I haven’t explored that stretch of the creek. As usual, there is always a reason to come back.

Beyond the ford we reached the end of the gated road Darrin, Jack, and I had hiked earlier. From that point it wasn’t long before we reached the spur ridge leading to Lower Bearwallow Falls. Bearwallow Creek makes a horseshoe bend around this ridge, and the falls are located at the downstream end of the bend. To access the falls, we simply followed the ridge to a low point before embarking on a steep, rugged descent. The bushwhack was crazy steep – the kind that makes you pause and question if it is even a good idea – but at least there was a beaten path to follow.

We reached the base of the falls a few minutes later. Even though I was here a few months earlier, I was still blown away. It’s a spectacular spot, and so remote that you’re almost guaranteed to have it to yourself. We spent the next hour taking photos, despite the profuse spray which mucked up more than a few of mine.

We returned by the same route. Fortunately the rain held off until we reached the car. However, it really started coming down on our way back up the mountain. When we reached the trail leading to the campsites, Johnny and Darrin requested that Jack drop them off. I found that interesting, as it was absolutely pouring. On one hand, they were half way back to the campsites. On the other hand, it was absolutely pouring. Darrin jumped out and put on a poncho, but stopped to wait for Johnny. Johnny strategically spent the next 10 minutes changing shoes. Meanwhile, Darrin was getting power washed. All I know was that the dogs didn’t care. I was glad they were in the dry truck, but how long would that last?

Coincidentally, the rain slacked off about the time Johnny finished lacing his boots. By the time Jack and I reached the parking area it was only drizzling. All of Jack’s cooking gear was still in the truck, so he decided to cook his dinner there. I debated that option (as it was my original plan) but ultimately decided to take my food and gear down to camp. I did this mainly because I knew I’d want coffee and breakfast the next morning without having to hike out to the car for it.

The rain cleared out in time for us to enjoy a pleasant evening. The campfire was pretty much a dud thanks to the wet weather, but we compensated for that with plenty of alcohol. The highlight was a treat Darrin shared with everyone. He brought along a bottle of apple moonshine, and made all of us Appalachian Margaritas. All I can say is “wow”. The drink was incredible, and it definitely had the desired effect. Everybody was feeling happy at the old Raymond Fisher Place well into the evening. Luckily the camping area was otherwise deserted, so we didn’t have to worry about annoying any neighbors.

Later, Darrin, Johnny, and I went to hang the food out of the reach of the neighborhood bears. On our way back, we were alarmed to discover that Jack was being kidnapped by aliens. We aren’t sure what there were intentions were, but our best guess was that they were planning on removing Jack’s liver. Luckily Boone came to Jack’s rescue and chased the aliens off. We watched the whole thing dumbfounded, but Johnny did manage this photo:

Of course, the photo raises a number of questions:

“Where did the aliens come from, and why were they here?”

“Where did they go? Were the kids from South Park with them?”

And most importantly, “Why is the one in the middle wearing a red poncho?”

A BAG OF SMASHED ASSES

It rained all night. Hard. But I won’t complain. After all, it held off until our hike was over, before pouring during the 30 minute drive up the mountain. Then we enjoyed a few pleasant hours before the rain resumed. And then, thankfully, it let up around 7 the next morning – just in time for breakfast.

Breakfast wouldn’t have happened for me if Darrin hadn’t leant me his stove. I actually ran out of stove fuel while boiling water for coffee. Thanks Darrin for saving the morning!

None of us were feeling particularly motivated on Sunday morning. My guess is that this had something to do with the rain, or perhaps the Appalachian Margaritas. That was ok though. We may have been a bit rough around the edges, but at least we didn’t feel like a bag of smashed asses.

Our original plan had been an off-trail hike to Windy Falls on the Horsepasture River. However, due to the all-night rain, I suggested a change in plans. Windy Falls is a dangerous place, and I didn’t want to fool around there when the rocks were wet.

I suggested Upper Bearwallow Falls, since I was still grumpy about missing it the previous day. However, there didn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for that plan. Instead, we ended up hiking to Rainbow Falls on the Horsepasture River. In my opinion, Rainbow Falls is the most spectacular waterfall in North Carolina, and for one reason or another, I’d never gotten decent photos of it. Sunday started out overcast, promising good conditions for photography.

We hauled our wet camping gear to the cars. Jack and Johnny were moving faster than Darrin and I, so they decided to go on ahead to Rainbow Falls. I let Jack borrow my tripod, since he had forgotten his tripod mount. Then Darrin and I returned to camp to collect the remaining gear. It was well after 10am when we finally started our hike down to the river.

Darrin and I hiked to Rainbow Falls before continuing upstream to Turtleback Falls. We found Jack and Johnny there. Jack was ready to call it a day, so we parted ways. Johnny and I took photos while Darrin swam and slid down Turtleback Falls. Afterwards I backtracked to Rainbow Falls for more photos. For the first time I descended to the base of Rainbow, which offers a different photographic vantage point. Getting to it requires an extremely slippery descent, and the heavy spray was a challenge, but it was worth it. The view from the base is spectacular, and very different than from the overlooks.

From there Darrin, Johnny, and I hiked down to Hidden Falls. Hidden Falls isn’t an official waterfall – it’s more of a big cascade downstream from Rainbow Falls. We took a few photos before resuming the hike. At the junction with the trail to Stairstep Falls Johnny decided to call it a day. He headed out, while Darrin and I hit one more waterfall. Darrin had another swim at this one while I took more photos. We had lunch there, before hiking back out to the cars.

Darrin decided to call it a day, leaving me solo. I considered heading straight home, but decided to hit one more waterfall. On the way out, I stopped at Toxaway Falls. On this visit I found an easier route to the base of the falls. Of course, I had to find it the hard way. I drove east on 64 from the bridge over the Toxaway River. After a ¼ mile I noticed an old road heading down a ridge towards the river. I decided to check the old road out, as I wasn’t looking forward to the steep, wet bushwhack adjacent to the falls. Unfortunately there is a “no parking” sign here. I doubled-back to the pulloff on the east side of the bridge and parked. I then leashed the dogs and walked them back down to the beginning of the old road. This wasn’t fun, but it only took about 5 minutes from the bridge.

The old road is gated, and there are numerous state park signs. We followed the road beyond the gate, and before long it began to look more like a trail. The vegetation closed in, and there was quite a bit of deadfall. Despite this, the trail was heading in the right direction. It stayed on top of the ridge, with the Toxaway River below. Despite the foliage, I caught glimpses of Toxaway Falls along the way. Once I was beyond the falls, I abandoned the trail / old road and headed towards the river. This was a mistake.

My direct approach led me to the brink of an 80’ cliff. The dogs had raced ahead, and had found their way down the steep rock face to the river below. The rocks were way too steep and wet for me to follow. On the other hand, I couldn’t leave them down there. The puppy was already crying, realizing that she couldn’t climb back up.

I traversed the cliffs heading upstream. Luckily I found a crack where I could descend. I went down on my backside, intent on not smashing my ass. I reached the bottom and was greeted by a pair of very happy dogs! From there we continued upstream until the cliffs prevented any additional forward progress. The river is slow but deep here, but I didn’t have many options. I waded across, through waist deep water. On the far side I found a trail, which brought me to a campsite with a tent that looked like it had been there for a long time. A couple of minutes later I reached the base of Toxaway Falls.

Toxaway Falls is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the southeast. Unfortunately, the west side is private property, and the hillside is covered with ugly condominiums. Although it is hardly a wilderness experience, it is still an impressive waterfall. I took a few photos there before assessing my options.

My original plan had been to climb back up along the falls. However, the rocks were wet and slippery. I didn’t want to return by the same route, so I decided to look for another option.

I hiked downstream on a decent trail. Before long I crossed a tributary and crossed back into the state park. A short distance beyond the boundary I reached the brink of Twin Falls. I considered descending to the base of the falls, but it looked treacherous. There is actually a rope here, but the rocks were wet and it still looked too hazardous. Instead I doubled-back upstream.

I forded the river a short distance upstream from the brink of Twin Falls. It may have been possible to rock hop here, but my boots were already we, so I didn’t try. On the far side I hiked upstream to the base of the ridge I’d descended earlier. I climbed the ridge, occasionally following hints of an old roadbed. Before long I rejoined the route I’d followed down. From there it was an easy, quick hike out.

Toxaway Falls was a nice ending a great hiking and camping weekend. We’re already talking about a return trip in October. Maybe we’ll hit Windy Falls and Upper Bearwallow Falls on that one.

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