A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT

Darrin and I enjoyed a camping trip in Jones Gap State Park last weekend. Darrin reserved us campsite #3 on the Hospital Rock Trail for Saturday night. Unfortunately, he had to work Saturday morning. So I decided to do a couple of short hikes before meeting up with him that afternoon.

First up was a visit to the Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve near Pickens:

http://www.sctrails.net/trails/ALLTRAILS/Hiking/Upcountry/GlassyMountainHP.html

Since it was a clear day, it seemed like a great place to start my weekend. I followed the directions on the SC Trails website and parked on the shoulder a short distance from the summit. The dogs and I followed the trail from there, which meanders on a fairly level course through the woods. We passed several open rock faces both above and below the trail, but I didn’t explore them. After a few minutes I reached a 4-way junction. I took the trail leading down, which brought me to the brink of a cliff. The open rock face offers a great view to the north, over a pastoral landscape to the Blue Wall and beyond. The overlook provided a fantastic vista of Table Rock and the higher peaks up in North Carolina. Whitesides Mountain, near Highlands, was even visible from here.

On the downside, the rock face has been vandalized by morons with spray paint. Are there any easily-accessible cliffs in South Carolina that aren’t covered in graffiti?

From there I wandered through a maze of trails up to the summit of the mountain. There I found a small parking area, communications towers, and an old fire tower. The fire tower is fenced off, and did not appear to be open to the public.

From the summit I walked back down the paved road a short distance to the car. I enjoyed my brief, quiet visit to Glassy Mountain. I definitely recommend checking it out on a clear day if you’re in the area.

From Pickens I drove up to Rocky Bottom and on to the parking area for the Foothills Trail. My main hike for the day would be into the Eastatoe Gorge:

http://www.sctrails.net/trails/ALLTRAILS/Hiking/Upcountry/EastatoeHP.html

SCTrails.net says the trail is 1.7 miles one-way. When I reached the trailhead I glanced through the description in the Foothills Trail Guide briefly. The guide says the trail is 2.3 miles one-way. Meanwhile, the sign at the beginning of the trail says it is 2.7 miles. I’m not certain which is correct, but it’s definitely at least 2.3 miles. This was a bit of a problem, as I was supposed to meet up with Darrin at 2pm, and it was already after 11.

I ate a sandwich while I hiked. The trail to the gorge and the Foothills Trail start out following a gravel forest road. Before long I turned off onto an old, gated logging road. Most of the hike follows this road, so at least I was able to make good time. I found some nice wildflowers along here, including Dwarf Iris and Yellow Wakerobin Trillium.

I ran into two women with a huge German Shepherd along here. The dogs played a bit before we moved on. They were the only people I’d see on the trail until the very end of the hike.

We eventually left the old road to descend into the gorge. This part of the route follows a fairly new trail that includes some stairs. I found more wildflowers shortly before reaching the creek, including dozens of Yellow Wakerobin Trillium and lots of Mayapples. I also ran into a few huge Red Wakerobin Trillium. One of them literally had leaves the size of Frisbees.

From there I followed the trail around a bluff to an overlook of The Narrows. Here, Eastatoe Creek squeezes through a long, rocky channel only a few feet wide. It’s a cool spot, but it was too sunny for good photos. From there I backtracked a bit, and then took a short side trip down to the creek just upstream from The Narrows. There used to be a nice backcountry campsite here, but it is currently closed due to the numerous dead hemlocks in the area.

I hiked out by the same route, keeping an aggressive pace. Despite this, it was nearly 2pm when I returned to the car.

I drove over to the intersection of highways 11 and 276 and met Darrin there. He had actually gotten off work early, so he’d stopped at Jones Gap State Park to check in to our campsite. With that chore out of the way, we could spend the rest of the afternoon exploring.

First up was a visit to “Spider Tunnel Falls”. Darrin recently discovered this waterfall. The top of it is actually visible from highway 276 a short distance north from the junction with highway 11. From the road it looks like a modest sliding cascade over a high rock face. However, closer inspection reveals that there is a lot more to it!

We parked on the shoulder of highway 276 next to the South Saluda River. The property directly across the road is part of a South Carolina Heritage Preserve, but we aren’t sure which one. It looks like the stream that contains the waterfall follows the property boundary, so the waterfall is legally accessible as long as you remain on the right side of the creek.

We scrambled up the hillside to the right of the creek. After a couple of minutes we reached the base of a small cliff. The waterfall is visible from here, and my instinct was to follow the base of the cliff over to the creek. However, that is not the best approach. Instead we climbed through the woods to the right of the cliff until we were able to get on top of it. We scrambled across the top of the rock, and then worked our way over to the top of a giant boulder in front of the falls.

“Spider Tunnel Falls” is fascinating. The stream makes a gentle slide along an open rock face before dropping almost vertically about 30 feet. What’s interesting is that the last 10 feet of the drop are more or less underground. After a 20’ drop, the entire stream disappears down a manhole-sized opening. The creek then turns 90 degrees to the right and runs through a narrow slot canyon for about 50’ before emerging from its confines.

The slot canyon provided the waterfall with half of its namesake. The other half came from a giant spider that Darrin nearly stepped on during his first visit – barefoot. Darrin also got into some poison ivy on that visit. If we want to discourage people from visiting this waterfall, we could just call it “Giant Face-eating Spider Poison Ivy Falls”. That should do the trick.

Our visit was on a sunny afternoon, and there was an impressive rainbow at the “base” of the falls where the creek disappears. We took some photos there before scrambling down the boulder to check out the slot canyon. The tunnel the creek passes through is fascinating. It’s just wide enough to wade into, but the spray coming out of it was nearly overwhelming. I definitely recommend visiting this waterfall on a warm day! At the end of the tunnel is the subterranean portion of the waterfall. Hiking through the tunnel was a wet, chilling experience, and conversation was impossible due to the roar from the falls. It was awesome.

“Spider Tunnel Falls” certainly isn’t the most beautiful waterfall I’ve seen, but it may be the coolest. I tried to get photos of the falls and slot canyon, but it was challenging. The tunnel was particularly difficult due to the heavy spray. I’d like to return some other time when water levels are lower.

I returned to the top of the boulder and attempted to photograph Darrin down at the bottom of the well. However, the water level was too high for that to be possible. Darrin then joined me on top of the boulder. He then pulled a rope out of his backpack. A rope could mean only one of two things, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t planning on a lynching.

He wrapped the rope around a tree and proceeded to rappel down into the hole. This wasn’t necessary, since the underground portion of the falls is accessible through the tunnel. But Darrin wanted to do it for the novelty. He disappeared down the hole while being battered by the force of the waterfall. Shortly after he disappeared from sight I heard a loud splash. I cringed, until I heard a loud whoop, seemingly from the bowels of the Earth.

It turns out that the rope wasn’t quite long enough. Climbing back up wasn’t an option, so he let go and splashed into the pool at the bottom of the hole. So yeah, he’s crazy.

Before we left we hiked up to the top of the falls. We found an interesting wildflower, along with a nice view of Table Rock. We thought there might be additional waterfalls upstream, but the terrain above the falls is pretty flat.

We returned to our cars and drove over to Wildcat Falls on highway 11. I recently discovered that there is an Upper Wildcat Falls. I’d actually heard that years ago, but mistook the upper tier of Wildcat Falls for the upper falls. Actually, Upper Wildcat Falls is a good distance upstream.

It was late afternoon, and the parking area was nearly empty. We hiked up past a memorial, which was placed there follow a recent fatal accident at the upper falls. We crossed the creek below the upper tier and followed the trail up to an impressive old chimney. We found a number of nice wildflowers in the immediate area, including Catesby’s Trillium and Mayapples. Beyond the chimney the trail splits, forming a loop. We went counter-clockwise, following a relatively new trail through the woods. We passed a small cascade on a tributary stream before working our way back to Wildcat Creek at the base of the upper falls.

Upper Wildcat Falls is quite impressive. It’s another steep, sliding cascade, but it is probably 100’ high. Water levels were up, which probably made it considerably more scenic than it would be in normal conditions. We scrambled up to the base for photos before finishing the hike. On the way out we briefly considered taking a side trip over to check out more waterfalls on Slickum Creek, which is in the next valley to the west. It was getting late though, so we skipped it. We did take some photos of Wildcat Falls before departing, and found a nice display of Spiderwort in bloom nearby.

From there we drove over to Jones Gap State Park. We parked in the camper’s lot and took a few minutes to reload our packs. Then we hiked up to our campsite and set up camp. Afterwards, we took an evening hike up to Hospital Rock. We spent the evening eating and drinking moonshine around the campfire. Somehow we stayed up until after midnight, which was a mistake, since we had a tough hike planned for the next day.

Jack met us at our campsite Sunday morning. Unfortunately he arrived before we’d gotten around to cooking and eating breakfast. We did that and broke camp while he wandered around looking for things to photograph. He did find some nice wildflowers in the woods near our campsite.

I leashed the dogs to trees while I took my camping gear to the car and stopped by the restroom. Darrin was there with them, but that didn’t stop them from barking and crying the whole time. I was almost back to the campsite when Boone met me on the trail. The remains of his leash were dangling from his collar. He’d chewed through the leash without Darrin realizing what he was doing.

Jack, Darrin, the dogs, and I started our hike on the Hospital Rock Trail. This trail was recently rerouted, and is much better than the original. In fact, Darrin spent several days working on it himself. We hiked up to a rock hop crossing of Rocky Branch, which is immediately downstream from a waterfall. This waterfall was recently discovered (during the rerouting of the trail). Buckeye Falls is one of the names being considered for it. A short distance beyond Rocky Branch the trail passes through a power line cut. The power line kind of kills the wilderness experience, but it does offer a nice view of Jones Gap. It also enabled us to spot another waterfall on Rocky Branch, upstream from the one visible from the trail crossing. Rocky Branch spills over a high cliff, and the waterfall looks impressive. From our vantage point, it looked like it would be fairly easy to get a closer look.

It wasn’t. There aren’t any trees along the power line right of way, but there are plenty of scraggly bushes and briars. Our arms and legs found both with amazing regularity. We also collected several ticks along the way. The climb involved some difficult scrambling. Boone and Kona had trouble in a couple of spots. Eventually we reached a point where we had to traverse a cliff face to get closer to the creek. I began to lose my motivation. Getting to the base of the falls would be difficult, if not downright dangerous. Darrin attempted a route a bit higher up the mountain, but gave it up pretty quickly.

We retreated to the trail, and were relieved to get back. Clearly that little adventure hadn’t been one of my better ideas. For this one, I propose the name “Waterfall on Rocky Branch best viewed from the trail”. “Bad idea Falls” is another possibility.

We continued on to Hospital Rock. We re-grouped there and planned our next move. The primary goal for the day was an exploration of Buck Hollow Creek. The Hospital Rock Trail follows the upper portion of Buck Hollow Creek above the Cleveland Cliffs. Darrin, Brenda, and I had scouted out a short stretch of Buck Hollow Creek below the trail on an earlier hike. We managed to crawl down near the brink of a substantial waterfall, but couldn’t find a safe route down from there. Today we hoped to hike to Buck Hollow Creek downstream from the falls. Once at the creek we’d work our way upstream to the base of the falls.

Our plan was to head cross-country from Hospital Rock to Buck Hollow Creek. We anticipated having to cross several tributary drainages and ridges along the way. We started out by continuing up the Hospital Rock Trail. After a short distance we veered off onto the old trail, which was recently re-routed. We followed it up to the first switchback, where we began our bushwhack.

The hike started out easy, as the forest was fairly open. We descended gradually into the first of several gullies that we anticipated. We climbed gently to a ridge, before descending into a more substantial valley. We found a cascading stream at the bottom. The creek was fairly large, to the extent that crossing it posed a bit of a challenge. Darrin questioned whether this was Buck Hollow Creek, but Jack and I were confident that we couldn’t have reached it that quickly. We hiked downstream a short distance, and rock hopped the creek below a nice cascade. From there we ascended another ridge, before descending to cross a smaller creek. Another climb followed. From there, we found ourselves side-hilling along a steep slope. This went on for a while, and we didn’t see any valleys ahead.

Darrin again wondered if we had overshot Buck Hollow Creek. Jack pulled up the GPS app on his phone. Sure enough, we had missed it.

We backtracked to the first, larger stream we had crossed. We had lunch at the cascade we’d passed earlier. There were quite a few wildflowers here, including Red Wakerobin Trillium and Jack in the Pulpit.

After lunch we attempted to hike upstream along the cascading stream. The hike was grueling due to the steep terrain. Before long it was true scrambling, climbing, and crawling, and it just kept getting worse. At one point we crawled through a dense rhododendron thicket to access the creek. Darrin fought his way over to the stream, and reported a continuous run of steep cascades above us. Higher up, he could just glimpse a substantial waterfall. It was still a considerable distance above us though, and the terrain in between looked demoralizing. We conceded defeat and retreated to Hospital Rock to lick our wounds.

Failing to reach the upper waterfall on Rocky Branch and the waterfall on Buck Hollow Creek was disappointing, but it was still a great day. The whole weekend was sunny but pleasantly cool. It was a great time to be outside.

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