ON THE BORDER

Christy is in charge of her school’s student exchange program. For the past several years, they have had a relationship with a school in Denmark. This spring, her school is hosting 2 teachers and 24 students for a week. The students are staying with various families, while we are hosting the teachers at our house. The idea is for the students and teachers to experience our culture (?) and way of life. For Christy and me, our way of life revolves around the great outdoors. So, we decided to invite the Danish teachers, Henrik and Jens, on a hike.

I put a lot of thought into where to take them. Both Henrik and Jens are extremely well traveled. Jens has trekked in Peru and Nepal, and Henrik is planning a trip to Alaska. With that background, I figured they would be hard to impress. I wanted to take them on a classic Appalachian hike, but without spending all day driving. A weather forecast that promised clouds, rain, and possibly even snow at the higher elevations complicated matters. Neither Henrik nor Jens was particularly interested in seeing any more snow this winter. Who can blame them? Under the circumstances, I felt that a waterfall hike was in order. All things considered, the obvious choice was a visit to DuPont State Forest outside of Hendersonville.

My initial thought was to do “The Ultimate DuPont State Forest Hike” – a route Jack and I had come up with several years earlier. On that hike, we had started at the Hooker Falls trailhead. After a quick visit to Hooker Falls, we hiked past Triple Falls, High Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls and on to Cedar Rock. From there, we followed some obscure trails to loop back to our starting point.

I quickly realized that we would need to modify our route. A check of the Friends of DuPont State Forest website revealed that several trails were closed due to debris and damage. Plus, the original hike was 13 miles, which seemed a little aggressive. I decided to cut the last part of the route off, so that we would end the hike at the Corn Mill Shoals Trailhead. By doing so, we would avoid the closed trails and shorten the hike to about 8 miles. The revised route would require a car shuttle, but I didn’t think that would be a problem. With Dave and Jack planning to join us, we were sure to have plenty of vehicles available to run the shuttle.

Getting our gear organized Saturday evening was a bit more challenging than normal. Fortunately, Henrik and Jens had almost everything they needed. The only exception was that Jens had no boots. Luckily, he was able to fit into a pair of Christy’s hiking shoes.

Getting up early on Sunday was rough because Daylight Savings Time started the previous evening. Somehow we still made it out of the house by 8. We met Jack at the Corn Mill Shoals Trailhead at 10:30, and managed to squeeze him into the Subaru. It was a cramped ride over to the Hooker Falls Trailhead with 5 people, multiple packs, and an 80-pound dog in our car. Fortunately it was a quick ride. At the Hooker Falls parking area we found Dave and his dog, Sasha, along with about a dozen other cars. Apparently the cloudy skies hadn’t scared very many folks away on this Sunday morning.

Christy dropped us off before heading up the road. She had to get her regular workout in before joining us for the remainder of the hike. Her plan was to park at the Buck Forest Road trailhead. She would run Buck Forest Road, and then meet us at the covered bridge over the Little River just above High Falls. She would join us there for lunch and hike with us that afternoon.

Jack, Dave, Henrik, Yens, Boone, Sasha, and I started the day off with a quick warm up hike to Hooker Falls. A short easy stroll along the Little River brought us to the falls. Hooker Falls certainly isn’t the most spectacular waterfall in the area. It’s probably only 10’ high. Despite the lack of height, I’ve always been fond of it. It’s a wide waterfall, and the power of the river is certainly impressive.

From there, we backtracked to the parking area and crossed the road. On the far side we picked up the trail heading upstream towards Triple Falls. After only a short distance, we reached an obscure side trail leading towards the river. We followed it, and worked our way upstream across slippery rocks and through Rhododendron tangles. After a few minutes, we reached a view of the third and final drop of Triple Falls. This is a great spot, but it seems to be overlooked by most of the people that hike in this extremely popular area.

We returned to the main trail, and climbed to an overlook of Triple Falls. Then we took a few minutes to descend a relatively new staircase leading to the base of the middle drop. This left us at the brink of the lower drop, with a great view of the two falls above us.

Once again we returned to the main trail. We eventually rejoined the river along an unusually placid stretch of water. It didn’t last long though. Before long, our conversations were drowned out by the roar of High Falls just ahead.

We reached the base of High Falls, which was drenched in spray. The river was up after several days of rain, and the water was incredibly powerful. After a few minutes at the falls, we picked up a rough trail leading back to the main path. We found a barricade at the top, which suggests that this trail might be officially closed. I’m not sure about that though, as there weren’t any signs to suggest this coming from the other direction.

From here, we climbed to the covered bridge at the top of the falls. We found Christy waiting for us there. Despite our best efforts to time our arrival, she had beaten us by almost an hour. I was carrying lunch, and she was ready to eat after running earlier. We lounged by the river below the bridge and enjoyed lunch before resuming the hike.

From the bridge, we followed the dirt Buck Forest Road to Conservation Road. This road took us through the “donut hole”. The donut hole is the popular nickname in the hiking community for the private land in the center of DuPont State Forest. Originally the entire property was owned by DuPont. The land featured a facility for manufacturing X-ray film, along with a lodge and cabins that were used by Company executives as a retreat. Back in the 90’s, the property was sold to a developer. The developer intended to build yet another vacation and retirement community. Fortunately the state of North Carolina stepped in, condemned the land, paid off the developer, and created DuPont State Forest. The exception was the land surrounding the former plant, which is located in the center of the forest. That area remains off-limits to the public until DuPont completes an extensive environmental cleanup of the area. On a couple of occasions Conservation Road has been closed to public access. Now though, hikers, bikers, and horseback riders are allowed to pass through the area as long as they remain on the road.

We followed Conservation Road all the way to Lake Julia Road. We followed this road a short distance to a lodge overlooking Lake Julia. From there we wandered down to the lakeshore. Boone and Sasha went for a swim, and the resident geese even paid us a visit.

From there, we doubled-back a short distance and took the Barn Trail past a pasture and barn to an overlook of Bridal Veil Falls. Bridal Veil Falls it the upper-most waterfall on the Little River, and it’s probably my favorite of them all. It starts with a short drop, followed by a long slide. Towards the end, the slide steepens and widens out, forming the namesake bridal veil. We took all of this in from the developed overlook before following the trail to the base.

At this point, we had a decision to make. Our route continued up the falls and beyond, following the river upstream and on to Cedar Rock. Normally it’s reasonably safe, with caution, to climb the rocks on the left side of the falls. The water was up though, and those rocks are slippery when wet. We knew we could fight our way through the Rhododendrons on the bank if necessary, but walking up the side of the falls is a lot more fun.

I rounded everyone up and we discussed the situation. The consensus we reached was that we would try climbing the falls. If it seemed too dangerous, we’d bail out and into the woods. At this point, I also mentioned that we would have to cross the river, and that there was no bridge. Henrik and Jens looked at each other in alarm. Prior to the hike, they had both expressed a desire to stay dry. With a grin, I promised them that we’d be able to cross the river without getting wet. I left out the details though, failing to mention that we would actually be hiking UNDER the river.

We worked our way up the rocks carefully. The route wasn’t too treacherous, and we were rewarded with fine views of some impressive horsetails along the falls. I took a lot of photos along here, and quickly fell behind the rest of the group. As a result, Henrik and Jens ended up leading the way. Unfortunately, they didn’t know where the secret passage across the river is located. Just before the base of the upper drop, they found the route into the woods that bypasses an impassable stretch of river. Unfortunately, they missed the turn at the base of the upper drop and continued up the slope to the top of the falls. I chased after them in an effort to get everyone back on route.

I caught up to Henrik and Jens at the top of the falls. I got them turned around, and we headed back down the steep, rooty slope towards the base of the upper drop. I was hurrying to catch up with everybody else, and probably wasn’t being as careful as I needed to be. I made one misstep, and turned my ankle near the bottom of the hill. I fell, and landed directly on the tripod I was carrying in my right hand. It snapped instantly. My initial reaction was to curse, but I was actually strangely relieved. I had really begun to loathe that tripod. Now I would be forced to replace it with something better.

I like the way Christy tells this part of the story better. Last night, we were at a restaurant with her parents, her sister, and other family members. Her version of the story hits the main highlights, but leaves out some critical details. Christy’s version:

“Andy was hurrying down the hill when he slipped and fell and broke his tripod”.

Christy’s mother looked at me with a mixture of puzzlement and concern. Immediately I realized that we were going to have to explain that a “tripod” isn’t a body part. After all, we wouldn’t want to dash her slim hopes of another grandchild. It was all I could do to restrain myself from adding, “And then my balls fell off and rolled down the waterfall”!

My ankle seemed ok, so Christy and I followed Jack, Henrick, and Yens behind the falls. As we approached, I could see that this was going to be more difficult than usual. The water was way up, and getting behind the falls was going to require ducking under a low cliff while dodging the falling water and keeping my feet balanced on slippery rocks. Christy went ahead of me, and I was distracted by Boone as he flipped out watching everyone walk through the waterfall. I looked up from trying to calm him down to see Christy sprawled on the rocks right in front of the entrance to the cave. I assumed she had simply slipped on a wet rock. She scrambled out of the river and into the darkness behind the falls, leaving me to follow behind her.

Later, I found out that her knee had actually given out when she squatted to slip under the cliff. She had fallen into the river, hitting her head on a rock in the process. At that point, she’d felt the current of the river trying to pull her downstream – towards the brink of the main part of the falls. Fortunately she managed to pull herself up and into relative safety behind the falls. Of course, I missed almost all of this.

I managed to get into the cave mostly dry. I crouched and waddled behind the roaring veil of water as I worked my way to the far side. As I progressed, the cave opened up, and the walking became easier. I took a few photos, but I knew they’d be disappointing without my tripod.

At the far side I went looking for Christy, who had disappeared. I finally caught up to her, and got the whole story. She was pretty wet, and with temperatures in the 40’s, hypothermia was a concern. Fortunately, we were only a couple of miles from the Corn Mill Shoals trailhead, where Jack’s truck was waiting.

We scrambled up to the top of the falls, where we met an old roadbed. The road fords the river here, but that crossing is far more dangerous than the route we took. We turned the other way though, to follow the old road above the river. We knew from previous trips that this road would take us to the Cedar Rock Trail and on to the Corn Mill Shoals Trailhead.

On our previous trips, we’d noticed “no trespassing” signs along the east side of the road. We knew this road followed the edge of the “donut hole” – the remaining section of property owned by DuPont in the center of the forest. The official DuPont State Forest map shows the property boundary right on top of both the river and road in this area. Unfortunately, because the scale of the map is small, and the boundary line is thick, it’s impossible to tell exactly where the boundary is. Because the signs follow the east side of the road, we’d always assumed that the boundary follows the road. That would be logical, since the old road is a heavily traveled route connecting Bridal Veil Falls with Cedar Rock and Corn Mill Shoals.

We followed the old road up to a junction with another rough road coming up from the middle of the DuPont property. We reached a junction just as a pickup was coming up this other road. The truck, which was marked “United Security”, stopped next to us. The window rolled down to reveal a large, heavily-jowled “Rednexus Americanus”. He proceeded to inform us that we were trespassing on private property. This came is quite a surprise to Jack and I. We thought we were on the border, but not over it.

At that point, he told us we’d have to go back the way we came. I tried not to laugh, because that clearly wasn’t going to happen. It was going to take a lot more than a mall cop reject to get Christy, who was still dripping wet, to go back under that waterfall. So I questioned his claim that we were on private property. Then his true colors began to show. He displayed that smug, arrogant attitude that all people with a hint of self-granted authority seem to have. I’ve always wondered if having that personality is a requirement for that kind of job, or if having that type of job breeds that sort of attitude. This guy actually reminded me of a grown up version of the South Park character Eric Cartman. You will respect his authoritah. Personally, I think if he’s going to behave like that, he should trade in his pickup truck for a Big Wheel.

We looked at the map together. He pointed out the road and the boundary, but the point he was referencing was a good mile or more up the road. He clearly had no idea where we were on the map. This didn’t do anything to increase my confidence in the accuracy of his claim.

This debate wasn’t accomplishing anything. I decided to take a different approach. From my point of view, this was going to end in one of two ways. Either he’d let us pass through to finish our hike, or we’d tell him to stick it and do it anyway. I wasn’t quite sure how that second scenario would play out, but at this point I didn’t much care. What was Mr. United Security going to do if we chose to ignore him? He could call the police if he wanted to. I didn’t want this confrontation to escalate though. He looked like he was about one pork rind short of a heart attack as it was. So, I decided to be a little bit diplomatic and asked him permission to pass through.

He agreed to let us pass since Christy was wet and cold. What a sport! He escorted us up the road to the power lines, where we joined the trail to Cedar Rock. Here we passed about a dozen “no trespassing signs”, which would be awfully hard to miss coming from the opposite direction.

After we returned home I iced my tripod (ha!) and spent some time researching the property boundaries. I consulted the Transylvania County GIS site, and at first glance, it appeared that the land just north of Bridal Veil Falls was actually in DuPont State Forest. Jack came to the same conclusion, but noticed something later. The property line mirrored the curves of the river, but the line itself was some distance to the north and east. It appears that the aerial photo overlay is out of alignment with the actual map and boundary lines. As best as I can tell, the property line does actually follow the river through there – not the road. This is unfortunate, as it excludes a short stretch of heavily traveled trail from public land. As a result, it’s impossible to legally hike from Bridal Veil Falls to the Cedar Rock Trail on the east side of the river.

Our friends from Denmark were bewildered by the entire situation. In Denmark, they look at private property a little differently. Simply walking down a road or trail through private property isn’t considered trespassing. I’ve always had a lot of respect for private property rights, but this sort of so-called “trespassing” is just silly. In a case like this, who is the victim? I’m beginning to think that our neighbors from Europe have the right idea.

Another thought occurred to me after the hike. Some years ago, DuPont sold the property to another company, Agfa. Agfa owned the “donut hole” during the early years of DuPont State Forest. During this time, Agfa worked on their part of an “environmental cleanup”. This consisted of the removal of the former plant and other buildings. A few years ago, the land was transferred back to DuPont so that DuPont could complete their portion of the cleanup. This apparently consists of the removal of trash and contaminated soil. When Agfa owned the donut hole, “no trespassing” signs along the Little River at Bridal Veil Falls were limited to the north and east sides of the road. Apparently the land was heavily posted when it was transferred back to DuPont. Why are they so worried about people walking along a road a couple of miles from the actual site of the former plant? It makes me wonder what DuPont’s real motives are. Is there something going on with their “environmental cleanup” that they want to keep hidden?

We concluded the hike with a moderate climb over open slopes of exposed granite on Cedar Rock. Normally there are some fine views along here, but our arrival coincided with low clouds and light rain. There wasn’t much to see, so we kept trucking, ready to get back to the cars. We hurried down the mountain, reaching the trailhead a bit later. At that point, Jack took Christy and Dave to pick up the other vehicles. Henrik, Jens, Boone, and I waited in the rain, but Christy returned to pick us up after only a few minutes.

I think everyone enjoyed most of the hike, although the last hour left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, the route of the “Ultimate of the DuPont State Forest Hike” that Jack and I had pioneered is now off-limits. Apparently DuPont has stated that they will turn over ownership of the “donut hole” to the state once the environmental cleanup is complete. However, it sounds like the cleanup may take quite a few years. In the meantime, we’ll need to find a way to modify our route on future hikes.

This was a rather lengthy trip report, so I think a brief review of the highlights is in order:

· There are some pretty waterfalls in DuPont State Forest

· A tripod is not a body part.

· Wet rocks are slippery

· Did somebody say donuts? Mmmmmm, donuts….

· Don’t be silly, only real cops are allowed to eat donuts!

· So, there’s an A-hole in the donut hole?

While we’re at it, here’s a quick quiz.

The security guard’s name was:

A) Paul Blart

B) Homer

C) Cartman

D) Fat Bastard

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