PSYCHO CITY
My first real backpacking experiences were in the Wilson Creek area back in the early 90's. The first few weekend trips were all in the proposed Lost Cove Wilderness. My first "long" trip; 4 days; combined Lost Cove and the proposed Harper Creek Wilderness. I've come a long way since those days, but the area still holds a special appeal for me. Last weekend I had an opportunity to hike to one of my all-time favorite cascades, South Harper Falls. It had been several years since my last visit, so I jumped on the opportunity.
Saucony and I met Joel and Mary in Morganton. This was an official Sierra Club hike that Joel was leading. Several other prospective hikers backed out at the last minute, either because 7:30 was too early to start or because they wanted to be home in time for dinner. This was one reminder of why I don't lead Sierra Club hikes anymore. Another reminder was the last experience I had leading the same hike we planned for today. On that occasion, we hiked from the Greentown Trailhead on highway 181 to the South Harper Falls overlook and back. That hike was 13 miles, but the terrain was fairly gentle. That hike isn't memorable because of the long distance or the beautiful waterfall though. It's memorable because of Holly.
Holly was a Sierra Clubber that I hadn't met before the hike. She called a few days before, and I made sure she was comfortable with hiking 13 miles. In the conversation, I told her to bring water, lunch, and rain gear. She showed up at the trailhead with some variations of the "10 essentials". She didn't bring water, because she "didn't like the way it tastes". Instead, she opted for a half-gallon of orange juice in a cardboard box. Can you imagine drinking nothing but a half-gallon of warm orange juice on a 13-mile hike? Her rain gear consisted of an umbrella, which might work if you can keep it from getting tangled up in the rhododendrons. Lunch consisted of, if I remember correctly, an entire loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Holly couldn't just make a sandwich like a normal person. But then, she didn't do much of anything like a normal person, as I was soon to find out.
A normal person would've brought a pack to carry these things in. It hadn't occurred to me to tell her to bring one. I assumed it went without saying. So there she was, with her umbrella in one hand, the loaf of bread in the other, and the orange juice tucked under her arm. Ready to hike. 13 miles. Some generous soul offered to carry the peanut butter for her, so she didn't have to kick it along ahead of her.
Hiking with Holly started poorly and went downhill from there. As the day wore on, it became apparent that Holly was worse than just odd. She was psycho. In fact, quite possibly dangerous. Things didn't really get ugly until we were on the way back. We were still several miles from the cars when Holly decided she'd had enough. She sat down in the middle of the trail and refused to go any further. Did I mention that Holly was a full-grown (physically, at least) adult? She had herself quite a tantrum, while the rest of the hikers watched me to see how the "leader" would handle the situation. I opted for a classic bluff. I told her she could sit there until winter for all I cared and kept hiking. She came storming along after us a few minutes later.
So anyway, I digress. As I said, I met Joel and Mary in Morganton. Joel needed to meet Tom up at Jonas Ridge to run a car shuttle. I was leery. Mary was, after all, a Sierra Clubber. She got boots and a pack out of Joel's truck. A pack! How sensible. I decided that she must be normal after all as we headed up the road out of Morganton.
Along the way I decided that Mary was going to be just fine. When we arrived at the trailhead, I suggested that we get a head start. Joel and Tom would be doing the mother of all car shuttles, and I didn't really want to wait beside the highway for an hour and a half. Mary was eager to get going, so we hiked down the Mountains-To-Sea Trail to Upper Creek.
We reached the creek after a long, occasionally steep descent. My original plan was to wait there for Joel and Tom. However, I knew there was an unofficial side trail heading down into the gorge. In the heart of the gorge is a cascade known as Lower Upper Falls. This is by far my favorite name of anything, anywhere. Mary was enthusiastic, and inclined to lengthen the hike. Joel had told her that the one-way hike was 10 miles. I informed her that it was 8 tops, and that Joel describes the length of his hikes more by how they feel than by any actual physical measurement.
We hiked downstream on a fisherman's trail, passing numerous cascades and swimming holes. We went thirty minutes, but didn't make it to Lower Upper Falls. The trail continued, so I will have to come back and explore it further.
We backtracked to the main trail and continued upstream to a large camping area. Here we crossed Upper Creek at a ford. The water was up enough to make the crossing interesting. The rocks were slippery, but I made it across. Mary, however, didn't have my luck. She slipped on a rock and dunked both boots. It didn't dampen her spirits though, and she even claimed that the water was refreshing, given the warm, sunny weather.
We hiked downstream to campsite where we had lunch and waited for Tom and Joel. Saucony went for a swim and I worked on my tan, despite a nasty crop of biting flies in the area. Tom and Joel showed up at 12:30. While we were having fun, Joel had been busy getting a warning ticket from a state trooper for an expired inspection sticker. Oops. I guess that's one of the perils of running the car shuttle.
We continued on the Greentown Trail / Mountains to Sea Trail after lunch. This section follows an old roadbed up a long but gradual hill. The best part of this section of the hike was the abundant dwarf iris in bloom. We crossed several small streams before reaching a primitive camping area at the end of a forest road. There were some backpackers camped here, but no one was around.
We continued up the forest road to the top of the ridge. At the crest, we entered the Harper Creek Wilderness Study Area, though any signs to that effect were torn down by vandals long ago. Here paths headed off in several directions. Back before the Mountains to Sea Trail was created, the hike from here to the falls was a complete maze. Now the MST is blazed, making the route-finding a little easier. However, it's still trickier than you might expect.
We avoided 3 side trails at the gap in the ridge and descended on the old road. Shortly, we turned right onto a footpath, only to rejoin the road later. Along the way we had pleasant views of Chestnut Knob above and Silverbell Trees in bloom. We continued our descent, and were startled by mountain bikers as they rushed by in a blur. After that excitement we came to the navigational challenge of the hike. In the first sharp curve to the right, we avoided an old road continuing ahead. After a short distance, we reached another sharp curve to the right. This time, we turned left off of the blazed trail and descended an eroded path. At this point, I suggested that we let Mary lead us the rest of the way. Mary was apprehensive, but she didn't realize that we had already made the only tricky turn of the hike. From where we were, it was simply a matter of heading directly downhill and ignoring all of the side trails. A few minutes later we reached a cliff with a spectacular overlook.
This point has always been one of my favorite spots. Here we found ourselves looking out over a deep chasm, with South Harper Falls cascading 200' over the opposite side of the gorge across from us. Off to our right, we had a clear view of Grandfather Mountain towering over the valleys feeding Wilson Creek. We enjoyed a long break, and enjoyed several of Tom's stories from his days as a ranger on Grandfather.
We lounged for 30 minutes before forcing ourselves to move on. We started back up the hill we descended, but turned right onto an unmarked, narrow footpath not far above the cliffs. We were now on the Raider Camp Trail, which contoured above the gorge before descending to Harper Creek on switchbacks. Here, we took a short side trip upstream to view a scenic cascade above the main falls. We returned after a few minutes and crossed the creek. This crossing is a little easier than that of Upper Creek, and everyone made it across without dunking a boot.
From here our route continued another mile on the Harper Creek Trail to a forest road. We opted for one more side trip before calling it a day though. We descended to the brink of the falls, which starts as a long waterslide before tumbling into the gorge. We stayed on the trail, and descended steeply before reaching a faint side path heading down to the right. We followed this down to the creek. It reaches the stream at a precarious point about 1/3 of the way down the falls. To this point, the falls is a long, steep slide. From our vantage point we had a great close-up view of the cascade. Below, the creek spills over a steep drop and plunges into the gorge. Standing at the brink is enough to give almost anyone a powerful sensation of vertigo.
We backed away from the edge and explored the area at the base of the upper drop. Here we found several small potholes full of water. In one, Tom discovered a lonely salamander. It was our most significant wildlife sighting of the day, until Mary and I spooked an enormous wild turkey on the hike out.
The last mile was hot and boring, but it had been a great hike. We had enjoyed perfect weather, spring wildflowers, and a beautiful waterfall. It was a great weekend to reacquaint myself with one of my favorite places.
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