Christy, Myron, Dorcas, Kevin, and the dogs joined me for one tough dayhike on Sunday. We started our hike at the end of a remote forest road north of Morganton. I had been in this area before, and had never seen anyone. Today, however, fishermen were all along Upper Creek.
We started the hike along the remains of the old road. We hiked beside a beautiful whitewater stream. Eventually the road ended and we began a narrow, rough, steep footpath. The trail clung to the mountainside, with huge boulders on our right, and a sheer drop to the water on our left. We climbed steeply, in between crawling over and under fallen trees. It was a fun trail.
Eventually we took a side trail up to a cliff for a view of the gorge. From here, the side trail appeared to continue, and ribbons marked the route. We decided to explore ahead, rather than return to the main trail. That was the first mistake of the day. After a couple hundred yards and a few ribbons, the path disappeared. We ended up bushwhacking (buttwhacking?) down the hillside in search of the trail. We reached it eventually, without any major injuries.
We resumed our hike upstream, rock hopping Burnthouse Branch to reach a nice campsite. At this point, the map and guidebook suggest that the trail continues uphill to junction with the Mountains to Sea trail. From past experience, I knew this wasn't accurate. In reality, the trail continues to follow Upper Creek, crossing it before reaching the MST along the creek side. Following the trail would've added 2 miles and 4 wet creek crossings to our hike, so we decided to bushwhack. We climbed the ridge ahead of us, which was incredibly steep. As we climbed, we got nice views of Burnthouse Branch Falls. The slope eventually eased, but then steepened again before we reached the MST.
After 2 rough bushwhacks, I was starting to get ugly looks from the rest of the group. I promised them 4 miles of very easy hiking to the falls. I didn't lie - the hiking was easy. It was the navigation that was tricky. We passed jjunctions with more jeep roads and trails than I can count. All of them were unmarked, and almost none of them were on the map. Fortunately, our trail was blazed, and marked well in most places. However, the final trail to the falls wasn't marked. The blazed trail we followed continued, and we missed the turn. I realized it pretty quickly though, and we backtracked for 10 minutes before finding the right path. By 2pm we arrived at the falls overlook. We were on a cliff, looking across the gorge at a 200' high waterfall. It's always been one of my favorite spots, and it wasn't disappointing on this day, either. We enjoyed a late lunch and a few pictures before heading back.
We were racing daylight as we returned. Nobody was interested in bushwhacking down a steep mountainside in the dark. We made excellent time, and found our route down the ridge. The rugged trail through the Upper Creek gorge slowed us down some, but we reached the cars by 6. It had been an 8 hour hike, totaling 13 miles. Add in some steep grades and bushwhacking, and you've got a long day. As we finished the hike, the first rain drops began to fall. It had threatened rain all day, but held off long enough for us to finish the hike.
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