UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Back in 1999 Christy and I explored Wintergreen Falls on the Toxaway River. We did the long hike in from Frozen Creek Road to the base of the falls. From there we swam and scrambled upstream. We climbed the rocks adjacent to the falls and swam through the pools between the individual drops. We reached a point where the entire river runs under a huge slab of rock. We turned the next corner and reached the base of a nearly vertical waterfall. The cliff was too steep to climb. We thought about trying to bushwhack around it through the woods, but the jungle looked hostile and we were barefoot. We were also running out of gas. The hike to base of Wintergreen is more than five miles one-way, and the scramble upstream from there is grueling. We retreated.

I knew that there was another big waterfall upstream from where we stopped. I made a couple of subsequent attempts to reach it, but failed each time. High water levels, slick rocks, and the grueling nature of the approach conspired to defeat me.

Last weekend I tried a different approach. Team Waterfall gathered on Saturday morning on highway 64 at the top of Toxaway Falls for a thorough exploration of the Toxaway River. We had a stellar group, with Darrin (the Salmon), Bob, Jack, Scott (the Professor), Jennifer, Kitty (the Rock Sprite), John (the Gnome), and Kyle joining me. We also had my dogs, Boone and Kona, and Kyle’s Dog, Ziggy, with us. Thomas (the Badger) was a late scratch due to illness. Spencer and Stephanie planned to arrive later and hoped to catch up with us or meet us somewhere along the way.

The plan was to follow the Toxaway River downstream past Toxaway Falls and Twin Falls, through the Upper Narrows and the Lower Narrows, and down to Upper Wintergreen Falls. That was the elusive waterfall that I’d been trying to reach for 16 years. From there we’d continue down to the base of Wintergreen Falls, if time allowed. From the Wintergreen Falls area we planned to follow a series of old roads out through a new addition to Gorges State Park to Flat Creek Valley Road.

After meeting at the bridge, Scott, Jennifer, and I ran two cars over to the ending point of the hike so that we wouldn’t have to road walk back. We returned quickly and started the hike with a mad dash across highway 64. That’s fun with two dogs on leashes! We descended Toxaway Falls on River Left initially, before making an easy wade along the edge of the pool at the base of the biggest drop. From there we walked over bare rock as we descended to the base of the falls. At the very bottom, Darrin, Kyle, and Ziggy took turns sliding the final drop.

From there we continued downstream along a trail. After a few minutes we reached Twin Falls. An ancient rope eased our descent over a wet rock face. Once at the base of that waterfall the trail ended. From that point, we’d be in the river or on the adjacent rocks the rest of the way.

In his new guidebook, Kevin Adams suggests only attempting this trek when water levels are low and the rocks are dry. Although we had a favorable weather forecast, it had rained the previous evening. The water wasn’t high, but it wasn’t low either. It was also muddy, which made it hard to see while we were wading. Even worse, the rocks along the side of the river were wet and slick. One traverse was aided by another rope, where a slip would’ve resulted in a nasty tumble down the rock and into the churning water. Turning back would’ve been sensible, but we were too excited about what lay ahead to even consider it.

One of us did turn back though. We were somewhere downstream of Twin Falls when Jack realized that he’d left his wallet sitting on the front seat of his truck. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the hike knowing that it was sitting there in full view of anyone that walked by. He decided to run back to his truck to move it. He suggested that he might try to catch back up with us, or join up with Spencer and Stephanie if he could find them.

The stretch between Twin Falls and the Upper Narrows took longer than I expected. The wet rocks and higher, muddier water really slowed us down. We started around 10:15am. Originally I told Spencer that I guessed that we would reach the confluence of Indian Creek (between the Upper and Lower Narrows) around 1pm. It ended up being 3 when we reached that point.

The Upper Narrows starts with the river rushing under another giant rock slab. It then drops through a steep, rock funnel with a steeply sloping bare rock wall on River Left and sheer cliffs on River Right. I had just finished taking photos of the natural bridge and the beginning of the flume when Jack appeared! That guy can really move fast when he wants to.

We had one big scare along here, when the skies darkened and we saw a couple of flashes of lightning. Luckily, we only caught a few sprinkles, and a huge storm didn’t hit the headwaters of the Toxaway River. That could’ve sent a flash flood down upon us.

We all continued downstream. In the heart of the Upper Narrows some of the group moved to River Left and picked their way down the steeply sloping rock. Scott, Jack, the dogs, and I tried staying on River Right. We picked our way through a boulder field and a forest of Devil’s Walking Stick at the base of a sheer cliff. Eventually the cliff closed in, and we had to cross. We found an easy place to hop across, but my dogs wouldn’t do it. Boone fell off a 200’ waterfall a few years back. He survived and wasn’t even injured, but now he tends to panic in places like these.

The crossing was easy, but I couldn’t force him. Sometimes in these situations I have to walk away so that he knows that he has no choice but to follow. That’s a heartbreaking thing to do, but in this case it was our only choice. I did manage to get Kona across, though she chose to take a more difficult route. We descended more sloping, open rock to reach the swimming hole and sandy beach at the base of the Upper Narrows. Once we got out of Boone’s sight he stopped barking. Kyle had just started back up to see if he could coax him when he came running down the rock. What a relief!

We left the beach and continued downstream. It was along here that I stumbled upon a copperhead. Luckily I saw it before the dogs did. A bit farther down was another swimming hole and the confluence with Indian Creek.

I thought we might run into Spencer and Stephanie here, but there was no sign of them. I wasn’t sure if they were ahead of us, farther downstream, or behind us. We decided to keep moving as we were way behind schedule.

The Lower Narrows featured more tight channels squeezed between massive rock walls. In a couple of places we had to swim across pools. Fortunately, everyone brought a dry bag for their camera, phone, and keys.

The low point of the trip came when we reached a tricky downclimb off a narrow rock ridge through a nest of wasps! Most of the group made it through, but someone stirred up the wasps and Kitty got stung several times. The only other choice was a slick butt slide down into a narrow crack between the rocks that led to a cesspool of deep brown water. With the wasps swarming, John and I took the cesspool route. I lost my footing while wading and my head went under briefly. I saw thru the muck and dragged myself on the far side. Ugh.

The Lower Narrows ended at the top of Upper Wintergreen Falls. Finally! From there, more scrambling and butt-sliding was required to reach the base. Upper Wintergreen is a three-level drop totaling about 100’. We all regrouped at the base of the falls and took a group photo. There was also a natural water slide just downstream. Darrin, Bob, Jack, Kyle, and Scott took turns sliding there.

Just beyond was the top of Wintergreen Falls proper. At this point it was after 5pm. I knew getting all the way down Wintergreen Falls would be a huge undertaking. It could take hours. It wasn’t easy, but we decided to bail out there and hike out on the faint, steep trail that descends the knife-edge ridge that ends near the base of Upper Wintergreen Falls. We did note that there was a trail continuing ahead, and steeply down, from the top of Wintergreen. That looked like the way to go to see the rest of the falls. I’d like to come back and do all of Wintergreen and Upper Wintergreen as a separate hike.

We began the steep hike up the ridge. There was only one remaining question. Where were Spencer and Stephanie? I gave out a yell, which echoed off the surrounding cliffs. A moment later, I heard a yell back! I was pretty sure it was Spencer, and it sounded like they were down near the base of Wintergreen. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any way to communicate that we were heading out, rather than continuing downstream. I knew they’d figure it out sooner or later, and that they would be able to make the climb back out faster than us.

The climb up the ridge was steep, and the trail was very faint (borderline imaginary at times). However, we were treated to a few thru-the-trees views of Upper Wintergreen Falls. We also saw several baby garter snakes. I led the way through a maze of old logging roads with some help from Kitty, who had hiked some of these trails previously. I was trying to use a GPS map I had downloaded onto my phone. However, my phone had gotten wet at some point (probably because I stuck it in the pocket of my wet pants briefly) and it kept shutting down. That was my only map, and nobody else had one either. So there’s a lesson – it might be a good idea to bring a paper map as a backup.

We took two wrong turns on the way out. The first was just after passing a large deer stand. We continued down a well-traveled road that probably would’ve dumped us out in somebody’s back yard. We figured that one out quickly. The second junction happened to have a yellow jackets nest in the middle of it. Multiple people were stung, and folks were running in every direction. Once we regrouped we started out going the wrong way, on the south side of a cow pasture. I figured that one out pretty quickly, and we were able to get back to the correct trail without passing back through the bee’s nest (although there were a couple of electric barbed wire fences in the way).

There was one bit of comic relief during the hike out. I was leading the way, followed by Jennifer, Darrin, and the rest of the group. I had just suffered a massive cramp in my hamstring, and Darrin mentioned that eating a little bit of mustard is a miracle cure for cramps. I turned my head to look over my shoulder and said “mustaaaaard!”. When I turned my head, one foot slipped on a wet rock, causing my arms to extend out wide in an attempt to maintain my balance and the word to be drawn out into a ridiculous accent. I imagine I looked a lot like Kramer from Seinfeld in that moment.

Kramer: “Did somebody say mustaaaaard?!?”

Jennifer was the only person that really saw it, and she went nearly catatonic with laughter. The rest of the evening was filled with a variety of mustard jokes. The sort of jokes that can only be funny after you’ve spent most of a full day making a grueling, occasionally dangerous descent of a wild river canyon.

In the end, we all agreed that grey poupon would definitely work, honey mustard might work if filtered through a lifestraw, and that mayonnaise was useless.

We made it out to the cars around 7 and spotted Stephanie’s car parked behind us. Scott and Jennifer hauled us back to the Toxaway River bridge. From there, everyone headed to the Ugly Dog in Highlands for dinner and beer. Christy was waiting for us there, fresh off of a mountain biking ride near Brevard. The Badger made a surprise appearance, too. He started feeling better that afternoon, so he drove from Asheville to check out a waterfall and then continued on to Highlands to wish me happy birthday. Spencer and Stephanie arrived a few minutes after us. I also met Amy for the first time. Amy is friends with Kyle, Spencer, and Stephanie. She joined us at the campsite that night and hiked with us on Sunday. It was great to have her join us!

It was well after dark when we reached our campsite that night. Dillon and Lauren were already there, though the Badger and Kitty weren’t able to camp with us. We enjoyed a pleasant evening with a campfire, music, and plenty of adult beverages.

SLOT CANYONS OF THE SOUTHEAST

Southern Utah and northern Arizona are famous for their slot canyons. What is less known is that there are slot canyons in the Carolinas! I never would’ve guessed it, but in the last couple of years I’ve become aware of several. One of them, on the Whitewater River, is stunning. Tips from several friends alerted me to that one. Since then, Spencer began hearing rumors of a slot canyon on the Chattooga River. The only problem was that the Chattooga is a long river, and we had no idea where it would be. Spencer’s best guess was that it would be upstream from the Bullpen Road bridge.

Team Waterfall actually did an exploration of a section of the river farther upstream last winter. We found a lot of cool stuff, but no slot canyons.

For the second part of my birthday weekend we decided to check the stretch of river where Spencer originally thought it would be. Since that winter trip, we’d heard more rumors that it was in that area. We had to check it out!

We got off to a slow start on Sunday morning, mainly due a lack of sleep the night before. As Jimmy Buffett once said, there is a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Copious amounts of coffee helped, and even a broken-down car didn’t stop us. Ultimately a stellar crew of Spencer, Stephanie, Scott, John, Kyle, and Amy, Ziggy, and Amy’s dog Aiden descended upon the Chattooga River. Boone’s paws were pretty torn up from Saturday’s hikes, and both dogs were whooped. Christy was still nursing a sprained ankle, so she decided to take the dogs home with her.

A fairly long trail hike and a short but steep bushwhack brought us to the river. Once at the river we headed upstream. After only short distance we reached a short but challenging climb. We had to climb a vertical crack between two boulders. Luckily there was a chunk of driftwood wedged in between them, which provided a good handhold. Once up that we worked our way across a few more boulders and found the entrance of the slot canyon ahead of us! The bottom of it was a narrow twisting crack between the cliff walls. Upstream the canyon was a few feet wide, with sheer, sculpted cliffs about 40’ high. There was even a low-volume waterfall cascading down the cliff. In any other place it wouldn’t have been noteworthy, but in this setting it was magical.

We spent the next hour or so exploring the canyon. Going upstream required swimming through a short but deep, dark pool. Beyond, we were able to scramble along a narrow, mossy ledge. That ended after a short distance. From there, it was necessary to swim. At first the water was calm, but then we reached a section of rapids. I decided to stop there, content with what we’d found.

Ultimately Spencer, Scott, and John continued through the canyon and farther up river, while Stephanie, Kyle, Amy, and I hung out. I headed out a bit later, ahead of everyone else. Later I found out that Spencer, Scott, and John reached the mouth of a second slot canyon but didn’t fully explore it. We will have to return!

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