OLD FAVORITES AND NEW

The first few days of our Spring trip featured lazy starts. It’s a lot harder rousing yourself from a hammock than from a tent. I managed to overcome that on Tuesday morning with an early hike to Brasstown Falls and Little Brasstown Falls.

We had arrived at the Brasstown Falls trailhead shortly at dusk the previous evening. We’d walked the trail a couple of minutes and set up at the first official campsite along Brasstown Creek. It’s a nice spot in open woods next to the babbling stream.

That morning, I got up at sunrise and did the short, steep, muddy hike to the base of the middle drop of Brasstown Falls. As usual, photography was challenging. The stream was raging, and the spray was tremendous. I really need to try photographing this one when the water is lower.

From there I backtracked to the top of Brasstown Falls, hiked through a nice campsite, and crossed Brasstown Creek on a fallen tree to reach Little Brasstown Falls. I was happier with my photos there.

I hiked out to the car to get food for breakfast and change clothes. I had just started that process when a car came slowly down the forest road into the parking area, in reverse. I hadn’t had coffee yet, and despite having already done a short hike, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I have no idea why this person was driving backwards, or how they even managed to get their car in that position. It’s a fairly long, narrow road without many places for turning around. Had they really backed all the way down here from Brasstown Creek Road?

The driver was an interesting fellow. He had a drone with a camera, and his goal was to get aerial photos of the waterfalls. He’d gotten lost on the way to the trailhead because Google Maps doesn’t show the last road. I wanted to ask him how and why he had backed down the road, but decided against it. I kind of like leaving it as a mystery. I suspect the possibilities I can imagine are more interesting that the actual answer.

I returned to camp and made breakfast. Afterwards, Christy and I hiked back down to Brasstown Falls and to Little Brasstown Falls. Afterwards, we packed up some of our gear. We moved the rest of it to the nicer campsite at the confluence of Brasstown Creek and Little Brasstown Creek. Little Brasstown Falls is just visible through the trees from there, and both waterfalls are audible. They are in opposite directions, which creates an amazing stereo effect that was wonderful to sleep to. As an added bonus, someone had left a couple of bundles of firewood there. That more than made up for the firewood we had lost in the Bootleg Road parking area on Lake Jocasee the previous day. Is that the equivalent of firewood karma?

We left a minimal amount of gear (2 chairs and one old hammock) at the campsite to indicate that it was occupied. We took the rest to the car. The campsite is a five minute walk from the parking lot, so we didn’t want to leave anything of significant value.

From there we took back roads down to the upper end of Lake Hartwell. Our goal for the afternoon was a short kayaking trip on Lake Hartwell, up Longnose Creek to Longnose Creek Falls. The waterfall is on private property, but you can kayak to it legally when the lake is full.

We had a little trouble figuring out where to park and put-in. I think most people park at the east end of the bridge over Longnose Creek. There is a good path there down to the creek. However, it is difficult to park there without blocking a mailbox, which probably annoys the mailman and the property owner. We wanted to do a longer trip anyway, so we drove farther down the lakeshore. We stopped at one spot with good parking, but the path to the water was steep and muddy. The next spot had good access, but iffy parking. We finally found a spot with a nice short path to the water that had a gentle slope. The actual put-in was muddy, but a certain amount of mud is to be expected when kayaking on a lake. We were also directly across from a small island with and ancient Indian Burial Ground, which we wanted to check out on the way back.

It was another warm, sunny day. Despite the heat, it was a great day to be out on the lake. From our makeshift put-in, we headed “upstream” towards the mouth of Longnose Creek. We made a navigational error here. The mouth of the creek between the bridge and the main lake channel is overgrown with a thick tangle of scrubby trees. We tried to follow a route close to the shore, but hit a dead-end. We forced our way through by doing some bushwhacking in our kayaks. This was not the best way. On the return we were able to follow a narrow but clear channel out to the main lake. However, from the main lake that channel is nearly impossible to see. This can be avoided by putting in on the upstream side of the Longnose Creek bridge. However, parking is a problem there. Perhaps the best strategy is to pull in there and unload and then park farther down the road.

Once through the thicket we passed under the bridge and headed up Longnose Creek. Before long we found ourselves in an enchanting tunnel of vibrant green. The trees arched overhead, beckoning us onward. It was like kayaking through a swamp – except for the faint roar in the distance. We turned a corner and found a spectacular 50’ waterfall. It is wider than it is tall, and it was roaring from all of the recent rain. The waterfall seems extremely out of place among the rolling hills bordering the upper end of Lake Hartwell. At an elevation of only 700’, it must be one of the lowest waterfalls in South Carolina.

The waterfall is on private property. On River Left are the remains of an old mill. On the opposite side is a house on the hillside facing the waterfall. It features some fascinating architecture, and it is available for rent. Information is available here: https://www.vrbo.com/660773?k_clickid=99b76b62706d11e983c6007b0a24060f&CID=a_cj_3662453&utm_source=aff_cj&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=Skimlinks_3662453&utm_content=10859114_725X1342Xbf7a723caa15cec9275e02da30683ad7&CJEVENT=99b76b62706d11e983c6007b0a24060f

And there is an extensive review here: https://wendywordage.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/waterfall-house-long-nose-creek-falls-sc/

We had lunch on a sandy beach before kayaking back down that gorgeous tunnel to the lake. Once out on the open water we headed straight for the tiny island with the Indian Burial Ground. The burial ground was excavated some years ago, and there isn’t much to see there, except poison ivy. There was quite a lot of that. We didn’t linger long. We paddled back to shore using my GAIA app to find our starting point.

We drove back to Long Creek and stopped at the store there. We got ice cream, and Christy spent an hour or two working while I reorganized the car.

That evening, we did the short hike to Sids Falls on Shoulder Bone Branch. Sids is one of my favorites in South Carolina, and Christy hadn’t been. The hike to it is easy until the very end. The last 0.1 mile is a steep, occasionally muddy descent, but there is a decent trail the whole way. Christy didn’t have much trouble, and I was thrilled to share another of my favorite places with her.

We returned to camp, where we discovered that someone had been hanging out in our campsite. Christy’s chair had been moved closer to the creek, and my dirty bandana had been relocated to a different part of the campsite. How gross is that? I hate to think what was done with it. Needless to say, we threw it away. At least nothing was stolen.

We had a relaxing evening at the campsite and enjoyed a fire and the sound of hundreds of tree frogs. In fact, not all of the frogs were tree frogs. There were several big frogs hopping around our campsite that evening, too.

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