GHOST CAMP
Last
weekend Brenda, Van, and I joined Darrin and his son, Evan, for a hike and an
afternoon of trail maintenance. Darrin
has adopted the Mountain Bridge Passage, which connects old Camp Spearhead on SC
highway 11 with the Pinnacle Pass Trail in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness. Our plan for the day was to meet at the old
camp. We’d then shuttle up to the
Pinnacle Pass Trailhead on highway 276.
The first couple of miles would be on the Pinnacle Pass Trail, plus an
off-trail side trip up to Mashbox Falls. We’d finish the day by hiking the Mountain
Bridge Passage, and performing any trail maintenance that was needed.
It
was surprisingly warm and sunny for late February. The first mile of the hike was on the
Pinnacle Pass Trail, which follows an old road.
There were several fallen trees across the road, but we ignored
them. We didn’t know what kind of
condition the Mountain Bridge Passage would be in, or how much time we would
need to spend working on it.
After
about a mile of downhill hiking we left the trail. We headed downhill on a faint old track
through open forest. Before long we
reached another old roadbed near Oil Camp Creek. It’s overgrown, but easy enough to
follow. We crossed two tributaries along
the way. The second has its own
waterfall, Misty Falls. It’s rather
difficult to get to, and the area is littered with deadfall. We decided to skip it since we already had a
full day planned.
Just
after the second stream we reached a nice cascade on Oil Camp Creek. Darrin calls it Evan’s Cascade, after his
son. We stopped for photos, which was
fortuitous. While we were hanging
around, Darrin noticed some trout lilies blooming underfoot. We were stunned – nobody expected to find
wildflowers blooming in the South Carolina mountains
in February. In fact, there had been
snow on the ground there just a week earlier!
It wasn’t just one patch, either.
We found quite a few on both sides of the creek on our way up to Mashbox Falls.
From
there we climbed up onto the ridge west of the creek. We traversed above a lovely stretch of creek
with some nice slides and cascades. We
eventually rejoined the creek just downstream from the site of an old
still. The area has an intact mashbox from the moonshine operation. The mashbox is the
inspiration for the waterfall’s name.
Darrin,
Evan, and Van had already continued upstream, but Brenda and I crossed the
creek there. Once on the far side, I
decided to climb high above the creek. I
had a plan – my goal was to get to a higher vantage point for photos of the
falls. I remembered that the hillside
approaching the base of the falls was steep, slippery, and treacherous. I wasn’t eager to do that again, and I
thought that going higher might be easier.
Brenda decided to drop back down to the creek to catch up to Van, but
the dogs accompanied me up the hillside.
My
route was fairly easy for the most part.
It got rougher as I approached the falls though. A giant fallen tree blocked the way, so I had
to climb higher up the hillside to get around it. That left me roughly even with the top of Mashbox Falls, which is probably 80’ high. Descending back down to a decent vantage
point for photos was the only tricky part.
I did a fair amount of butt sliding along the way. I ended up pretty muddy, but at least I wasn’t
bloody.
I
met everyone high the hillside across from the falls. They had all hiked up the gorge and then
climbed up from the base of the falls.
We all attempted photos, but it was too sunny for waterfall photography. On the other hand, the waterfall did feature
a nice rainbow.
Brenda
followed me back, and agreed that it was a much easier route. I’ll remember that for next time. Of course, it’s not real useful if you want
to include the base of the falls in your hike.
We
met back up with Van near the Mashbox and hiked back
downstream to the Pinnacle Pass Trail. Darrin
and Evan had hiked ahead to get a start on the trail maintenance. The rest of easy enjoyed an easy stroll to
the Mountain Bridge Passage junction. We
had lunch there, and we could hear a chainsaw somewhere up above us. Apparently Darrin and Evan had encountered
some deadfall across the trail.
The
climb from Oil Camp Creek to Campbell Mountain was pleasant. It featured some nice thru-the-trees views
across the gorge to the cliffs along the Pinnacle Pass Trail above Oil Camp
Creek. We caught up with Darrin and Evan
at the top of Campbell Mountain. We all
hiked together from there. We
encountered several more blowdowns. Darrin cleared each with the chainsaw, while
I hiked ahead with the rake. I used it
to clear leaves, dirt, and debris out of the water runoff channels along the
side of the trail. I cleared one that
made a huge difference. The trail was a
swamp because the water couldn’t run off due to the blockage. It was rapidly drying out by the time we left.
The
hike out was slow due to the maintenance requirements, but it was still
enjoyable. Most notable were several
cascades and waterfalls along a tributary of Wattacoo
Creek. This tributary descends steeply
between the main creek and the west fork.
It doesn’t appear to have a name, and the topo map suggests that it is
seasonal. That may be the case, but
there was quite a bit of water during our visit. We passed two substantial cascades near the
upper end of the tributary. Farther
down, after a couple of switchbacks, was a larger waterfall. Unfortunately this waterfall is littered with
fallen trees. However, while we were
there, we spotted an upper section to the waterfall that Darrin had never
noticed before. It’s above the drop that
the trail passes, but it looked potentially significant. We debated bushwhacking up to it, but that
would’ve required some effort. The best
approach probably would’ve required hiking back up the trail a switchback or
two and traversing over to it. We had
some time constraints though, since trail maintenance was our top
priority. We decided to save it for
another day.
Around
this time Evan headed down ahead of us.
He was performing in a play that evening, and need to get home to clean
up. Brenda and I had a laugh about
that. We couldn’t imagine spending the
entire day hiking, bushwhacking to a waterfall, and maintaining a trail, and
then performing on stage that evening. I
could maybe pull it off if my character was a corpse.
We
continued downstream past an interesting area where the stream splits into
several channels. Later we passed an
old, partially overgrown field. Farther
down we stopped for a break at Hamlin Falls.
Jack named this one after Darrin, since he adopted this trail. Hamlin Falls is a really nice spot. The creek runs down a long, mossy slide
before plunging almost vertically for the last 20’ or so. Van descended to the base, but I skipped
it. I remembered that getting photos
there would require wading in the creek, and the light was still poor. Instead, I took some photos of the upper
slide before relaxing for a while with Darrin and Brenda.
We
returned to the trail, and encountered the first other hiker of the day. She had a dog – fortunately all of the dogs
got along well together. Later on we
passed several other groups. The
southern end of the trail is popular with dayhikers
starting from old Camp Spearhead.
We
reached the camp around 4pm. Since we
had some time, we decided to explore.
The camp was relocated some years ago, but all of the buildings are
still there. The place is abandoned, and
it is a little spooky. It’s been looted and
vandalized, to the extent that all of the street
lights were cut down to salvage the copper fittings. I thought about poking around in some of the
buildings, but decided against it. There
was no telling what we might stumble upon.
Instead,
we hiked upstream along Wattacoo Creek to a cascading
waterfall. It’s not a large feature, but
it is pretty and photogenic. By the time
we arrived, the sun had dropped enough to make for ideal photography. The only drawback was a single fallen tree
near the base of the cascade. Darrin had
a chainsaw, so he decided to do some waterfall beautification. He waded across the creek in his jeans to get
to it. After cutting it up, he was
wading back when he slipped and nearly went for a swim. That was pretty exciting, since the chainsaw
was still running. Luckily he recovered,
and only got wet to mid-thigh. That was
significant, because he had his cell phone in his front pocket. The water line literally came up to the very
bottom of the pocket. I’d say he used up
quite a bit of luck there!
After
some photos we hiked upstream a little farther to an old CCC dam. The water cascades over the dam, making for a
pretty scene. Afterwards, we returned to
the heart of camp, before hiking up Robinson Branch to another waterfall. This one is taller and more vertical, but it
is on a smaller creek. There’s also a
large tree that had fallen across the stream just below the falls. I took a quick photo for documentation
purposes, but didn’t bother getting the tripod out for that one.
From
there we hiked back past some of the old cabins and other buildings. We passed an old miniature golf course, zipline towers, and a swimming pole (now drained). It was interesting to see this relic of
recent history, even if it was a bit creepy.
It’s definitely not a place I’d want to be after dark! From there, a short walk led us back to our
cars at the trailhead.
It
was getting late, and Van did me a big favor by driving Darrin and Brenda back
up to their cars at the Pinnacle Pass Trailhead. That saved me a good half hour or so on the
drive home. Thanks Van! And thanks to Darrin, for showing us some of
the nicest features along “his” trail.
Even the trail maintenance was kind of fun, even though Darrin wouldn’t
let me play with the chainsaw.
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