CORN FED

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to central Illinois for business. I was working in a tiny town surrounded by miles of cornfields. It was located somewhere between Springfield (Doh!) and Effingham. I wish I had been a little closer to Effingham, so I could’ve stopped at the Effingham Family Diner for breakfast. I understand that their world-famous Effing Omelets are incredible. Or, I could’ve gone for a giant Effing stack of pancakes. Of course, they’re best known for their green eggs and Effing ham.

EDITOR’S NOTE: All credit goes to the nationally syndicated Bob & Tom radio show for that joke.

I missed out on the Effingham Family Diner, but I did get an unusual dining experience while I was there. The town I was in had exactly one restaurant, and it was a 25 minute drive from there to the nearest city. I stopped at this little café the first day I was there. While I was ordering, I noticed (it couldn’t be helped) that the waitress had one of those charming lower back tattoos that are so popular these days. You know, a butt hat.

The fact that she had one of those tattoos wasn’t unusual, but the tattoo itself was. The tattoo was a life-size depiction of an ear of corn. I swear I’m not making this up. Regrettably, her clothing, combined with the exact placement of the tattoo, made it look like the corn was growing right out of her crack. Crack corn. Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care. Just say no to crack corn.

You really have to wonder what she was thinking when she got that tattoo. Of course, you can say that about a lot of people with tattoos. But really, an ear of corn on your lower back? I hope she doesn’t hang out in bars, because I can only imagine some of the pick-up lines she has to endure. “Hey baby, I’d sure like to butter your corn”!

She took my order. “Ok, hon’, what side dish do you want with your chicken sandwich”?

“I’ll have the corn….uh, I mean, fries”.

My visit to the café only went downhill from there.

Her son also works at the café washing dishes. His name is Malachi, but everyone calls him Cornbred.

My meal there wasn’t terrible, despite the corn-related trauma. If you go there though, don’t get a corn dog.

I missed out on hiking the following weekend, thanks to a nasty case of the flu. I recovered enough the following weekend to join Jack for a hike. Jack had organized a group hike with the Carolina Adventurers, and it sounded exactly like what I needed to get back into the swing of things. He had planned three short hikes in Oconee County, South Carolina, in and around Devil’s Fork State Park. The first hike on the agenda was a short one to a bed of Oconee Bells, a rare wildflower that only grows around Lake Jocassee. It had been several years since I’d done an Oconee Bell hike, and I was looking forward to it.

I drove with Saucony from Charlotte, and arrived at the park early, as the drive only took 2 ½ hours (mapquest suggests 3+ hours). I missed the turn to the parking area, and approached the trailhead from the wrong direction, across from the boat launch area. As a result, I never saw the signs stating that there is a $2 parking fee. FYI, it seems that all of the South Carolina State Parks are now charging this fee.

I met Jack, his fiancé Amy, and 6 other hikers there for our first walk. It was windy and chilly in the parking lot, but warmer inside the shelter of the forest. We hiked the Oconee Bells Trail, a 1-mile loop trail that took us through the woods along a series of streams. The Bells were growing profusely along the streams, and the flowers were already in bloom. Typically Oconee Bells bloom from mid to late March. We all took quite a bit of time photographing the flowers before continuing the loop and returning to the cars.

From there, Jack led a caravan of cars to the Oconee Station Historic Site, which is administered by the State Park Service. We parked in the official lot, as there were a dozen or more cars pulled off along the side of the road. Parking here also requires a $2 fee (though one fee allows access at all of the parks for that day). I decided to be an honest citizen this time, and bought the required pass. Luckily, I had $2 in my wallet.

From there, we hiked through the woods and past a small pond before crossing the road. Once across the road, we found ourselves on the Palmetto Trail, which will eventually cross the entire state of South Carolina from the mountains to the coast. We were also on the trail to Station Cove Falls, which apparently is an extremely popular hike. I was surprised to see so many people this early in the spring, but many of them may have been there to see the Toadstool Trillium in bloom. Toadstool Trillium is an unusual species of Trillium, featuring large, speckled leaves and dark crimson, or even purple, flowers. I’d seen a few of them on other hikes, but this was a completely different experience. The flowers lined the trail most of the way to the falls. From any given spot, there were hundreds of flowers in sight. How many Toadstool Trillium did we see? Thousands for sure, if not hundreds of thousands. Would millions be an exaggeration? I don’t know.

There were lots of other flowers there as well, including Bloodroot and Mayapples and many others. They were all overshadowed by the Toadstool Trillium though.

We eventually weaved our way through the crowds to the base of Station Cove Falls. It’s a nice waterfall of 60’ or more, but it’s probably best viewed during periods of high water. I made a few mediocre attempts at photography, but the bright sunshine and throngs of people made a decent photo impossible. I was content to find a nice flat rock with a good view of the falls for lunch. Meanwhile, the Carolina Adventurers were having a social hour. Many of those folks only knew each other through the internet, and they took some time getting to know each other. I did enjoy meeting Waterfall Rich, who runs the website http://www.ncwaterfalls.com. I’ve used his site to plan numerous hiking trips, and it was nice to finally meet the person behind it. Rich, along with Kevin Adams and perhaps a few others, has become an authority on waterfalls in the southeast.

We headed out after lunch, following the same path back to the pond. Here we took a separate route around the far side of the pond for variety. We returned to the cars, and most of us departed for our third and final hike of the day.

We followed Jack again, this time down dirt forest roads to the trailhead on Tamassee Creek for Lee Falls. The route to the falls follows the creek, but initially there is no path as the route passes through a series of wildlife clearings. A couple of creek crossings proved tricky, and a couple of hikers were rewarded with wet boots. The fields eventually ended, and a path appeared leading into the woods. After a short distance, I spotted the first snake of the year. It was small and clearly non-poisonous, but exciting nonetheless. I shared my discovery with Amy, who was thrilled! It turns out that Amy isn’t a big fan of snakes.

Another creek crossing led to more difficult terrain, and soon we were working our way up along the creek, dodging boulders and fallen trees. Two more creek crossings led to a steep ascent along the now-cascading creek. I stopped and took off my pack at one of the prettier cascades. I was setting up my tripod, when I felt something brush my leg and heard an odd sound. I looked down, only to see my pack bouncing down the side of the hill. I watched helplessly as it tumbled towards the creek. Twice I thought it was going to stop, only to bounce over an obstacle. It finally did come to a halt, right in the middle of the creek. In a clear violation of Murphy’s Law it landed face down, leaving the back pouch out of the water. This was fortunate, because the back pouch contained my wallet and brand new cell phone.

One of my companions rescued my pack, and I placed it in a more secure place where I hoped it would dry. I continued to climb from there, and reached the base of Lee Falls a couple of minutes later. Lee Falls is rather unique, in that it spills over a high cliff in two main streams of water. A third, smaller stream tumbles over separately, and lots of trickles fan the water all along the cliff face. I negotiated the numerous boulders and descended to cross the creek in hopes of a better vantage point. Instead, I found myself looking up straight into the sun, which was hovering just above the brink of the falls. I thought about waiting for the sun to drop to get a photo, but I had a long drive ahead of me and I was on a tight schedule. Instead I climbed back up the rocks to a better vantage point from the side. I managed a few decent photos here before packing up and heading out. Putting my wet pack on was a joy, as it immediately soaked my shirt and the top of my pants. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to make Saucony carry it.

I hiked out fast, ahead of the rest of the group, as I needed to leave by 4pm to get home in time to help my wife clean the house, as we were having guests for dinner. I made it to the car right on schedule, and managed to follow the forest roads back out to highway 11 without getting lost. I enjoyed spending the day with the Carolina Adventurers, and appreciate Jack leading me to some waterfalls and wildflowers I hadn’t seen before.

Back to South Carolina

Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports

Home

Please remember to Leave No Trace!