2019 SPRING BREAK, PART ONE: THE UPCOUNTRY
As
usual, Christy and I considered numerous ideas for this year’s Spring
trip. Originally, we planned to spend
most of it in West Virginia, focusing on biking the 78 mile
Greenbrier River Trail. However, Christy
injured her knee in a bike wreck in January, and the injury refused to
heal. Biking and hiking were still
painful, so we decided to kayak instead.
We considered heading for the coast, but ultimately chose to go in the
other direction. We would spend most of
the week kayaking on Lake Jocassee, Lake Tugalo, and Lake Hartwell.
Although it was a light week for Christy, her work obligations required
her to have internet access for an hour or so each weekday. As a result, we planned day trips and short
overnight trips on each lake.
DISASTER AVERTED
Originally we planned to kayak on Lake Jocassee on Saturday and Easter Sunday. However, the weather forecast called for a
cool, wet, windy Saturday. After that,
there was nothing but sunshine in the forecast.
We decided to start the kayaking trip on Sunday instead. Friday brought storms with heavy rain and
widespread flooding in the mountains. We
decided to take advantage of the conditions with some easy waterfall hikes on
Saturday.
My
initial thought was to visit Pearson Falls on Saturday morning. That waterfall is on private property, but it
is open to the public for a small fee.
Dogs aren’t allowed, but since this was a kayaking trip, they were
staying home. However, some of the worst
flooding was in that area. I was afraid
that the park would be closed. They have
a phone number and a website, but neither had been recently updated. They were scheduled to open at 10am Saturday,
but we planned to leave before 9. If we
headed to Pearson Falls, we wouldn’t know if they were open until we got there. It was a bit out of the way, too, since all
of our other destinations were in upstate SC.
Instead,
we decided to visit Isaqueena Falls and the Stumphouse Tunnel before hiking to Yellow Branch
Falls. Both of those waterfalls are best
visited in high water. They would be a
little out of the way, since we would have to drive past Lake Jocassee on the way, but I thought they would be worth the
extra driving.
We
finished packing the car Saturday morning before loading the kayaks on the roof
rack. Christy had parked the car very
close to the garage door the night before, to make it easier to pack the car in
the rain. Once we lifted the kayaks, we
realized that we couldn’t properly tie them down because the car was too close
to the garage door. Christy was getting
in the car to roll it forward slightly when I noticed that the rudder on my kayak
was actually snagged on the corner of the garage door. If she moved the car…
I
yelled, and she stopped just in time. We
were able to wiggle my kayak around enough to free the rudder. With that accomplished, she was able to pull
forward so that we could tie the kayaks down.
We
hit the road just before 9. I had
planned to drive 85 most of the way, but of course there were multiple traffic
jams due to wrecks. On 85, there are
always multiple traffic jams due to wrecks.
Most of the highway from the NC state line to Greenville is under construction. It was a dangerous stretch of road before,
and now it is a nightmare. The State of
South Carolina has made a huge mess of the construction zone. They have signs saying “trucks use left
lane”, which has made it much more dangerous than it would be otherwise. Some truckers comply with the signs, while
others (correctly) ignore them.
Meanwhile, everyone else zig zags back in forth in a guessing game of
which lane is going to suck less at any given time. There is lots of speeding and tailgating and
cutting people off – basically every bad driving habit imaginable. And all of it is magnified by some misguided
signs.
Driving
on 85 with kayaks on the roof sucks under the best of circumstances
anyway. We got off in Gaffney, just
before the first traffic jam, and drove highway 11 all the way to
Walhalla. This was slow, but more
pleasant. By the time we reached Isaqueena Falls, the rain had dwindled to some periodic
drizzle. The parking area was nearly
full, which was a little surprising given the rainy weather.
A
short walk brought us to a viewpoint near the top of the falls. There we enjoyed an expansive view of vibrant
green layers under dark roiling clouds.
The greenery was bright with new spring growth. That was something we enjoyed throughout the
week.
From
there we walked over to the deck overlooking Isaqueena
Falls. Christy stopped there, while I
followed a steep, muddy goat path down to the base. The waterfall was raging! The water level was perfect for viewing this
waterfall, which is large and wide, but rather uninspiring in drier
conditions. However, conditions were
challenging for photography, with lots of spray and leaves blowing in the wind.
There
is another substantial drop immediately below the base of the main waterfall,
and more small waterfalls downstream.
However, there is only one reasonable path to get down there, and it
starts with a descent of a sloping rock along the edge of a cliff. The rock was wet and slick, and a fall there
would result in quite a tumble. There
was a root to hold onto, but it still looked sketchy. A rope would’ve provided more security, but
I’d left mine in the car. I decided to
skip it.
I
rejoined Christy, and we relocated to the other end of the park to check out
the Stumphouse Tunnel. There are actually several abandoned railroad
tunnels in the immediate area, but the Stumphouse
Tunnel is the only one that can be walked into.
It started raining again just before we reached the entrance, so our
timing was perfect. We walked in a
couple of hundred feet to a gate that blocks further progress.
The
rain had stopped by the time we emerged.
We drove a short distance to the Yellow Branch picnic area to start our
main hike of the day. The hike to Yellow
Branch Falls is 3 miles round trip on a moderately easy trail. Early on we
crossed Yellow Branch several times.
Normally these crossings require easy rock hops, but on this day, they
were tricky due to the high water. At
the last one we had to walk across a slippery fallen log. This is the point where the new trail and the
old trail diverge. The old trail
followed Yellow Branch downstream, but apparently it is now virtually
impassable due to fallen trees. The new
trail winds around through an adjacent valley before crossing a minor ridge
before re-entering the Yellow Branch valley.
It was along this stretch that I heard a lot of noise coming from Yellow
Branch far below. It’s possible there is
another small waterfall down there, but the bushwhack looked steep and nasty, and
I had promised Christy that there would be no off-trail hiking.
We
arrived at Yellow Branch Falls a few minutes later. It’s a spectacular waterfall in moderate to
high water, and it was definitely high on this occasion. Incredibly, we had
seen only a few people during the hike, and we had the waterfall to ourselves
for quite a while. I took a bunch of
photos, and even waded into the creek to get a better angle.
From
there, I headed upstream solo to check out Lohrs
Falls. It is actually on a major
tributary of Yellow Branch, about a ¼ mile upstream from Yellow Branch
Falls. Christy decided to get a head
start on the hike back. She chose
wisely. There is a beaten path most of
the way to Lohrs Falls, but there was some
bushwhacking along the way.
I
reached the base of Lohrs Falls without much
difficulty. After a few photos, I
scrambled up to view the upper drops.
The middle drop is in a narrow chute, but photography was impossible due
to the vegetation and the high water.
I
returned quickly to Yellow Branch Falls and made good time on the way out. Despite this, Christy returned to the car
long before me.
From
there, we drove back towards Lake Jocassee. Our plan was to camp at one of the designated
sites near Jumping Off Rock. We drove up
Shooting Tree Ridge Road, as that was the most direct route to Jumping Off Rock
from the southwest. We were several
miles up the road when we met an SUV coming from the opposite direction. They waved at us to stop, and delivered some
bad news. The upper end of the road was
a huge washed out gully that had barely been passable to a monster truck that
had passed by earlier. In fact, the
monster truck had bottomed out. It did
not sound Subaru-able. That meant that
we would have to drive around the long way through Rocky Bottom to get to
Jumping Off Rock.
It
was already late evening, so we decided to continue ahead to a campsite and do
that drive in the morning. We found a
really nice roadside campsite at the confluence of Cane Creek and Bully Branch. The water in Cane Creek had dropped a bit,
though it was still out of its banks. Fortunately the campsite is up on a high bank well above the
creek. We enjoyed a pleasant evening
with a campfire before retiring to our hammocks for the night. We slept great, thanks to the gentle roar of
Cane Creek nearby.
Back to South Carolina
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!