Foothills Trail

Our Scout troop does a week long trip every June. We have hiked portions of the AT, biked the C&O canal towpath & the NC Outer Banks, and paddled sections of the New River. It was time for something new for 2008. After some online research we found the Foothills Trail. The FT is about 85 miles long & is located at the end of the Blue Ridge Escarpment near where NC, SC & GA borders meet. Everything we read suggested this was a great destination. Moderate elevation changes, beautiful vistas, lots of available water and hundreds of waterfalls of all sizes! (Upper Whitewater falls is the highest cascade in the Eastern US at 411 feet.)

In Feb of 08 we headed to SC to scout out the trip. Our goal was to find about 40 miles or so of trail where we could easily access the start & finish with the vehicles needed to transport about 30 of us. This was a weekend full of wrong turns & side trips. We took a new Garmin 60Csx with us, but hadn’t had time to load all of the software. Impressive gps, but every time we left the area covered by the National Park software, it wanted us to turn around. It seemed that as long as we trusted it, we were destined to stay lost. One side trip turned out to be up someone’s driveway, back into a “holler” with a single-wide & a pick up truck. We managed to get out of there before shots were fired…. The weekend ended with a sense of the geography and too many of the roads, but still unclear the sections of the trail we would hike in the coming summer.

Our original plan was to cover a “middle” section of the trail, but access, shuttles and parking just proved to be more than we could manage. My eyes are usually much bigger than my stomach when it comes to planning these adventures. Fortunately, my friend, Robert, has a better sense for what is achievable and I have learned to listen, although sometimes reluctantly, to his advice. Once we returned to Raleigh and studied the maps some more, we found a route that would work out to around 42 miles. The route would give us 3 nights on the trail with 2 of them along the Chattooga River.

Our route began on the FT at Bad Creek Access, but left the FT after about 10 miles to follow the Forked Mountain Spur Trail through the Endicott Wilderness, rejoining the FT near the Walhalla Fish Hatchery. We ended at Oconee State Park. The route was great. We averaged about 10 miles per day with great campsites every night.

The Endicott Wilderness is beautiful. Once we entered the wilderness near Sloan Bridge, we were alone for 2 days except for one small group & a solo hiker. The trail is not difficult and it is fairly well marked although you do need to watch the blazes in some areas. Once we reached the Chattooga for the second night’s camp, everyone was into the water too cool off! After swimming & cooling off, everyone had dinner followed by a campfire & sharing of stories from a book on Native American history.

On the advice of the local forest service, we put up bear bags every night. I am not sure this was necessary, but it sure was entertaining watching everyone try to find large enough & high enough branches to secure the bear bags. Our troop really stresses Leave No Trace camping, so we were careful to minimize our impact on the trail. Several of the boys found a truck sized inner tube in the river at one of the campsites. One of the boys was determined to haul this “piece” of trash out of the wilderness. This is one more time I was reminded of the difference in my stamina & the stamina of a 16-17 year old young man. I am certain that tube added almost 10 lbs to his pack, but he carried it over 10 miles to remove it from the wilderness. Nice work.

Oconee State Park is one of the nicest that I have ever scene. It is about 30 miles north of Clemson SC and is at the southern terminus of the FT. We actually used this as our base camp. Staying at Oconee the first night, on Monday, we shuttled everyone to the starting point of our hike with the help of one of the local folks who will provide shuttles for a small fee. We finished the backpacking portion on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, we drove to Wildwater Adventures for a rafting trip on Section 3 & part of Section 4 of the Chattooga River. The water levels were very low due to the long drought, but the scenery on that river is amazing! Back to Oconee on Friday night where tThe group camp area is adjacent to a large barn. Every Friday evening during the summer, the park hosts a square dance with a live bluegrass band for the surrounding communities. What a great way to end a trip into the southern Appalachians!