Foothills Spur Trail

**Other Guy** · 10-30-2016, 18:35

Went on a short trip last week with Swampfox and Muskrat to hike the Foothills Spur Trail and connect Jones Gap to Caesars Head to Table Rock State Park at the top of Sassafras Mountain. The first couple of days were easy peasy until we hit higher elevation and could no longer find water. None of us realized the drought situation in the area. All smaller water sources have dried up.

The stretch of trail from the SC/NC border to the top of Sassafras is up a mountain down a mountain and has no available water. This is about 8 to 10 miles. Did not get any pictures of this area so the pictures end at the border.

https://youtu.be/MC5HC_--tfs

**joker** · 10-30-2016, 20:34

looks like it was fun though. I enjoyed the video

**johnspenn** · 10-31-2016, 08:56

Looks like a nice little trip. The fall colors are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing!

**Rain Man** · 10-31-2016, 14:06

Yep on dried up water sources. I hiked in the Big Frog Wilderness in TN this weekend. The summit of Big Frog is a dry camp, so we had to hump extra water up the mountain. On day one a "last chance" source of water (per guidebook) was bone dry. On day two a "year-round" (per guidebook) small stream was bone dry. Thank goodness we had carried extra and had filled up where we did find water down low.

I hiked the Foothills Trail, including the Spur, some years ago. Thankfully it wasn't the same for us then. Great trail, no matter.

**zukiguy** · 10-31-2016, 14:08

Wow, we were just considering a FT trip maybe later this month or early December. Is there any relief in sight or it's just going to be a dry winter?

**Wkerber** · 10-31-2016, 20:18

I had the same experience a couple of weeks ago doing an out and back from Table Rock to Sassafras Mtn. The bottom half had plenty of water, but the upper half was dry. You might want to also fill and carry your dirty water bag right now in addition to your clean water bottles. Although, I do drink a lot of water and you may not need as much as I do. I still forget that even though we went through heavy rain from Hurricane Matthew a while back, that upstate didn't really get any of that. Drier than I recall, but I only have a few years experience up there.

**Wkerber** · 10-31-2016, 20:26

Originally Posted by Other Guy

Went on a short trip last week with Swampfox and Muskrat to hike the Foothills Spur Trail and connect Jones Gap to Caesars Head to Table Rock State Park at the top of Sassafras Mountain. The first couple of days were easy peasy until we hit higher elevation and could no longer find water. None of us realized the drought situation in the area. All smaller water sources have dried up.

The stretch of trail from the SC/NC border to the top of Sassafras is up a mountain down a mountain and has no available water. This is about 8 to 10 miles. Did not get any pictures of this area so the pictures end at the border.

https://youtu.be/MC5HC_--tfs

That sounds like a route I might be interested in. Did you do Pinnacle Pass to Caesars Head?