Hi guys, just finished my training hike in the Jocassee Gorges section of the Foothills Trail. I want to point out a couple of things before I get into the trip report. First of all, I'm not the best story teller. So, in case you get bored reading this, I injured my knee, no swelling just a lot of pain, and I need advise on knee supports and stretching exercises. Secondly, I was doing the hike to help me get back in shape. My plan was to hike as hard as I could, we see how well that worked with the knee injury, so I purposely did not take a camera. Sorry, no pics on this one.
I used to be an avid hiker. I organized an outdoor adventure group out of Greenville for a few years and day hiked or backpacked on most weekends. My passion is backpacking though so I turned that group over to another guy a couple of years ago and started a backpacking group so that I could focus primarily on backpacking. Well, about a year and a half ago I noticed my energy levels were plummeting and I really struggled on the hikes. I won't bore you with all the details but I finally went to the doctor and they determined that my blood oxygen count was dangerously low and she said she was surprised that I hadn't already had a stroke or heart attack. I went through a sleep study and found out I had severe sleep apnea. I struggled with sleeping with the mask and my condition was not improving. I finally reached a point last year where I couldn't hike at all and could only work part time. I also gained about 30 lbs during this time. You can imagine how hard this was for someone that was accustomed to being on a trail several times a month. I had surgery in December to help alleviate the apnea. Went through another sleep study and got down graded to moderate apnea. They came out with a new, lighter mask and I'm getting much better at using it, usually at least four nights a week. It's amazing how much better I feel. My part time status ended a few months ago and I'm currently unemployed. So I decided to do a training hike to get myself back in shape.
Many of you are familiar with the Jocassee Gorges and know how difficult it is. For those of you who aren't, if you google and find a profile map of the Foothills Trail you will think this section is relatively easy. We've all heard stories about how profile maps are deceiving and I can't think of better example of profile deception than the Jocassee Gorges. It's a 33 mile section between Laurel Valley and Upper White Water. Laurel Fork Creek runs through a small gorge then you have four major rivers, Toxaway, Horse Pasture, Thompson and White Water, each running through a gorge. Now each of these gorges in no way compares to say the Linville Gorge, but they are still gorges none the less. And, who ever designed this trail decided to omit switchbacks. You are constantly going up and down all the way through this section. Heartbreak Ridge, for example, is a section that's approximately 1.4 miles long. Going east to west, you leave Rock Creek at lake level, wind up and around stepping on 292 timber steps to the top of the ridge and drop straight down 288 timber steps to lake level again at the Toxaway campsite. Pretty challenging little hike. So, to do a yo-yo hike of the gorges, you either have to be on drugs or just plain crazy. Well I can tell you right now I'm not on drugs.
If you've stayed with me this far I'll give you a trip report. I left the Laurel Valley parking area Thursday morning around 9:00. After about 3 miles I made the decent down to Laurel Fork Creek. I was feeling great and making good time, about 2.7 miles and hour. I hiked five hours straight to Rock Creek, about 12 miles at this point and my feet were starting to scream at me. I decided to take a long lunch break knowing I had less than a mile and a half to get to Toxaway, my campsite for the night. I took my boots off, put on my crocs and my feet were immediately covered with red ants. Apparently these were blood sucking ants because they were sure biting. So, I pitched the hammock and took a nice hour and a half, relaxing lunch break. I packed up and made it over heartbreak ridge in 45 minutes. I felt great when I got to Toxaway after hiking almost 13.5 miles and let me tell you, I was beaming. I was jumping around yelling yeah, yeah, yeah, this old man is coming back. You probably think this is silly and luckily there wasn't anyone at Toxaway because I'm sure I looked silly. But in my defense, I'm not a recreational backpacker that only goes on a couple of trips a year. I love being in the woods and would go every weekend if I could and will at least get back to doing a couple of trips a month. So, I guess you can somewhat understand how difficult it has been not being able to hike and how excited I was that I had just completed those miles and knew that I was good for at least three or four more. Anyway, I finally came back down to earth and had a really nice, relaxing evening. If you ever get the chance, you need to camp at the Toxaway campsite. They took picnic tables in by boat and have them at most of the sites. You camp right where the Toxaway Creek converges with the Toxaway River. There is a bridge over the creek then a 226' suspension bridge over the river. If you want to do a short hike, you can access it on the canebrake trail (5miles) from Gorges State Park Frozen Creek Access.
I got up and out of camp early Friday morning really pumped and ready to do the 13.7 mile to the Thompson River. I crossed the suspension bridge, got half way up the steps on the other side and it suddenly felt like someone stabbed me in the right knee with a ice pick. Talk about going from a high to a low! I was almost sick to my stomach. Logic, higher reasoning and all common sense told me that I needed to turn around, take my time and limp back to Laurel Valley. But determination and a fair amount of stupidity took over and decided to push on and try to walk it out. I've had knee pain on the trail before, albeit less severe, and I was able to walk it out. I continued up the steps and immediately went back down to lake level. The descent was extremely painful but it felt much better on the level walk to the canebrake access. After going around canebrake, you immediately go up, and up, and up, and when you think it can't go up any further, you go up some more. Finally, when you're reaching for your knife so that you cut you slice of cheese off the moon, you get to the top. As far as I know this ridge is not named but I have officially named it Butt Kick Ridge. IMO it is the toughest climb on the entire 76 mile section of the FHT. But, I made it up with no problems. It was a different story when I started back down. I could not bend my knee on the descents. I found that if I kept the leg straight I could make it down ok. I had my palms on top of my trekking poles and I literally looked like someone with cerebral palsy going down the hills. This type of movement put a lot of strain on my left leg and other body parts as well. I even developed my first ever blisters on this hike. Anyway, my pace really slowed but I kept going. I was pretty spent by the time I got to Bear Camp Creek (11.7 miles) and decided to call it a night. At this point I decided that if my knee was still hurting the next day, I would hike out to Bad Creek and try to hitch a ride.
I got up Saturday morning and the knee felt much better. So, here I was, a man on a mission again. I took off, determined to keep my heart rate up and made it back to the Horse Pasture River (2.7 miles) in under an hour. The knee still bothered me on the declines but I was able to make pretty good time and got back to Toxaway by 2pm. At this point I considered hiking on to Laurel Fork Falls which would have given me close to 18 miles for the day. They were calling for thunder storms Saturday night and scattered showers all day Sunday. I thought if I could make it another 5.5 miles I would only have to hike 8 miles out in the rain on Sunday. But I was a little concerned that would be too much on my knee so I decided to rest for an hour or so then make a decision. I put the hammock up then it clouded up so I rigged the tarp. Then the wind picked up and the hammock got cold so I put on the under quilt. I finally decided to just stay put and give my knee the extra rest. Just before dark a lady from my group and her husband came hiking in via the Canebrake Trail. I told them about my knee issue and they offered for me to hike the five miles out with them the next day and they would give me a ride back to my car. In hindsight, I should have taken them up on their offer. But they were leaving early so that they could make church the next day. This lady is 61 years old but she has hiked the AT, the PCT and 800 miles on the CDT. Her husband, also in his 60's, ran a 10k Saturday morning prior to hiking down to Toxaway. I was worried that I would slow them down making them late for church so I declined the offer and decided to hike on. Big, Big Mistake!!!
I was on the trail by 7:00 Sunday morning and was immediately faced with climbing the 288 steps straight up Heartbreak Ridge. Made the climb without any problems but really had to take my time going down. The final descent down to Laurel Fork Falls did me in though. At that point my knee hurt with every step regardless of the terrain. The road is still open for a few more weeks so I was hoping to hitch a ride. That didn't pan out so I was now facing a eight mile, very painful hike. I just put my head down and kept going at a slow pace. Finally, I made it back to Laurel Valley at 3:30 and I don't ever remember being so happy to see that little Toyota FJ Cruiser. As soon as I turned on to HWY 178 the skies opened up and it poured buckets and stormed all the way back to Greenville. How fortunate was that? I'm very thankful that I made it off that trail before the storm hit.
All in all, I'm happy that I can climb the hills again without dying but I'm a little disappointed that the injury slowed me down. My intentions were to keep my heart rate up and really get a good work out. I hiked over 50 tough miles in four days and I only lost two lbs. I was expecting five or six so I'm really disappointed about that. Of course I probably gained a pound or two of muscle in my left leg trying to support the right, lol.
So, with all this being said, yeah I know, it was a lot, I really need some suggestions on the type of knee braces available and maybe some exercises. It looks like I'll need to wear a brace from now on so I'll go ahead and thank you in advance for any advise and suggestions. Also, even though the Jocassee Gorges section is quite challenging, I highly recommend you hike it. I would recommend buying a one way ticket though...
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