A Foothills Trail Weekend

**Tim_807** · 04-14-2014, 20:30

A buddy from work and I took Friday off and made a three day hike from the Laurel Valley Access to Upper Whitewater Falls. I did the whole Foothills trail in 2011 but this section behind Jocassee is the one that Sean has never done. Plus it is one of the more remote sections of the trail!

Managed to find a camera app with a timer

Next stop 8.1 miles to Laurel Fork Falls. There is a pretty nice campsite right at the top of the falls. But we had more miles to cover to get to Lake Jocassee.

We managed to grab a nice campsite right at the edge of the lake, kind of strange to have a picnic table but it dinner so much easier.

The morning we got water and crossed the Toxaway River on the 200 foot suspension bridge built by Duke Energy

The Foothills trail has a lot of climbing and descending even though there is no huge elevation change.

Camped that night at Bearcamp Creek, didn't see any bears though

Still haven't managed to get Sean into a hammock.... The low was 47, I wish I had a summer weight top quilt or something with less insulation.

Sunday we hiked over to Whitewater River and then turned to climb up to the Upper Whitewater Falls Overlook.

Up 600 feet of switchbacks and stairs and we made it to the overlook, meet our ride and headed back to pick up the other car.

**mtntopper** · 04-14-2014, 20:36

Thanks for posting. I am planning a thru hike in middle October.

**Fronkey** · 04-14-2014, 20:37

Woohoo! It's great to get out there for a 3 day weekend. Glad the two of you had a great time and thanks for the photos.

Fronkey

**sliver** · 04-14-2014, 21:05

Thanks for posting all of the pix. Good stuff!

**STinGa** · 04-14-2014, 21:46

Nice posting. Thanks for sharing your trip.

STinGa

**pixelgator** · 04-15-2014, 08:02

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

**Tim_807** · 04-15-2014, 14:18

Originally Posted by mtntopper

Thanks for posting. I am planning a thru hike in middle October.

I had a lot of fun on my thru hike back in 2011. Don't forget to put in for the Peregrine award when you finish. When we got picked up on Sunday we heard they actually had a fire on Sassafras Mountain. It made me wonder about some of the hikers who were headed in that direction. You could see some burn areas right next to 178 as we left the Laurel Valley trailhead parking area.

You can see some of the burned underbrush across the road here, I wonder though if this was a controlled burn to make sure nothing jumped the road.

**blackbalsam6214** · 04-15-2014, 17:46

Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for the pics.

**swampfox** · 04-17-2014, 21:50

Nice report.
That's my favorite part of the FHT.
It would have been hard for me to pass up that camp site at the top of the falls.

**Tim_807** · 04-18-2014, 08:45

Originally Posted by swampfox

Nice report.
That's my favorite part of the FHT.
It would have been hard for me to pass up that camp site at the top of the falls.

The campsite at Laurel Fork falls is pretty nice, though the guide book mentions people have died because they got to close to the top edge of the falls. Since Sean hadn't done this section yet and the level of Lake Jocassee was way up it seemed like camping by the lake was the way to go. Last time I was there the lake level was down and the campsites were "campsites by a sand bar" instead of "campsites by the lake".