Thru hiking the foothills trail advice

[superchief41]

I'm in the process of planning a through hike of the foothills trail in SC. I'm heading out at the end of Oct or beginning of Nov, whenever I can get away from work. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about the trail. I plan on buying the foothills trail map from their website, but do I need the guide book? Any advice you fine folks could share would be greatly appreciated.

[zukiguy]

A friend and I have done almost the whole trail but we had to split it between two trips (time off work a premium). The terrain is very similar to the AT or other trails in the area. Since a good portion of the trail is sponsored by Duke Electric they have some really well maintained bridges and other structures along the way. There were some sections of the trail that had some head-high weeds when we went as well. It was kind of hit or miss. There were lots of waterfalls that made very nice places to eat lunch and a few were near established campsites.

I would personally go with the guidebook and skip the map if you're using a GPS. I've seen the whole trail track along with waypoints (campsites, water, bridges, etc) on a few websites. The trail was pretty well marked so there's little chance of getting lost along the way.

Water is plentiful so I wouldn't worry about having to carry a huge amount. Of course there are plenty of trees so it's a great place to hang. Have fun....

[Catavarie]

Hopefully FireInMyBones will see this. I don't know if anyone else here has spent as much time on the Foothills Trail as he has. Thanks to his, I think but I could be wrong, 3 thru hike attempts before finally succeeding.

[Grits]

Get the trail guide from http://www.foothillstrail.org/ and I enjoyed my thru hike this past April parking at Table Rock State Park and getting a shuttle over to Oconee State Park. Well blazed and be sure to stop off at Lower Whitewater Falls and Hillard Falls worth the extra time. Here is a link to my trail journal. http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=404247 It is in FireInMyBones back yard and he will be offer some good ideas. You will enjoy this hike.

[Duffy]

I found the map much more useful than the guidebook. Enjoy this gem of a trail!

[MedicineMan]

Yes I think they are considering renaming the FHT the FIMB-T

[FireInMyBones]

I thought I smelled the winds of a hammocking thru hiker pass by me last night. First let me say, best of luck and you're going to love it.

The guidebook is certainly useful, but the elevation profiles are one of my favorite things to use map wise. Planning millage can be the most difficult thing on the Foothills trail because it is short enough to both spend lots of time really enjoying the trail and long/difficult enough to make you want to.

When I was finally successful in my thru, I did the trail in 3 days. Most people I know take around 4.5 days to do it. I had a lofty goal and my goal was too ambitious for those who joined me which forced me to finish it solo.

Each section has it's own difficulties. The Chattooga is so beautiful it is a bit of a siren's song and you think you've gone 10 miles when you've really only gone 4. The Jocassee Gorges is rough, but there is something unique around every corner (look out for the Oconee Bell in the spring), and the Sassafras to Table Rock section holds fantastic vistas, but you had better have your climbing legs ready to see them.

I hike on the foothills often just because it is easily some of the most beautiful and challenging terrain in my area. Feel free to watch my videos on Youtube and try to glean something out of those or shoot me a PM with questions, but posting specific question here may help others seeking to thru the FHT.

Also let me know if I can help out with shuttling since I live so close.