Foothills Trail last second advice

[Namtrag]

Hi guys

My wife and I always do a long-weekend hike this weekend for our anniversary, and we had planned a Max Patch to Hot Springs section hike starting on Friday. The weather forecast just keeps getting worse and worse.

I looked at the forecast at Table Rock State Park where the Foothills Trail terminus is, and it is much better. So we and the couple going with us would like to give it a try. We have two cars, so we can set up a shuttle, but I cannot find a place to park the second car. We would like to leave one at Table Rock and drive the other one to a point south where we would have a 20-30 mile hike back north to Table Rock. Any help you guys can give would be greatly appreciated! I know it's short notice.

[Mr. Bumpy]

Laurel Valley. Highway 178. There is a trail head that is as secure as any. You start with a good long pull uphill to Sassafras and then the rest is a cruise to Table Rock (FYI where you can get a shower at the campground for a small fee).

If you check out the Foothills Trail web page you will find current shuttle service contacts. A few of those folks are good with last minute and that is an easy shuttle. You could drive one car, pay for shuttle, and not have the hassle of having to worry about back and forth and all that.

Enjoy it!

[Mr. Bumpy]

You could also leave a car at Table Rock SP and get dropped off at Caesar's Head SP or Jone's Gap SP. There are good trails that connect them all.

Also in the area is the King's Mountain State Park/National Park loop trail. It is about 20 miles, underused, and very nice. It also connects up to Crowders Mt. State Park

[Namtrag]

Both of those options sound intriguing. It looks like the Laurel Valley to Table Rock section is only 10-12 miles though. If we could just add on another 10 miles...

I also am trying to find more info about the trail from Caesar's Head down to the Foothills Trail, and then up to Table Rock. It looks like it could be about 20 miles, but I am not finding much info other than the info at this map http://foothillstrail.org/wp-content.../index-map.jpg

[Namtrag]

I dug around more, and it looks like the spur trail from Caesar's Head to Sassafras Mt is 14.2. The trail from Sassafras Mt to Table Rock is about 9, for a total of 23 or so. This would be perfect.

If we could get the camping spots lined up maybe 8 miles in on Friday, then at mile 18 or so on Saturday, we would have a nice easy Sunday before the 8 hour drive home! I will keep digging

[Mr. Bumpy]

And don't forget that you can extend some miles in Table Rock SP. I did an overnight from Caesar's Head to Table Rock years ago stopping at what the cantrell homesite (stone thrones campsite). I don't remember much from Caesar's Head to Sassafras which means the trail was probably typical.

If you go past Sassafras about a mile or so and cross the access road there is camping with water.

And sorry to give you more options, but the weather will probably be better closer to Charlotte. You could park at Crowders Mt. and make a lollipop hike using the Kings Mt. loop. That would give you right at 30-32 miles on easy terrain. The Kings Mt. loop is a perfect winter or shoulder season outing. Kings Mt. is an overlooked and underutilized gem.

[Mr. Bumpy]

If you go past Sassafras about a mile or so and cross the access road there is camping with water.

I mean if you were hiking from Caesar's Head. Keep going past Sassafras towards Laurel Valley.

[Dogwood]

I will not highly rec the CH SP to TR SP spur right now. About half of the 14 or miles that was on single track(it also takes advantage of some dirt FS road miles) experienced a recent low temp fire. I just hiked it for the fourth time this time in late Feb finding it not overly difficult but still having to be watchful and guessing in a few spots where the FHT single track was. FS bulldozed some of the trail in this segment and in Feb was not yet newly reblazed or signed as it had been which IMHO was lacking before the fire. The large trees are still good though. The north side of the trail is almost totally untouched which makes it kinda weird because the FS Firefighters used the FHT in this segment as the fire line. One side of the trail is burnt the other side is as if nothing happened.

There are plenty enough other options with two cars though.

1) a. drive to the top of Sassafras Mt on a paved 2 lane road to experience the 360* views from the summit(at the bench and state High Pt plaque) and take in another great view from the overlook deck at the graveled parking lot. Leave one car there. Hike DOWN from the summit west/south where you have another car left at the large graveled Laurel Valley Parking Lot TH. But add out and back mileage from there to the Eastatoe Gorge Spur. Camp first night somewhere between the Sassafras summit and Laurel Valley. This is an easy segment. Second night, AFTER CHECKING THAT THE CS REGS ARE OPEN IN EASTATOE GORGE, camp at the bottom of the lush cool shaded gorge at an established large site. It's a short(under 4 miles) day hike out back to the car left at Laurel Valley parking lot. Check out the Narrows waterfall and plant life. There are plants here found nowhere else or only elsewhere in the tropics. http://hikingthecarolinas.com/eastatoe.php I have not been here recently so don't know if there are downed trees closing the CS. If party is up to it start at TR SP and add or delete Eastatoe Gorge as an overnight just experiencing it on the end of day 2.
b. Leave car at Sassafras Mt. Start 20 mile or so hike from there going west DOWN. Hike to Canebrake Boat Shuttle Access Area if my memory serves me right it being a bit less than 20 miles.
Sassafras Mt to Chimney Top Gap 2.1 miles http://foothillstrail.org/portfolio/...neytop-gap-a3/
Chimneytop Gap to Laurel Valley 2.1 miles, again http://foothillstrail.org/portfolio/...rel-valley-a4/
Laurel Valley to Laurel Fork Falls (really neat falls and CS, careful) 8.1 miles This is a really nice lush waterfall rich segment! http://foothillstrail.org/portfolio/...fork-falls-a5/
Laurel Fork falls to Canebrake Boat Access Junction another nic FHT segment crossing the longest suspension bridge on teh FHT 5.8 miles

18.1 miles. Ahh I was in the ballpark. At the shoreline Access arrange for a boat shuttle. It is signed! There is a flat open space on the shoreline here to tent although I'd rec camping at the apex of label Falls where there is a LARGE felt CS. You have three options I know of: http://foothillstrail.org/shuttle-service/ Leave other car with the shuttle service. Option 1) b. allows a RT excursion into Eastatote Gorge to check it out. The EG spur is 5 m RT so could be added on for a 23.1 mile total hike.

Some other heads up:

Don't expect to visit the UPPER Whitewater Falls overlook Deck or parking Lot. It is closed and the deck is gone from a fire.
If it has been raining which it should have recently been(high waterfall volume! YIPPEE) you could amend trail mileage and drive to Caesars Head SP to do a short day hike to the Raven Cliffs Falls Overlook Deck or whatever. It's another really nice waterfall in the area.

If none of these options are embraced I have a few more for you involving the Chattooga River. Also, you might consider starting your hike with a boat shuttle. That Laurel Valley to Canebrake segments are nice though with the abundance of waterfalls and cooling deep lushness.

[red5]

I would recommend Laurel Valley to Upper Whitewater Falls (although the official parking lot is closed there is another smaller parking lot for the Foothills Trail and that is open). The whole hike is about 30 miles and is pretty remote. It's quite scenic and is not as busy as other portions of the trail. Let me know if you want some more info.

[Namtrag]

Thanks so much for the great advice on such short notice. It's so nice to know more before we set out. I think we are definitely going to have one car at laurel valley. Maybe the other at Table Rock. If the Eastatoe trail is allowing camping, we may go there Friday night, then Saturday, hike north to Sassafras and camp at the old home site if it's available. Then Sunday, downhill to TR from what I've read! I know this isn't a full 20-25 miles, but if the weather is bad Friday we may not want to hike far. This place sounds so cool. Definitely scouting it out for a future thru hike!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mr. Bumpy]

That is a good plan. For a Friday night late arrival you can also keep driving on the dirt road past the Laurel Valley/Estatoe parking area and find easy access roadside places. It is unclear to me if there is camping allowed down in the gorge. There used to be and it is beautiful but there is a pine forest down there and a few years ago a top came out of a tree and fell on a camper so whoever manages it closed it. That trail does go out a ridge line and there is a spot just before it drops into the gorge.
Whatever you decide to do there will be easy and safe so don't worry about late arrival. And that gorge is unique so I would tell you to take the time and go down itnto it even if you don't camp there.
The cantrell homesite is huge and always has space so you can plan on it, but there are also very nice spots a couple of miles past it between there and the TR boundary.
Enjoy!

[Namtrag]

Thanks so much for all the pointers.

Based on the weather forecast, the fact we had an 8 hour drive home on Sunday, and the fact we did not want to climb up to Sassafras Mountain from the Laurel Valley parking area because it was our first trip in 9 months, we did the following:

Friday, arrived at 11:30 am at Laurel Valley parking area, where we parked both cars. Hiked down to Laurel Falls and camped above the falls right on the creek. Got our camp all set up, and then it sprinkled on and off just a tiny bit while we tried getting a fire going. The fire was good once we got it started, and camping by the creek was awesome!

Saturday, hiked back to parking lot, arriving at 2:30 pm. Got a spotty signal, enough to see a big rain storm coming by 3:30-4:00. Drove up to top of Sassafras Mt, and parked. Hiked down to the Cantrell campsite about a mile away. Arrived just in time to get tarps hung, then it started pouring. Hung our hammocks, unpacked, and sat under my tarp in porch mode, and the rain stopped at about 6pm. We somehow got a fire going, and really enjoyed the company of a few other strangers who had come into the site during the rain storm.

Got up Sunday, ate a leisurely breakfast, walked a mile back to the car, and drove home.

Beautiful hike, and we managed to do the whole trip without hiking in the rain for more than 5 minutes total. If we had decide to hike up Sassafras Mt, we would have not been too happy. Extreme elevation gain and pouring rain at the same time would have been too much!

You guys that live down that way are lucky to have such a beautiful area to hike in. Not too crowded either. We only saw 9 people total the whole weekend.

[Dogwood]

Nice itinerary experiencing a good FHT amount but carving out the big uphill. Too bad you didn't leave a car at Table Rock SP. It's pretty much all gravy quick downhill from the Cantrell site with the option to side trail to Table Rock on the way. Could have grabbed a shower, had trail water, and taken in the Nature Center at the FHT TR SP TH.