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HeartFire
01-23-2015, 18:36
Does anyone have an idea of what the weather is generally like the end of February on the Foothills Trail?

BIG TIGER
01-23-2015, 18:59
I expect cold with some warm days. I did it toward end of October. Cold first couple of days then warmer and rainy last part. Ron

Dogwood
01-23-2015, 19:12
Crap shoot. Could have decent but chilly/cold weather windows with possible snow that often melts off quickly and then suddenly a few days in the 50's. I did a FHT thru-hike in mid Feb a couple yrs ago starting west at Falls Creek Falls TH near the Palmetto Bible Camp hiking west to Oconee SP. Started off in 7" of wet snow with temps at the TH in the low 30's getting down to about 20* at night. By Day three it was a balmy 54* and all the snow was gone but with some muddy wet trail. The FHT is rather open non hemmed in by brush trail though so with a decent weather window it's capable of being thru-hiked 10-12 months of the yr. You'll have the trail to yourself in late Feb. I experienced some ice on that mid Feb thru in Jones Gap SP on the higher elev narrower rockier thread so my advice if that kind of stuff is uncomfortable to you look for a dryer period of weather leading up to a decent warmer weather window even allowing for some colder weather following that drier period. You get better views in Feb. Prepare appropriately, and from what I can tell about you HeartFire, you'll enjoy yourself.

HeartFire
01-23-2015, 19:23
Dogwood,
Thanks, it's pretty much what I expected to hear - I would love to hike it in the Spring, but can't get away from the business to hike that time of the year.

Dogwood
01-23-2015, 19:38
You can get hourly, daily, monthly weather forecast in real time, predicted, and historical for nearby Caesars Head SP that would be equivalent to weather for the erst of the FHT.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/today/weather/we-city-35.144,-82.643?weadegreetype=F&ocid=INSWEPL10

MSN weather has Feb avg high of 53, avg low of 29, avg 1 snow day, rec high 73, rec low -1 and ranfall avg at .12 " for Caesars Head SP.

BTW, some FHT sources consider Caesars Head SP/ Ravens Cliff Falls(NICE waterfall) to be an alternate FHT TH. This alternate TH is well documented on the Foothills Trail Conferences FHT map and in their FHT Guidebook. I've done FHT thrus twice and most of it several times now, including Caesars Head SP once on a thru and at several other times. This TH could pose some advantages if one is willing to expand their perspective/definition of doing a FHT hike.

meat803
01-24-2015, 23:12
All I can add is expect rain. Every time I have hiked foothills, I got rained on without fail.

he.who.forgets
01-25-2015, 02:58
Thanks for posting this...my wife and I are hiking half the trail Valentines week next month and I've been curious as well. Message me around the 19th or so, and I'll let you know what weather conditions we experienced.

Dogwood
01-25-2015, 03:27
This thread should be merged with this Foothills Tr thread http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/107465-Early-Mid-February-Hike-Foothills-Trail.

Check out the historical weather patterns for Caesars Head SP taken from the nearby town of Cedar Mt NC just up the road from this SP. It best reflects the coldest temps of a winter early spring FHT hike. The Pickens SC weather is taken at around 1000 ft elev. The Cedar Mt weather is taken at around 2700 ft. Sassafras Mt, the highest pt in SC, is on the FHT, with an elev of 3560 ft.

You don't have to guess at FHT weather or dubiously attempt to quantify and relate it personally. This area of SC experiences sometimes quickly changing weather from wk to wk.

Check out monthly rainfall avgs too at the various weather websites. It does change from month to month with the most rainfall occurring from May-Aug. As has been related here on WB previously some of the FHT is so lush because it is routed through a temperate rain forest region which also adds to the dramatic abundance of waterfalls for the FHT area.