Spontaneous Wilderness Explorations - Jones Gap, SC

Well I managed to complete my last trip to Xiangtan and return home. This was indeed one of the more frustrating trips I have had there because the suppliers of the raw material components were incredibly frustrating. But not to bore you with details, we did manage to finally receive acceptable parts and we did manage to build one assembly for our customer. Of course he threw a few curve balls at us as well; but we have learned to expect that from this one particular customer.

My flight home was uneventful and after a few days of extreme jet lag (fall asleep into my dinner at 07:00 PM and wake up at 03:30 AM), I think I have recovered and am back on US time.

Which was a very good thing because on this past Friday evening while watching the nightly news and catching up all things I missed going on in the world I hear my daughter call me from the other room … “Hey Dad, Is it OK if Charles and I go backpacking at Jones Gap tomorrow?”

Wow. Where did that thought come from?



Elise and Charles



Now, Elise is very strong and athletic and Charles is as well plus he is a very experienced hiker/camper, so I wasn’t concerned about them going off into the woods for the weekend, but I thought the short notice was a little too short and thought maybe they should plan this adventure for another weekend. Of course, that didn’t sell with them. They counter-argued with their plan of how to manage this on short notice and then thought to invite me and with one look from my wife who said “You know it’ll be fun. Go with them.” and at 10:00 PM, we were pulling out all the gear and packing packs while Elise reserved our campsite online.

Jones gap State Park is a quick hour+ journey from home and we arrived Saturday morning at 10:30. By

10:45 we were at the Ranger Station to check in; but no Ranger! At 11:15 we decided it was tough luck for them and headed out on our hike. Cell coverage was nonexistent, so we couldn’t track our progress with our phones, but after taking a picture of the map we knew we were in good shape.

Our itinerary was (highlighted on map below)

• Jones Gap Trail #1 for 2.5 miles (passing our reserved campsite along the way),
• Coldspring Branch Trail #3 for 2.3 miles,
• Coldspring Connector Trial #7 for 0.5 miles, and then the
• Frank Coggins Trail #15 for 0.9 miles where we would emerge at Caesar’s Head Overlook and Ranger station.

We thought maybe we would camp somewhere up near Caesar’s Head and then return by the same trail or a slightly different trail on Sunday morning.



Coldspring Branch Trail

 The Jones Gap Trail is a flat beautiful section of the forest crossing over small streams and springs. The scenery is breathtaking as we passed several small waterfalls and walked alongside the stream. When we connected with the Coldspring Branch Trail we left the stream and began a steady, constant uphill trudge. A two mile uphill trudge. This was just as pretty, but all uphill! I didn’t bother to tell Charles and Elise that this section is rated “strenuous” until later but by that time they had pretty much figured it out. We crossed several other streams flowing down the mountain and at one point Elise had to take off her shoes to cross. At the top of the ridge we connected to the Coldspring Connector Trail which was a 0.5 mile straight down almost half the same elevation we had just ascended in two miles ... Switchbacks, stairs cut into the trail, and then more switchbacks. The Frank Coggins Trail was 0.9 miles of uphill again to reach the top of Caesar’s Head.

No exaggeration when I say we were completely soaked through with sweat. I looked as if I just climbed out of the swimming pool! I could squeeze the water out of my hat I was so incredibly soaked through. I’m sure the tourists that had driven up the top of Caesar’s Head thought we were the scraggliest threesome to come crawling out from under some mountain rock somewhere. But we had earned our sweat as we calculated we were walking about 2 – 2.5 MPH which we were pleased with considering the 1700 foot elevation climb.

 

We met the Ranger and he just laughed correctly guessing from where we had started. He told us that there were no campsites up there but we didn’t care and just stated we would go back. He told us where to refill our water bottles and where the scenic overlook was located and we rested a few minutes. While taking our pictures looking across the stunning views we noticed a very dark thunderstorm headed our way so we decided it was time to head back down the mountain before it began. Obviously, we weren’t concerned about getting wet, but I was concerned about being caught in a lightening-filled thunderstorm on top of the mountain and knowing the valley would be much safer for us; we headed back down.

  

God's Country - aka - South Carolina



For those who do much hiking, you already know that going downhill uses a different set of muscles than going uphill, so now the burn in our legs moved from lower calves to upper thighs/knees as we trudged on down the hill. I will admit; my legs were burning, but it was so nice to be out in the woods and enjoying what we call “God’s Country” that it didn’t really matter what aches I discovered.

  

Arriving back at our campsite without having any rain, we setup our camp and then enjoyed a nice relaxing rest on a rock in the middle of the stream while soaking our tired feet in the frigid water.

Once refreshed, the rest of the evening involved scrounging for what dry firewood we could find, cooking an amazing one pot dinner (Zatarains Dirty Rice with Vegetable Noodle Soup and Chicken Chunks), discovering several snails, and one small snake – and of course toasting a few marshmallows and playing with Glow Sticks. Only a few readers will enjoy this little inside story; but amazingly enough Nobody Lost Their Glow Stick In The Dark!

  

We hung our “smellables” in a Bear Bag and crashed around 09:30. It was cool and only a hint of a breeze and I think we all three probably snored loud enough to scare away any curious bears!  After 10.4 miles, we had earned the sleep and the right to snore.

  

Sunday morning, we broke camp and had a short 2 mile walk back out of the forest and to civilization.

Elise called this our “Spontaneous Wilderness Exploration” and I am so unbelievably glad that she and Charles decided to include me because it was just a wonderfully relaxing (albeit somewhat strenuous) weekend!

  

I’m ready to go again.  Pisgah in August, anybody???

Mountain Streams



Crossing the Stream



Our Friend Checkin' Us Out



"Good Morning, Sunshine!"



"Dad, Just Go Away!"



Yours Truly Doing His Best "Survivor Man" Imitation