Foothills Trail in the Snow

Saturday morning, we woke up relatively early. John didn’t sleep well the night before, so he decided to stay at the cabin and rest. A good thing, as this was going to be a very long and strenuous day. After a light breakfast, we headed west on US-64 to Sapphire and turned onto NC-281 south into South Carolina. Almost immediately after crossing the state line, we turned into Bad Creek Power Station and parked at the Foothills Trail access. We followed the spur to the Foothills Trail at the footbridges over Whitewater River and turned right on the trail towards Thompson River. Not long after crossing Whitewater River, we passed the spur trail to Lower Whitewater Falls, planning to hit this one on the way back. The trail headed up gradually, then dipped back down as we hiked into North Carolina.

Soon, we crossed Thompson River on a footbridge about a half-mile downstream of Big Falls. After crossing the river, we headed steeply up the ridgeline. I wasn’t expecting such a steep stretch, but I don’t think it’s ever easy climbing back up from Thompson River. The trail then started going back down. A couple spots were extremely difficult as ice covered steep steps heading down. The first set of steps had a handrail that helped tremendously in safely descending.

The second set didn’t have anything to hold on to, so we had to butt-slide down. After the “Stairs of Death”, we came out to a gated road and hiked down to Bearcamp Creek. At the creek, we hiked the short spur trail leading to Bearcamp Falls. This waterfall is also called Hilliard Falls, in honor of Glenn Hilliard, the founder of the Foothills Conference. There was a great campsite right at the base of the falls. If I ever backpacked the Foothills Trail, I would try to camp here as it was a lovely spot where you could hear the waterfall and kind of see it through the trees from a tent. Approaching the waterfall, there was a nice cascade at the base, but trees blocked a good view of the main waterfall.

Going a little further, we stopped at the base for lunch and pictures. It’s a pretty cool waterfall, with the water flowing down the rock face in several distinct streams. I was surprised that there wasn’t a lot of ice on it, though.

We didn’t linger too long, however, as we still had quite a bit of hiking to do to get back. So we started the rather long hike back towards South Carolina.

Although there was a lot of uphill on the way back, the icy steps were a lot easier going up. After a while, we got to the spur trail and headed to Lower Whitewater Falls. The trail went through the woods, then followed a gravel road, before skirting around Whitewater Mountain. It then descended steeply to a nice wooden overlook for the waterfall. The falls were a good distance away, but the overlook was positioned well for views of the 400-foot waterfall surrounded by ice.

After a few photos, we headed back and soon were back at the car. Our hike for the day ended up being more than 13 miles and we were all exhausted. But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t get a couple more (easy) waterfalls. Heading back into North Carolina on NC-281, we pulled off at the grassy spot on the side of the road at John’s Jump. First, we ran across the street and hiked up the short D.E.W. Falls Trail (#281) to this waterfall. Although the hike is short and normally easy, we had to put our Yak-Trax back on to make the final descent to see the falls. We were surprised to see another couple and their dog at the waterfall, the only other people we've seen on our hikes so far.

D.E.W. Falls is not a huge waterfall, but it’s in a really pretty setting. Even more so today with a thin layer of ice coating the pool and some nice icicles framing the waterfall. After a couple pictures we hiked back to the car and made a quick detour to John’s Jump.

It was a steep descent down to the base, but at least it was short. The snow and ice surrounding this waterfall were beautiful; I think this one had the best ice that we had seen.

Once we got some pictures, we headed back to the car and drove back to Brevard. We got take-out from Hawg Wild BBQ and ate dinner back at the cabin. We all fell asleep quickly after our very busy day.