Upper Wintergreen & Chub Line Falls

Friday, we met up with Justine early and headed to the mountains for a long weekend of hiking and waterfalls.  We arrived at the Frozen Creek Access of Gorges State Park around 930 to start our long hike to visit some of the most difficult waterfalls to access on Toxaway River.  We followed Augur Hole Trail for about 3 miles to the Wintergreen Spur and followed that another mile to the campground at the end.  From here, it was an unofficial trail along Toxaway River heading upstream.  Shortly, there was a nice waterfall along the river and we went out on the rocks to enjoy the view.

After crossing Panther Branch, we took an old road heading up a ridge.  In a short ways, it stopped heading up and began roughly following the contour line above the river.  Past the second drainage, we lost the trail and bushwhacked straight up until we found it again.  At the top was an open area, where a left turn followed a ridge down towards Toxaway River.  It was open and easy to follow at first, then got progressively steeper.  Towards the end were a couple of knife ridges that were tricky to climb down.  We got to the river level just below the base of Upper Wintergreen Falls.

It's a nice waterfall in three sections though only the lower two were visible from the base.  We climbed around on the rocks for a while but with bright sun, the lighting was poor for photos.

I climbed down a little further to the upper section of Wintergreen Falls, but couldn't find anywhere to get out for a clear view.

We then hiked back and it was much easier following the trail on the way back.  When we got back to Augur Hole Trail, we headed down the very steep scramble path to Chub Line Falls.  There were a bunch of burying beetles along the way down.

The path was fairly easy to follow but extremely steep.  As we got close to the river, we had navigate over a big downed tree that was covered in briers.  I inadvertently grabbed a devil's walking stick and got some barbs stuck in my hand.  I know how it got it's name.  At the base, we ran into Badger and Kitty!  We had to wade in the river to get out to a good view point.

The water in the river was not nearly as cold as expected and felt great on our tired feet.  There was a nice flat rock in the middle of the river to relax on.

We hung out down here for a while then made the excruciatingly steep climb back up.  And once up, it was a 3-mile uphill hike back to the car.  We took it slow and stopped to see a small tributary waterfall on the hike back.

There were some snowy hydrangeas flowering along the trail as well.

We made it back just after 7, completing a very long day.

Back at the cars, we headed to Lazy J's to check in and set up camp then headed to Headwaters Outfitters to get some dinner from Mama Bear's food truck and beer from the tap room.