What is a hiker to do? The Friday Hoofers are on hiatus, my new hiking partners, Ladyslipper and Songbird are safely back in Virginia, my volunteer trail maintenance assignment in the Smokies is on hold and to top it off the Pisgah National Forest closed most trails to hiking and camping yesterday! Last week during a sleepless night I started playing around with my Gaia GPS hiking app and noticed that Hog Wild Cave Falls is pretty close to my home, though no trails approach it! A quick google search and I found this blog post about some hardy adventurers who were able to reach the falls several years ago. http://scjack.blogspot.com/2016/05/2016-05-06-hog-wild-persistence.html Why had I not heard of these falls? The reason why would soon become quite clear. Exercise close to home is encouraged during the current pandemic, though I doubt cross country off-trail hiking in Jocassee Gorges was what the powers that be had in mind. Loving a new challenge, I decided to try to find the Falls and set off with my daypack packed with lunch, water and of course the 10 essentials. I had my Gaia app and knew the general direction I needed to travel. There is an old forest road near the base of my driveway, so decided to start my journey by following it along a stream. It was immediately a hard slog with many downed trees and this pretty much set the course for the rest of my hike.

It was difficult going with no established trail to follow, though I persevered,  pulling myself up hillsides, sliding down on my butt and constantly checking my phone to keep going in the right direction. I tried to follow ridgelines but this wasn’t always possible. Occasional animal paths made travel a little easier. I eventually reached a spectacular waterfall though no mention of it or the stream on my app.

Always a treat to find remnants of an old moonshine still, so surely there must be an easier route to get here or at least there used to be! Evidently it was quite the industry in these parts back in the day, since I’ve found several on my rambles around the property.

The going got really difficult from here on out as I had to push through laurel hells, dog hobble and briar patches as well as try to keep on course. Despite being a big proponent of “leave no trace”, somewhere here I lost my reading specs, the bottom section of my trekking pole, and chapstick.  I eventually reached Hog Creek and I was so near the falls that I could hear them, but unfortunately was high above and couldn’t figure a way to get down. I walked up and down the ridgeline and around in circles to no avail.

It was going on 3pm and I really didn’t want to go back the way I’d come and knew I needed to start heading home if I didn’t want to spend the night in the woods. I followed Hog Creek downstream before finding a place to cross and then an old forest road that eventually  led me out to a gravel road that turned out to be the driveway of a neighbor down the road that I’ve never met. Despite not reaching the beautiful falls pictured in the previously mentioned blog, I did have a grand adventure and also saw lots of lovely wildflowers!

I may have to give another shot at Hog Wild Cave Falls, maybe from another direction and before the poison ivy grows too lush!

5.5 miles today! (but felt like 15)