Sunday, August 01, 2010

The True Meaning of Bushwhack

Several people have emailed me to say how much they'd like to hike to this waterfall:
While the hike to this waterfall is only about 200 yards from the road which runs adjacent to the wilderness area where it's located, there is no trail. I keep trying to impress upon folk what "no trail" means in the Southern Appalachians. Generally, it means extremely steep slopes, poor footing, and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of very thick vegetation. That vegetation generally being various species of brambles, rhododendron (they don't call them rhododendron hells for nothing) and often a nasty foot-grabbing plant called dog-hobble. While it wasn't very far, this is what the hike down to the bottom of the gorge looked like:

If you're up to it, then I highly recommend the scramble down to see these falls on Scotsmans Creek. Otherwise, just be aware of the kind of tough sledding you'll face. (Oh, yes. We also have lots of copperheads and rattlesnakes in this part of the country in the summertime.)

3 comments:

Jack Thyen said...

Yup, thats a nice one! Well worth the short but very steep bushwhack!

James Robert Smith said...

And you took both of those photos. I think likely both with your camera, too. (You hadn't bought the SLR yet, had you?)

Jack Thyen said...

Nope, those were with my old Olympus (non SLR).