Epic Wilderness Expedition

I had big grand plans for backpacking this year. We didn't go once last year (I blame the Asheville house) and I wanted to make up for lost time. This meant that when it became clear we weren't doing the Burn Race this year, I quickly dog-eared Memorial Day weekend for a two night backpacking trip. Oh yes. It was going to happen.

My greedy eyes got even hungrier when I started planning our destination. It had to be something bigger than Shinning Rock, where we went last time, or else, why bother with a two night trip. Amiright?! I thought I was right. So I do what I always do...I googled...I read...I absorbed stories...I planned. I was aiming for the adjoining wilderness to Shinning Rock when I stumbled upon a a gem called the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. The internet said (and the internet is never wrong, I checked) that this 2 mile loop (which connects to other trails) has some of the few remaining old growth trees. This little tree sanctuary was never harvested and the trees have been left to grow. I've never seen a tree like that....I wanted to see a tree like that. There was only one problem, the trail head was 6 hours away. I admit that I have an "eyes are bigger than my stomach" issue when it comes to things like that. To me, 6 hours seemed totally doable and totally warranted. When I posed the idea to Steven, he was less than enthusiastic but didn't necessarily say, "no". Or that's how I interpreted it at the time. This meant I went ahead with planning for this area. I borrowed a friends map, I planned, I dreamed.

Then came the day before we were supposed to leave. The fact of the matter was, we weren't ready to leave early enough to make a 6 hour drive before a long hike doable. Which inevitably meant that all my planning was scrubbed and we had to start from square one the night before we leave. That sucked. Lesson learned - have a back up plan. Fast forward a late night and a late morning we decide mid drive that we're going to scratch everything and just go with a hike a friend suggested - Harpers Creek in the Wilson Creek Wilderness. Step one...get a map.

We managed to find the visitor center 5 minutes before they closed, we got a map, we parked at 5pm and we headed into the woods. At first the trail and blazes were easy to follow but then we decided to turn off the common trail and follow another one that led away from the heavily traveled area. We lost the blazes immediately. It took us nearly an hour and some well meaning kids WHO SET UP CAMP ON THE FUGGIN TRAIL (you don't do that. Seriously there was a blaze on a tree in the center of their camp site....) to figure out that we had to cross a big. ass. stream. The water was flowing fast and at least 2 feet deep. Boots off, socks off, cue hilarious balancing act on pointy cobble stones. The dogs did fine but were pretty confused why we needed to cross the stream when the well meaning kids on the other bank had plenty of food to eat. We hiked on for another couple hours. Eventually we passed the last guy we saw enter the trail after us and then we saw no one.

It was getting dangerously close to dusk and we hadn't found a suitable camp site yet. There were no flat areas, no balds, no plateaus. I thought we were screwed. We were about 5 mins from setting up camp on the trail when we (thankfully) took a wrong turn and found a plateau on the top of the mountain range. Hallelujah, saints be praised. We set up camp in record time then I could finally take some pictures.

Please forgive the quality of these photos...they're from my phone. Do you have any idea how heavy a 5D is? Yeah...I wasn't going to pack that in.

We had the idea of putting a tarp down where the dogs would lay because they ended up with chiggers from the last backpacking trip. Poor pups. They were completely zonked.

Great use for the Kelty tarp. 

Steven did a great job building us a wee little fire in the wee little rock ring someone else made. BTW,  nothing it better at the top of a mountain than some Merlot out of a Nalgene.

So there we were in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain range eating out of our camp food bags when we start hearing ATVs. It lasted for several hours but never really gets close, until around 11pm. All of a sudden it's loud and getting louder and then we can see lights. I'm thinking nothing of it but Steven's getting nervous. Then I realize that there's no one who knows where we are (I mean they know the trail but that's it) and there's lots of screwed up people out there. We watch the lights, hatchet and knife in hand (tiny hatchet, tiny knife...) as they round the corner of the trail and then disappear down it. Luckily, us taking the wrong turn got us off the major trail and onto an offshoot that was not in their pathway. Phew.

 Next morning we get ready to set off again. Repack the bags, repack the dogs, eat out of a bag again, coffee and GO! Oh wait, picture first.

 That's a ledge behind us. Not a "you're going to fall and die" ledge but a "one hell of an epic roll down the hill" ledge.

While we were packing up we saw a couple other hikers pass us by which led us to believe they were heading in the direction that the trail continued (this was before we realized we were on an offshoot). We followed their path which led into some thick brushes and then we popped out at a "you're going to die" ledge. It was magnificent. We made the dogs lay down and stay about 30 feet from the ledge (they're not perfectly balanced with those packs on) 

and gazed over the ledge. This is what we saw...

This is South Harper Falls from across the canyon. Over the ledge I'm standing on is a couple hundred foot vertical wall. Needless to say I didn't get much closer. 

After we had our fill looking at the falls we set out to find the trail that brings you to them. This is where the blazes got crazy. For most of the trail the day before we were following white and yellow blazed and then all of a sudden a blue blaze showed up and then an orange one. To find the correct path to the falls as well as the rest of the trail it ended up being a whole bunch of guessing. The guys that has passed us earlier were going in the same direction and had been on the trail previously but were still no help. Eventually we found the right path and it led us to the split in the falls (look for the rear axle of an old wagon/truck/thing). It was pretty fantastic. 

So this is the split as seen in the previous picture. This time I'm looking out at the vertical wall I was standing on. 

From this point on the blazes were hit or miss. For another couple miles they were pretty solid but they were orange now (no idea where the  yellow blaze trail went) but then after the 2nd or 3rd river crossing you would lose the blazes entirely. The only time you would see them is at the river crossings in the form of a blaze or a orange/pink flag tied to a tree. We crossed the river a lot. Sometimes it you could walk on the rocks in the creek...

One time there was a man made rock bridge..

Yeah my pack is massive. And I'm wee. Moving on...

But a lot of times we ended up having to take our boots and socks off  because the water was too deep. Future note...water shoes. 

There's one thing for sure, the crossings were always glorious. 

 And the dogs absolutely loved them all. 

Steven was way better at taking photos as we went along.

This was one of the neatest camping spots we came to. The tent area was up the bank some but where it met the river there was a sandy/rocky beach. So cool. 

We ended up hiking out on the second day because my pack was killing me after the first night (I didn't have it fit right and didn't fix it until the next morning) so I gave up on the idea of a two night backpacking trip. It ended up being for the better actually. About 5 mins after we got back to the trail head, while I was waiting for Steven to bring the car around from the auxiliary parking area, it started to monsoon. No time to clean the dogs off or change out of our nasty smelly clothes, we had to throw everything, wet packs and dogs included into the mini and haul ass out of there. Ew. 

We stopped at a rest stop on 40 to towel off the dogs and brush out their fur. It's a good thing we did because we found no less than a dozen ticks between the three of them. Lovely. 

Let me tell you, a beer never tastes as good as it does when you're physically exhausted. Memorial Day weekend well spent. 

Next backpacking trip - November!

Liz