6.5.22 I didn’t sleep well last night. Partly, this was due to the fact that I never sleep well when I have to sleep on the ground, and partly it was due to the fact that my dumb ass didn’t think to bring a pillow knowing I would be sleeping on the ground. Shooter and I managed to snag the last available campsite at a free camping area bellow Summersville Dam when we arrived at the lake Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, none of the campsites had appropriate trees for hammocking. I own a portable hammock stand. I brought it with me to West Virginia. And I left it at my rental.
So I set up my car camping tent and blew up my Luno camping mattress and hoped for the best. After we went kayaking the night before, I came back to camp and cooked a bomb camp dinner: beef tips with stir-fry vegetables. I don’t like to cook much at home, but I thoroughly enjoy making simple, tasty, healthy meals at camp. Make it make sense. Anyway, we turned in early, tossed and turned all night, and awoke shortly after dawn.
My goal today, after making yet another tasty camp meal for breakfast (bacon, egg, and cheese grilled sandwich) was to check out several waterfalls I had pinned in Gaia located in the Gauley River National Recreation Area. What I didn’t realize initially was that two of the waterfalls I wanted to see were on one side of the river, and two were on the other side… and it was no short trip from one side to the other. Once I figured that out I decided to pick a side and come back for the others at a later date. With a goal in mind, I packed up camp and we headed off.
The first waterfall, Panther Creek Falls, was relatively easy to get to. After a short stint on a well-maintained gravel road, I arrived at a put-in for the Gauley River. It was oddly deserted, save for one solitary other vehicle that appeared to be camping there (not sure if that’s actually legal). I parked and proceeded to get Shooter out of the car and promptly got a tick crawling on me. I pulled it off and burned it, and set out for the waterfall. It was a very short jaunt on a rooty, muddy rocky path to a very cool grotto with water cascading over it. The setting was truly unique and unlike any waterfall I’ve ever been to before. Unfortunately, summer seems to be the dry season here and this waterfall would have looked better in higher flow.
We left Panther Creek and proceeded further down the gravel road we came in on. The road gradually got rougher and narrower, and eventually we were to turn down a side “road” that turned out to be more of a Jeep trail than a road. The waterfall book whose directions I was following stated that this road was, “Not for the family sedan.” I would later find out that this used to be a commercial Gauley access, but the road has gotten so bad that the outfitters can’t use it anymore. Even despite how rough and washed out it was, it was insanely narrow and steep and I honestly cannot imagine a rafting bus EVER going down it, but apparently they did. Several days later I would mention to a raft guide that I drove down this road and his eyes would get big accompanied by a “you DROVE down THAT road?!” But that would be later. Now, me and Wonda the WonderRunner© were going to navigate this washed out mess of a road down to a waterfall and gorgeous view of the Gauley River.
I got about halfway down this “road” and, heart pounding in my throat and hands shaking, pulled over into a sort of pullout and re-evaluated my life choices. I had enough room here to turn around, and I had no idea what lay ahead. “I’ll just park here and walk the rest of the way,” I thought. After all, it was only another half-mile or so. So I put my parking brake on, unloaded Shooter, grabbed my sticks and backpack, and started walking down the road. I made it a few hundred feet around the next hairpin turn and then re-thought to myself, “what the hell, my car can make it down here. This is what I bought this car for.” I walked back up, loaded everything back into the car, and kept going.
I was right, my car could make it. And she did. We rocked and bumped down the road the rest of the way to a small creek crossing followed by a nice clearing to park in. The waterfall we were trying to visit is called Bucklick Branch Falls, and I just need to warn anyone who’s following anybody’s directions to this waterfall that the ones I was following were not quite accurate. I would not continue past the first creek crossing unless I was in a truly trail-worthy Jeep or other off-road or all-terrain vehicle. I crossed the creek and parked in a grassy clearing next to some cliffs, perfectly off the road and a great spot to turn around once I returned. I walked the remaining 0.2 miles to the waterfall, which again could have used higher flow, but again had such an incredible setting. It flows off a mossy ledge, lands on the colorful rocks below, and then tumbles right into the Gauley River.
Returning to the car, I decided to attempt to hike up an unmarked trail I had noticed that started at the base of the cliffs I parked near. There were stone steps embedded at the beginning of the trail, followed by a series of wooden steps and walkways that were in a serious state of disrepair. This trail obviously used to go somewhere, but clearly hadn’t been used or maintained in quite some time. I went part of the way up, navigating through and around the crumbling stairways, but eventually I reached an area where the wooden steps were literally falling off a cliff face and I couldn’t safely continue. Later, speaking to the same river guide as mentioned above, I’d find out that once the road became too rough to drive down, the commercial river outfitters would park their busses up above and use this trail to haul rafts down to the river. The trail likely hasn’t been maintained since they stopped using this boat launch years ago.
Back at the car, we headed home for the day. After all, I had my first day of orientation at my new travel nurse! Part 2 to follow, as soon as I get a chance to visit the remaining waterfalls in this area.
Adventure Like A Girl 