September 13, 2022
Day 2: 11.22 miles
Waking up this morning was difficult. I honestly prefer my hammock to my bed most days, and I’m so comfortable that I don’t want to leave the cocoon of down I’m suspended inside. It’s 0830 before I drag myself out from between my quilts, and Jess is already doing camp chores: filtering water, dropping our bear bags, etc. I crawl out of my down cloud, change out of my sleeping clothes, and begin my own chores.
The first order of business is cathole digging. Bowel movements on trail are a bit of process. You should only “do your business” 200ft from trail, 200ft from a water source, and buried in a 6-8in hole. The earth near our campsite is soft from days of steady rain, so digging a hole of appropriate depth is easy, but the other requirements are difficult to achieve. There’s a steep drop to a creek on one side and a steep hillside on the other. We do the best we can.
Breakfast follows: bagels and cream cheese with pre-cooked bacon for me. After grabbing water from a cistern a few feet further down the trail, we pack up and begin to walk. We have about 9 miles to our next campsite, but today we will take several off-trail excursions to waterfalls. Early into our hike we pass two of the few people we will see today: two women who appear to be day hiking. We briefly exchange pleasantries as we pass and then go our separate ways.
The first waterfall of the day isn’t far into our hike. Harvey Falls is barely off trail, and also barely a trickle. It’s more of a wet rock than anything and we snap a few photos and move on. Next up are Pigpen and Licklog Falls, which are both off a single side trail. Pigpen Falls is only a few feet downhill on the side trail, but Licklog is nearly a quarter mile and requires a steep scramble down to the base. We decide to leave our packs at the top and climb down to the river without the extra weight. We reach the Chattooga River and take the opportunity to remove our hiking shoes and wade in the river for a better view of the falls and a refreshing cold soak. You can only see the lowest drop from here, but this waterfall has several drops higher up.
Back on trail, we hike and chat for a while as we move toward our next pitstop: lunch. We pass an older couple, man and wife, who are carrying a chainsaw and hedge trimmers. They are maintaining a section of the trail, and we thank them for the work they are putting in to keep the trail in good shape. It’s been absolutely beautiful and wonderfully maintained up to this point.
We eventually reach Simms Field Campsite where we have decided to stop for lunch. As we are eating, we hear a female voice call out from the trail behind us, “Jess?” Jess’ friend Bethany is supposed to be joining us today, but we weren’t sure exactly when or where. She decided to park at Burrell’s Ford and trail run in until she found us. She’s covered about 6 miles when she reaches us, and that’s how many miles we have left to camp tonight.
We eat and move along, filtering a bit of water before we strike out. The next several miles of our hike is a relatively gradual uphill. It isn’t super steep or difficult, but after a while I get a bit tired of needlessly trudging upward. After all, there are no “views” and it’s just pointless ups and downs. A couple miles from camp we reach the spur to the final waterfall of the day: Big Bend Falls.
This waterfall spans the entire Chattooga River and requires some significant scrambling to reach. We take the “spur” trail marked on our maps, leaving our packs near the top, and scramble down to an intersection. The left fork appears impassible, so we opt right. This turns out not to be the correct route to the base, but gets us to a nice mid-point overlook of the falls.
Bethany finds the actual way down, and we all clamber carefully down the steep bank and across a slippery rock face to reach the base of the falls. It’s gorgeous and powerful and we spend several minutes admiring it before heading back up. I’m feeling pretty good up to this point but it isn’t long until my feet and ankles really start to feel the miles we’ve put in today. They hurt, and I’m tired. I’m ready to be done.
We are hiking along when suddenly we hear what sounds kind of like a gunshot, followed by loud cracking and popping. My first thought is fireworks, but that can’t be right. It’s the middle of the week in September and it’s daylight. We look at each other, puzzled, when it hits me: it’s a tree falling. For the next several minutes as we hike, we can hear creaking and groaning, then we see leaves and branches moving in the distance, further up the trail and into the forest. My anxiety peaks a little, my subconscious returning momentarily to stormy night in April, 2020 when a large white pine fell on the house I was living in at the time, a memory that makes me shudder.
We finally reach Burrells Ford, after what seems like an eternity of pointless ups and downs (PUDs). We pick a site near a stream and drop our packs. My old Appalachian Trail buddy Cowbell is supposed to be waiting for us at the parking area above Burrell’s Ford with trail magic! Bethany also left her car at this parking lot and needs to grab her backpacking gear. She brought a few beers, and once we reach the car we all partake. Cowbell isn’t here yet; it seems he’s running late so Bethany packs and we all have a beer to celebrate completion of a long hiking day.
I haven’t had cell signal since we started this hike yesterday afternoon, and I begin to wonder if maybe Cowbell has changed his mind about coming. I use Bethany’s Garmin to send him a message: “we will wait until 6:30, then head down to set up camp.” I don’t know if he will get it or not, but it’s worth a shot. A few minutes later he comes wheeling into the parking lot. I’m super excited to see him because I haven’t seen Cowbell since Trail days, and we are all excited about what he may have brought for us.
When he opens his back hatch there’s a cooler full of beer and two large Domino’s pizzas. I giggle because Bethany and Jess have been talking about pizza all day. “You’re going to want to come over here,” I yell at Jess. She and Bethany are ecstatic about the pizza, and we spend the next little bit chowing down, drinking beer, and catching up with Cowbell. He mentions he was late because he had to shuttle a hiker to Oconee state park. “Maybe she will catch up with you guys; her name is Jess too, trail name 1800.” We all figure she probably will, namely because I’m slow and we aren’t doing big mile days.
Eventually Cowbell has to return home. We say our goodbyes and head back down toward camp as he pulls out of the trail head parking lot. We make of a plan to potentially meet up later in the week. Jess, Bethany, and I head down to camp, packing out a few White Claws and a few of the beers that Bethany brought, and we have a nightcap sitting around a Nalgene-headlamp makeshift lantern and chitchatting. I’m exhausted, my ankles are screaming, but it’s been a wonderful day.
Adventure Like A Girl 
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