Flat Creek Falls Hike with Jeff – 2/29/20 – 6.2 Miles – 2,100 feet elevation gain
Note to my hiking self: ALWAYS bring your Crocs.
Flat Creek Falls near Lake Toxaway, NC has intrigued me for a while. Kevin Adams’ North Carolina Waterfalls gives route descriptions and reasons why you shouldn’t do them: hike difficulty rating 10, off-trail, dangerous drop-offs, private property (a no-no). Yet it’s on the CMC Waterfalls 100 list for a reason - it is a challenge and it is spectacular. It requires skills I don’t have and there is one person that I feel comfortable doing it with: Jeff, a hiking buddy since 2008 whom I haven’t seen in a couple of years. (Jeff led me through the SB6K Challenge.) An off-trail winter hike fits his interest and skills levels.
I pitched the idea and within 48 hours Jeff had done all the research, downloaded maps and GPS tracks, and we made a plan for Leap Day. Fitting that it was a unique day for us to be hiking together again – I just hope it isn’t another Leap Day before the next time.
Snowflakes flew as I drove into the mountains. We met at the fire station in Lake Toxaway. Never one to show excitement, Jeff rolled down his truck window and said hi. I followed him towards the trailhead, got as far as the snow-covered bridge on Rock Bridge Road, and left my car there. I grabbed my gear and jumped into Jeff’s truck to go the rest of the way.
The gravel forest road was covered in pristine snow, no tire tracks this morning, fun driving through wonderland about 4 miles to the road’s end. There was a campsite large enough for several trucks, a good home base for hunters.
Flat Creek runs right beside the road-end and I realized with dread that the first order of business was crossing it. Bad news: I didn’t have shoes for creek crossings. There were three large logs spanning the water, but they were covered in snow so I wasn’t going to even try to scoot across, much less walk. I had sneakers but didn’t consider carrying them all day (hindsight…)
I skipped barefoot to the water’s edge. Jeff went first, wearing his Crocs, and I hurried across as quickly as I could without slipping. The bone-chilling water was calf deep. How to sit down to dry my feet and put on socks and boots? Snow everywhere. But I did it. In hiking, you draw the line at what you won't do, then you step over it and draw another one, and another one...
No trail signs or markers or blazes anywhere, and there goes Jeff. First, a very old forest road for about a mile, fairly level but with numerous blowdowns, following the contours of the mountains. Snow-covered trail through the rhodies was lovely.
Chill factorWay led on to way, so the poem goes, as we turned onto one criss-crossing
forest road after another.
Jeff found a faint trail turnoff. The barely discernible path led a quarter mile down to a rocky outcrop that looked across to another slope. Flat Creek Falls thundered down the cove. From our vantage point we could see the first drop, the second drop, and a long slide down and out of sight. Yes, this was the moderate creek we had crossed a couple of hours ago! This was a fraction of the whole series of drops and slides and cascades that total over 200 feet.
Let’s have lunch.
We backtracked up to the forest road and turned right, then continued steadily downhill to another faint side trail hopefully leading to Flat Creek, now flowing merrily along below the falls. Looking at the GPS track and topo map, it was likely we would cross several times heading toward the base (upstream now) and then several times coming back. Temps in the upper 30’s and wet, very cold boots for another 4 miles – I said no, even if I'd had my water shoes. If it had been 20 degrees warmer I would have gone for it. I felt some regret at not being better prepared, but the information was vague, and sometimes you just can’t know until you’re there.
In return for Jeff’s willingness to find the falls and then have me nix going to the base, I agreed to follow him for his favorite activity: peakbagging. He had two summit goals for the hike back, Beetree Knob and Isinglass Knob.
No trails, of course, to either summit, but Beetree Knob was short and easily accomplished. Isinglass Knob was longer, harder, and very steep, straight up the mountain. Jeff went easy on me, walked very slowly and kept up conversation. I really felt the burn in my calves, but barely broke a sweat. I was happy being a peakbagger for an hour on a cold, clear winter's day.
What are these? Random things you find in the woods
Back at the trailhead, now the snow had melted off the big logs spanning Flat Creek. Jeff walked across, but I chickened out. This time I waded in my boots, took them off immediately and tossed them in the back of his truck. Nice warm dry socks and sneakers.
Just kidding!Good to see my friend again, sharing our love of the mountains.
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