Sugarloaf Mountain

Our first real outing here in the Old Line State was to Sugarloaf Mountain. The "mountain" is all of 1,282 feet. As puny as that may sound, it still makes for nice views. Anything you read about Sugarloaf is likely to say the same thing: despite its relatively low elevation as a "mountain", Sugarloaf dominates the horizon. It's surrounded by flat terrain of 300 to 400 feet.

If you're out looking for a rugged outdoor experience, somewhere to test your mountaineering and orienteering skills, this is not the place. But it is perfect for family outings. The various trail lengths do allow you to choose from a range of experiences. There is a trail that skirts the base of the mountain, where you can really work up some miles and enjoy relative solitude. If you want to head for the peak to take in some views, it's only about a 200 foot gain from the parking lot, and less than a mile. The views from the peak are nothing to laughed at.

Aside from the trails and views, the mountain also has some significant history. Unfortunately, our trip came on a weekday afternoon when I got home from work, so we didn't have ample time to explore the man-made attractions. There is a mansion and some other buildings.

When we arrived, we forgot to grab a map, so we had some issues finding the trail we wanted. Initially we headed down the trail the skirts the peak, thinking that eventually it would lead us to the top. After a few minutes we backtracked and found the green-blazed trail that was to take us to the top.

Even while hiking on the red-blazed trail, there were still some nice rock out-croppings that offered decent views, and it was enough to keep Gabriel entertained.

The green-blazed trail to the top was well maintained. Purists would say a little too well-maintained. It was paved with flagstone, and when the elevation kicked in, there were stone-carved steps with a rail. For this occasion, I was okay with the manicured walk-way. Laura was about 7 months pregnant and Gabriel benefited from the improved footing.

The exposed rock "cliffs" up toward the peak were, in their own way, impressive. When we went up there were some rock jocks using the boulders as a training spot. Gabriel was impressed.

We got to the top with enough daylight to have a snack and soak in the views. Again, even with the low elevation, the views were impressive. We were a little past time for peak fall colors, and high winds had knocked most of the leaves off the trees. It was still great scenery. In the end, Sugarloaf Mountain gets a thumbs-up from me. Young families in the area should put this one on their shortlist

1 Down- 98 to go!

The countdown is on!!! the first trail has officially been marked off the list.

RIM OF THE GAP TRAIL

This was my selection for South Carolina. It is located in Caeser's Head State Park in the upstate area, of course. The BACKPACKER Nation selection (Raven Cliff Falls Loop) is also located in this state park. David and I have been out to this park a couple of times. Although my experience within the boundries of state parks is limited, I haven't been to one in the south east that has a better trail system than this one. If you throw in the very closely neighboring Table Rock State Park, I think its the hands-down winner. I've decided that my blog should be more photo's and less words, so I won't get into too much detail about the trip.

The Rim of the Gap trail is considered very technical, and gets a lot of mixed reviews from local hikers. A lot of people love its difficulty for two reasons. First, they love that it scares off most day hikers, keeing the trail traffic low. Second, they just love the challenges it offers. But some people hate it for that same reason. Rarely does anyone argue the scenery though. I can say that I was blown away by the trail. We were on a strict time limit to be back in Greenville for dinner, but I blew that because, for the first mile of the trail, there was waterfall after waterfall, and huge exposed granite faces. You could tell that during the winter months, views of Jones Gap below would be stunning. Even in full foliage we got some pretty awesome vistas. This trail was certainly no let down. Simply put, it was jaw-dropping.

For more information on Rim of the Gap, and other Caeser's Head trails, check out their website.


This is the overlook platform that is located a short walk from the Caeser's head visitor's center. Its an awesome place with amazing views of neighboring mountains, including Table Rock.


This is one of many small trickling waterfalls cascading over exposed granite faces. There are probably close to a dozen in the first mile of this trail.



....and again.



and again...



.and again. There were tons of opportunies for great pictures, but I had already slowed us down substantially with all the picture taking.



This is just one of many "technicalities" you have to maneuver while on the trail. I felt they were well maintained and as safe as they could be.



This shot gives you a little perspective on how the trail was truly skirting the rim of Jones Gap



More granite and running water.



The hardest thing was trying to get a good picture that showed just how big and imposing these granite faces where.



One of the reasons I thought this hike was the perfect SC hike was, after negotiating the trail as if skirted the upper rim of jones gap, for the last section, like walking into a new geographical region, you were back on typical Carolina terrain; an old logging road converted into trail. This was where the spine of the ridge flattened out, heading into Jones Gap State Park



There were well-placed man-made objects to help with the difficult terrain throughout the trail, but this one gave me a laugh. David had been talking about this "cable repel" for about an hour before we got to it, really making it sound like a dangerous undertaking. It, infact, was nothing of the sort.



And just when I thought the hike couldn't get any better, it did. The Rim-of-the-Gap trail ends at Jones Gap State Park. This park and Caeser's Head State Park share the same trail system, but have visitors' centers located at opposite ends. This entire area is called the Mountain Bridge Wilderness. Its an absolute must for any hiker looking to spend some time in the Souch Carolina portion of the Appalachian foothills.

At this point, the trail brings you down to the park visitor's center, and the Middle Saluda River. Again, if it wasn't for our time crunch, I could have spent every hour of daylight taking pictures of the scenes at this park. But we were running well behind schedule at this point. Without much delay, we filled up our water bottles, and used the Jones Gap trail, along with a couple of small connectors at the opposite end, to make our way back to the car.



The picturesque park office at Jones Gap, which is open from 11 a.m. to noon... seriously.



The Jones Gap Trail follows the Middle Saluda up the valley floor. After about an hour, you come to the very short spur trail for Jones Gap Falls. It's a really nice waterfall cascading about 65-70 feet, I would guess. The only frustrating thing about this waterfall was, no matter where I took the picture from, the waterfall came out looking like it was maybe 20 feet tall.



More Jones Gap Falls.



At this point in our trek, I really put the camera away for the most part, because we were all but sprinting back up the trail. The humidity from a passing storm system was really thick, and we were in a hurry! But the valley floor was really awesome. The trail was in great condition, following an old logging road grade along the banks of the river.



This is towards the end of our hike, where the trail finally left the river, and headed back up the valley wall to meet up with the connector trail.



(I have no idea what kind of flower this is)



This ones the last footbridge, over a small stream as it dropped into the Saluda River



We finally met up with the connector that took us from the Jones Gap Trail back to the parking lot. (And we made it in record time!)



And we're back. We both talked on the way home how we wish we would have gotten to the trailhead about 4 hours earlier, so we could have really taken our time on the hike. Even with the time crunch, it was one of the better day hikes I have done. As far as South Carolina goes, this is as goos as it gets. I think the readers of BACKPACKER avoided voting for this trail because of the technical portions. I would agree that, even as an experienced hiker, you shouldn't go this one alone (and thats coming from someone that does most of his hiking alone). Be sure to find a trail partner before you try and tackle this one. And, while I am sure the views of the gap are way better during the winter, it there is any risk of ice, stay away from this trail. But if the conditions are ripe, this trail is worth the undertaking.




Well, the competition is underway, and its out of the gates with a bang! I've debated exactly which trail to get started with. Being that I currently reside in Georgia, I thought maybe the two GA trails would be the most fitting start. I also considered started in North Carolina, in the Smokies, one of our nations true hiking Meccas. But now that its done, its hard to imagine a better start than this one. The bar has been set, and its high!

Eddie vs. BACKPACKER nation!

So here’s my newest plan. The blog post before this one was my state-by-state all star list. I took a few boring days at work and compiled a list of what I thought would be great hikes, bikes, or paddles, in each of the 50 states, one for each state. Before I go any further, I have to say that there was no exact scientific formula employed here. In some states, I purposefully went away from premier areas, and opted for lesser known locations. For example, the obvious choice for the state of Tennessee would be one of the many excellent trails located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Instead, I listed a trail located in a pocket wilderness. I had already highlighted the Smokies for my North Carolina hike, and, as great as the park is, didn’t want to double-dip. And of course, in some states, I did in fact try to highlight key areas. In California, it has to be Yosemite, just as it has to be Yellowstone for Wyoming, and the Sawtooths for Idaho. I used trails.com for 90% of my research, backing up my decisions with other various online sources and hiker reviews. A majority of the Midwest states didn’t have much to offer on trails.com, so I had to search long and wide for lesser known internet sources. Some of those states surprised me. I figured surely that Oklahoma would have a decent showing, but indeed they didn’t. An eye-catching activity in Kansas and Nebraska was almost non-existent. None the less, after about a week the list was finished, and all-in-all I felt pretty satisfied with the results.

And then it hit me! I remembered a little over a year ago getting an issue of BACKPACKER Magazine that highlighted a state by state list of favorite hikes, as voted on by subscribers. I had to do some digging to find the old issue, but alas there it was. Now, the way this worked was, BACKPACKER posted online polls for its readers to vote for what they considered to be the best hike in each state. You can tell their results were completely unedited and printed “as-is”. Rhode Island’s hike was a .13 mile walk up a gravel road to the state’s high point, which rises to a not-so-jaw-dropping 812 feet. And better yet, Delaware’s insert in the magazine simply reads “sorry Delaware, your state’s best hike is in Virginia.” WHAT!? Virginia and Delaware don’t even share a border! If anything, I certainly appreciated the editor’s attempt to print a raw list of favorite state hikes, but in some cases, I was not impressed.

Now, when I first got back in touch with this issue of BACKPACKER, I was originally planning to scrap my list, and start checking of hikes from theirs. But after being, for lack of a better word, un-flattered by their results, I decided to up the ante! I was going to go head to head with BACKPACKER nation! I decided to put the lists side by side, try to hike all 100 trails (oh wait, 99. Sorry Delaware), and see who comes out on top. Let’s see who can pick a better trail. I understand that my critics out there will say that, right out of the gates, my system is flawed. “Surely you will pick your hike over the BACKPACKER readers’! You know the kinds of hikes you like. Not to mention you will be more likely to rate the hike from your list higher for the sake of preserving your own credibility.” In the words of Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!” My response to these two comments would this: 1. On my list, I have every kind of hike imaginable; from peaks, to valleys, to short day hikes to over-nighters. I also added a handful of bicycling and paddling trips into the mix! Anyone that hikes with me, or reads the blog, knows that I love a good waterfall hike, but I know when a good summit or vista hike has beaten out a waterfall hike. 2. I’m not interested in making my list beat out the BACKPACKER nation list. I am really just using this as a neat excuse to get Laura to let me do more hiking! I have nothing invested in my list. Whichever list loses in this friendly competition, one thing is for sure, I STILL WIN!
Let the games begin.

Bucket List & All Star List

Sorry, no pictures this time. So there I was sitting at my work computer on a very slow night, trying to think of something to do. Then I started thinking about hiking. Then I started thinking about all the hikes I wanna do some day. BAM! I'll make a bucket list. I thought it would take me all night. There are so many hikes out there I just gotta do before I kick the bucket. Well, after about 30 minutes I was done. This is in part because of two things: one, there are certain hikes that are always on my mind, so those got jotted down in no time (i.e. the Grand Canyon, John Muir Trail), and two, all the other ones that I read about in Backpacker Magazine or elsewhere on the internet were fleeting my mind.

So with that done, I decided to get a little more creative. I decided to make a list of all 50 states, then list one, and ONLY one, hike in each state that I would like to do. Now, some states simply don't offer any decent hiking, so I decided that other outdoor activities qualified. For example, in a lot of the coastal states, I have paddling trips, and in some of the flatter mid-west states I have bike trips. I tried to mix it up a bit. Now, it's not necessarily meant to be the "best" hike in each state, just a good one. Some states were nearly impossible to narrow down to one hike, like California and Washington, and some states were nearly impossible to find anything in at all, like Kansas and Nebraska. But, alas, the list is done.

I'd love to get some input from other folks on what they think would be a good addition to either of these lists. If you know of an awesome trail in Wisconsin (or paddle or bike ride), let me know and I will take it into consideration. Now, if I can knock out about five of these trips a year, it should only take me a mere ten years to finish the list. I'll keep you posted!