DuPont State Forest Hike - Sunday, March 14th, 2010

DuPont State Forest
Transylvania County, NC
Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Trespassers Will Be Violated



Photos are posted here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/577017343tUJySt

This Sunday I joined Andy, Christy, Dave, two visitors from Denmark, and two Dogs on a hike through DuPont State Forest.

Andy and I had done almost the exact same hike a few years ago, but we decided to do it again since it is a great hike which covers many of the DuPont State Forest highlights. However, we did have the misfortune of learning that the route is not 100% legal!

As usual, I was ahead of schedule, so I made a stop at Caesars Head to snap a few photos. A beautiful morning, but nothing that made these photos any more spectacular than any previous ones I have taken from the same area.

The Caesars Head Overlook

I met the group at the Corn Mills Shoals parking area at 10:30am. We left my truck there and all piled into one car for the short shuttle drive to the Hooker Falls parking area. We started our hike with the short warm-up to Hooker Falls.

Hooker Falls

Next up was Triple Falls. We hit the base, then headed to the main overlook area, and then took the newly constructed stairs to the area between the Middle and Lower drops.

Triple  Falls

After fully exploring Triple Falls it was on to High Falls. The water levels were up and the spray from this spectacular waterfall was more intense than I have ever seen it. I had a difficult time keeping the water droplets off my lens.

High Falls

We decided it was time for lunch and stopped for a nice break at the Covered Bridge.

The DuPont Covered Bridge

After lunch we took a little side trip to Lake Julia, where Boone and Sasha took a little swim and played fetch the stick.

Boone Fetching a Stick in Lake Julia

We headed on past the barn and onward to Bridal Veil Falls. Our plan was to cross the river by going underneath Upper Bridal Veil Falls. The problem was that the river was up, making the climb up the side of Bridal Veil Falls rather slick! Fortunately we all made it to Upper Bridal Veil without any casualties.

Crossing the River under Upper Bridal Veil Falls

While normally you can stay completey dry by crossing underneath the Upper Falls, the water was up so much that we would all end up getting a little wet; some of us more than others. Andy took a little spill and broke his tri-pod in the process. Cristy slipped, fell into the creek, hit her head on the rocks, and almost slid down Bridal Veil Falls. She was wet and cold and not a very happy camper! Fortunately we only had a few more miles to go.

That is until we ran into the “Rent-a-Cop“ who informed us that we were tresspassing. Andy and I always thought that this route skirted just outside the private property, but the private security guy informed us otherwise and told us we would have to turn back.

Christy was almost in tears, and after some begging by Andy, he eventually decide to allow us through to connect to the Cedar Rock Trail.

While it was a very uncomfortable situation, things could have been a lot worse. I don’t want to think about how Christy would have reacted if we were forced to backtrack to the other side of the river and add several miles onto the hike.

The Cedar Rock Summit

Fortunately that didn’t happen and we were safely on the Cedar Rock trail when it started to rain. It never rained very hard, but it was enough to make us really pick up the pace for the last few miles of our hike!

Additional Photos from our adventure are posted here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/577017343tUJySt