Waterfall Hunt 2015: Cedar Creek Falls

Last year we decided to start a new tradition: each thanksgiving morning would be spent finding a new waterfall to tire out the pups and work on our appetites. We hit up Isaqueena Falls last year and considers it a success.

I grabbed the trusty hiking boot a day early this year and thumb through to find our next target. We decided on Cedar Creek Falls which was about 90 minutes away, a 1.2 mile hike which both Wyatt and Bones could handle and had a neighboring falls not officially listed in the book but mentioned in the comments as nearby but not safely accessible.

We travelled back over to Sumter National Forest in Walhalla, SC and made our way down dusty dirt roads to find the trail head: a gated Forest Service road. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and hunting trucks were dotted alongside the road here and there for deer season.

We all jumped out of the van and started down the FS road following the description in the book which said to go 1/4 mile before turning right at some boulders.

I had bought Wyatt a new coat and chose the pretty bright orange color without thinking about hunting safety. I was really glad he had it on as we made our way down the road and ran into a guy out hunting. 

Wyatt running and laughing his way down the road with Bones limping along behind him. 

Bones still has a lot of spunk at 8 years old and with a massive tumor in her front left leg. Dusty had given her a week to live back in March. She has done a great job at proving him wrong. 

The FS road was all downhill to start and ended at two large boulders. The book said to turn right at the first set and we saw a blue blaze marking the trees.

Bones found the first puddle and jumped right in. She loves the water. 

Einstein doesn't have any undercoat and gets cold way easier than Bones. He jumped int he puddle after her and quickly regretted it. He spent the next few minutes rolling in the leaves. 

This trail led down to a small creek and the book warned us that there was a steep scramble about 40 feet vertically down to the falls. I was really worried about Bones making it down this. We had debated leaving her behind, but Dusty wanted to give her as much outdoor time as possible. We let her make up her own mind and pick her way down s Dusty carried Wyatt.

Making their way down to the falls

Once I made it down, I was so glad we chose this one. It was absolutely gorgeous!! Be prepared for photo spamming below.

Cedar Creek Falls which feeds into the Chauga River

Einstein got in the water again and then started shivering

Bones. You can see how large her left front leg tumor is just above her foot

Looking down stream with the falls at my back. The horizon line is Blue Hole Falls. Below that is a steep walled canyon that has no safe way to make it down to the bottom. 

I walked down a ways to see what I could of the lower falls

Dusty took Wyatt s far as he could and actually saw a lot of the Blue Hole Falls. I am a wimp though and didn't make it as close. 

Stolen from Dusty's phone as I did not make it this far down the side of the falls

Looking back to Cedar Creek Falls 

The creek flowing between the two

 As I made my way back to the boys and dogs this is what I saw:

Wyatt hd wanted to get in and I had told him he couldn't get his shoes all wet and cold. When he made it back to Cedar Creek Falls without me he quickly ditched the shoes, socks and his pants too. Boys. 

Einstein ditched the water and found a nice stick to chew

We grabbed a quick and very rare selfie of us all in front of the falls as well

Wyatt is working on his camera face. When he is asked to smile this is what he does. 

I also asked Dusty if he could snag a shot of Bones and I. I thought the falls in the background would make for a wonderful photo of my baby girl and I was right. I absolutely adore this photo and hope print it out and frame it.

My favorite shot of Bones and I ever

Last but not least here is my favorite pictures of the entire day:

Proof he wore pants

Loving life

After everyone was cold and wet we scrambled up the hill and hit the trail back to the FS road. It was a great morning and we were all hungry for my mum's Thanksgiving dinner later that afternoon.

A Slow Walk in the Woods

It has rained almost every day this week. Like down pour making everything soupy rain. The good news is that it has been in the 70s (in December...I love the South :) I'd bet the Dynamic Duo was happy for the rain. It probably kept them cool.

This Saturday I was determined to get out on the trails again. Sunday was supposed to be a hunter pace, but it was on private trails and they postponed it a week to hopefully have things dry up. I am not too optimistic though because this week is supposed to be equally as rainy, but colder so things probably won't dry up all that much. We will see. The other problem with next weekend is that the hubs has signed himself up for a 54 mile race up a mountain on Saturday. I'm not so sure he will be up for a pace on Sunday. We will see what happens.

Anyway....the hubs worked in the morning and W's nap schedule worked out that he woke up as the hubs was getting home so we made it to the trail head about 3 pm again. Not enough time to do the entire loop. Some day we will do that darn loop!

I used the old fleece Ovation girth on her that's 22". I have no clue how, but it fits on the same hole as the 18". It has a ton of elastic in it - runs the entire length instead of just the ends - so I would have thought it would be way too big. I kept it a little looser and it sat pretty nicely on her. I decided to give it a go.

I have a tiny worry in the back of my head that I'm asking her to do something she hates - riding in general. She is such a tough cookie to figure out. She is very aloof but if I miss seeing her for a while I can definitely tell she is unhappy about it. Well, once I started to tack her up her ears pricked forward and she started to paw which is her way of saying "lets get going here!!" Its a good signs that she is enjoying herself. She remembered to pee before I got on. She hates going with me on her and I think she may have only done so a handful of times in 4 years. If she forgets she ends up holding it the entire ride and as soon as I get off she goes for a very long time.

We headed down the hill to the trail head and entered the woods over the same wooden bridge of doom as before. She hesitated but got over it much easier than the last time.

Last week the hubs had turned left almost immediately into the woods and said the trails were very nice. Knowing my time was too limited to make the entire green loop, I decided to head left and check it out. We stayed a little ways in front of the hubs, W, and the two dogs and wandered through and over a road crossing.

The trails after the road were really nice. Double wide and open. The only issue was the footing was rocky. It was an access road and while it wasn't gravel it had quite a few rocks. Normally Gem doesn't mind that type of footing, but it has been very wet out and her feet looked a bit soft when I cleaned them out pre ride. I think she got a little foot sore for the first time.

Sorry, all my pics today are blurry. She didn't want to stop for picture taking

There was a big, long hill that had me thinking about hill repetitions once things dry back out. We wandered up it with the rest of the crew not too far behind us. She wasn't really wanting to stretch out much and the trails were wet in enough spots that I didn't mind taking it easy. There were sections that had no rocks and were fairly dry and we trotted those.

There was a lovely looking side trail at one point and I headed down it. No rocks. The footing was mostly pine needles and the trail was single track and winding just like Gem like. But it was very, very soupy and this Carolina red clay gets slick, so I quickly turned her around before we got hurt and went back to the double wide trail. The boys caught up to us at this point, but the trail got less rocky, so I let her trot again until the top.

Once at the top of the hill we came across the greenest patch of vegetation I have seen in a very long time. As I got closer to it I found out it was a patch of clover. Gemmie had her eyes on it so I let her wander in and have a quick bite and waited for the rest of the crew. It was very hard to get her to leave her buffet.

We travelled down the trail some more, but it started to go sharply down hill and got rocky again. My saddle slid all the way over her shoulders and she got cranky. I slid off and jogged her down and then we waited for the crew again. Once they caught up to us I noticed we had been out for about 45 minutes so we decided to turn back around and go home. I adjusted her saddle back to the right spot and got back on.

My boys

Hero - the best dog ever. 14 years old now.

Well, I don't know if it was the footing, her soft feet (made me really, really, really wish for that money tree so I could get a pair of boots for her to ride in) or the saddle sliding forward and pinching her shoulders, but she was done. She slid in behind the hubs and just wanted to follow him the rest of the way back..

At one point the hubs started to jog (W loves it when he runs in the backpack) and I just stayed quiet on Gem with a loose rein to see what she would do. She picked up a nice little trot and kept up with him until he walked again and then she did too. I bet it was a little unnerving having her breathe down his neck!

I tried to get her around him, but then she spotted Hero and tucked in behind him. Literally. She walked right behind him, lowered her head to hide her nose behind his butt almost dragging it one the ground, and happily walked along. It is a very sad day when your "endurance" Arabian mare walks slower than your 14 year old 1 foot tall corgi. But there it is. My Gemmiecakes.

We wandered along chatting with the hubs. Well, I chatted. He basically spent the rest of the hike laughing at my pokey slow horse going 1 mph and taking a video to post online. I got off again down the large hill we came up because the saddle slid way too much down hill for me to be happy. I got back on and we crossed the road and made it back to the trailer on our own.

The only bad spot of the entire ride was at the very end. I untacked her and she rested a foot as is her norm. But then she absolutely, positively refused to get into the trailer. She has never, ever, ever done that in 4 years. When I bought her I was told she did not trailer well and give her an hour to get on, but we never once had a problem. The last 2 solo rides she did fine. But not this time. She reared, she backed, she stopped. We tried a butt rope to push her in. No go. The hubs literally lifted up her hind legs and butt and pushed. No go. Although her incredibly shocked expression was well worth it. Finally I opened up the divider all the way to make it a huge space and she got on into Pete's spot. I don't know what was with that, but hopefully that doesn't become a new issue to deal with. Of note, she did end up actually peeing with me on her on the trail and then again back at the barn. Maybe she is in heat. I don't know if that would make a difference or not.

So....here are some thoughts on this:

1. I think in the end Gem does enjoy these rides. She is eager to go down the trail and only acts up once I make her turn around and head back home. But not in a trying to run off back to the trailer way. More in a "but I don't want to go back yet" way. Yay!

2. She knows those trails. When we made the left instead of going straight at the very beginning she kept trying to tell me we were going wrong. Once we were headed back and we got back to the original trail and she tried turning left to go longer instead of right to go back to the trailer.

3. She is pokey. I don't know why or how to help this other than keep riding her and trying to get her butt moving. I know she can go faster for longer. With 62 completion miles as well as the two hunter paces under our belt I know she can. I just don't know how to pull that out of her solo.

4. I think she needs a break from the solo rides and ride with a buddy. I really hope the pace goes next week and that the hubs can ride after his race. She enjoys going out with Pete so much and then he could also be in the trailer with her so it would be a nice mental holiday for her.

5. I have a tough decision to make. Well, the obvious decision is probably to stop riding her until I get things sorted out, but I am not ready to do that yet. So....I have 1 girth that allows the saddle to sit farther back (not ideal spot but best I can some up with right now) to the point where she isn't sore, but causes rubs. I have another girth that does not cause any rubs at all but allows the saddle to pull very far forward and I think is why she hates the girth so much. It seemed to bother her on this ride. Which do I use if I do go on the hunter pace?? I think I will do the anatomic one and try to slather a butt load of Vaseline on her armpits to see if it will prevent some of the rubbing. I don't like how she was reluctant to move out with me on this ride and either it was her feet or her girth. Since she has hated this girth in the past I am going with that being the culprit.

6. I need new tack. Period. I absolutely adore this saddle, but it just isn't working out. It isn't made for Gemmie's body structure and I keep fighting it. I wish it wasn't so incredibly comfortable for me or it would be easy to get rid of. But here is the kicker: I have yet to find anything better. I have tried literally dozens of saddles of all makes, models and brands from cheap to $$$ and not a single one has fit as good as or better than this one. I refuse to sell this until I find one that is better, so on the hunt I go again. What I would really like to do is pick up a used saddle that works and then give mine to the hubs and Pete who has more of the body type for the saddle. That way we can keep it and if by chance my next horse 10 years from now fits it, I still have it to use.

Holiday Fun

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep and miles before I sleep."

 

- Frost

I'm going to interrupt the normally horse-centric posts for one about the rest of us. Shhh....don't tell Gem.

What to do with a 3 day weekend and beautiful weather? Be outside of course! And we definitely were. Saturday was hiking with the dogs at Saddler's Creek State Park followed by taking W to the swimming pool for the afternoon and then another walk for the pups around the neighborhood in the evening. Sunday was barn day, but I didn't ride (see Sunday's post) and hiked around the farm instead. Then we played all day and walked the pups in the afternoon. Monday came and we wanted to do something different. Ever since moving down here and realizing how close to actual mountains (well, east coast mountains anyway) we would be, we have been itching to go hiking. Before the arrival of the awesome baby backpack we were limited in distance and difficulty level, but now we have freedom.

A patient recommended Table Rock State Park as a great hiking destination that is only 45 minutes away, so we mapped it out. It is only 3.5 miles (and 2200 ft of elevation gain) to the top of Table Rock and if we were lucky enough we could then hike 2 miles over to the next summit (can't remember the mountain name right now) which is about 200 ft lower and then head back for a nice 12 mile round trip loop. Being somewhat realistic in expectations, we figured we would shoot for Table Rock only on this trip and do the rest the next time.

 

One major change in our lives since W joined our family is the complete inability to leave the house in under an hour. Before W we could just leave. Now we have to grab his bag and pack it so full of various objects that you would think we were going away for a week. By the time that is done, he needs a snack and changed and then finally we can head out to pack up the van and leave. It doesn't seem to matter where we are going or for how long. It always takes an hour.

 

We got to the trail head later than we wanted to and W had decided to not nap all morning (nothing new there) and stay awake during the drive as well. This made for a tired baby from the start, but we were prepared. His nice, comfy pack was waiting for him and we even remembered to bring his lunch. The trail head was super busy. There is a nice lake there with a swimming area and even a high diving board and it was packed with holiday revelers. We were a little disappointed with the trail at first because it was paved, but once we got past the ranger station building and the first of several beautiful waterfalls, all the urbanites dwindled and we had a dirt trail and trees to keep us company.

 

I started off with W on my back and we headed up. And up. And up. I swear the corps of engineers had never heard of a switchback! Instead of making a nice trail that zig zagged its way up the mountain, they just cut stone steps into the side and made you go straight up. We passed several really nice waterfalls on the way up. W LOVES moving water and that helped get him out of his cranky funk and interested in the walk.

 

We knew the weather was warm out, but at home the humidity had been relatively low compared to what we are used to. Not in the woods. It was HUMID. I was almost immediately covered in a film of sweat that just wouldn't stop. The hubs was even worse with it literally pouring off of him. Thankfully, the backpack came with (thanks to the generosity of my father-in-law who sent the whole set up to us) a 2 liter water pack that we had filled up before we left home. We needed it. I wanted to make it the first half before giving up W to the hubs, but after 0.5 miles in, my legs were feeling it. I didn't want to fall and hurt him, so I handed him over to the hubs who took him the rest of the way. I immediately felt 10 degrees cooler and way lighter (he is 20 lbs and the pack has weight plus all the things we crammed into it - I bet it was 40 lbs).

We got to just beyond 1 mile and W lost it. He began crying and fussing nonstop so we pulled over. We prepared his lunch (aren't we such good Sherpas? Why doesn't Gme provide lunch for me when I am riding her?) and hoped he would settle back into happy baby mode, but he wasn't having it. He was exhausted. Why the kid refuses to sleep ever is beyond me, but we made the decision to turn back around and not ruin anything.

 

I let the hubs keep W for the trip down. I dislike steep down hills with slippery rocks and really didn't want to risk falling with W on my back. We made it down very quickly and he fell asleep about 10 minutes from the car. His neck was cranked to almost 90 degrees while asleep and I am very glad we didn't push onward. We need to figure out something to make him more comfortable while asleep up there. Maybe a travel neck pillow?

 

All in all it was a lot of fun. We were disappointed that we didn't make the summit, but poor W had put up with it for 90 minutes and had just had enough. He woke up back at the car and stayed awake all the way home. We were tired and thirsty and hungry but he wanted to play, play, play so we did for an hour before I forced him to nap. Then we took the dogs for another walk and called it a night.
A great weekend!!

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