Foothills Trail

[carolinasbackpacker]

What is the distance from Oconee to the Burrells Ford section?

around 17 miles. good bit of it is along the Chattooga river and relatively easy walking. A couple of up and downs. Have done it both ways multiple times and think it's easier going from Burrells forward to Oconee but neither way is really tough.

Another good thing about it is there are multiple points you can bail out if need, Nicholson ford rd, hwy 107 and Cherry(something) campground.

Also another option is to go from Burrells ford to HWY 28 along the chattooga river trail. about 12 to 13 miles. It runs concurrent with the FHT from Burrells ford to Pigpen falls where it goes right and continues to follow the river. I love that hike!

[Wkerber]

Planning to hike and camp some of this 11/11 - 11/13, if anyone is interested. I've never been there. Still haven't set route yet as I just got an opportunity to grab the time off from work yesterday and took it. Planning to do some fishing, walking and napping.

[Crawldaddy]

Just saw this thread. If this is the "experienced old coot" thread, Im in and looking for some new areas myself. Wife keeps telling me to "go". I know the Shining Rock Wilderness area pretty well. Any guys wanna explore? PM me

[allhansondeck]

I spend winters in Sherrills Ford, NC, am in the "senior" class and always looking for someone to backpack with (wife is not comfortable with me going alone). I have a goal of hiking my age every year, 72 this year. Everyone tells me I hike like I'm 50 but my body tells me I'm 60 plus.
I did my first group hang last Jan. at Mt. Rogers, VA and thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone. We did some side hikes, swapped lies and admired everyone's hammock setups. If you are looking for a way to get out and don't mind the cold, come on up on Jan. 21 - 24.

[Wkerber]

I've got 2 days available the week after Thanksgiving. I was planning a hike in, camp one night, hike back out Dec 1 & 2 or Dec 2 & 3. Was initially looking at the Laurel Falls Trail around Lake Jocasse, but I could switch that to something in NC, if there's any interest for those dates.

[CeeVee]

How did you all make out?
I did Burells Ford loop north in October '14. Just whetted my appetite for more!

[Wkerber]

I did the Fork Mtn, Chattooga Trail, Foothills Trail loop in early November. The Chattooga trail was very wet as they had a lot of rain the previous couple of weeks. I had a hard time finding enough dry wood laying around for a small fire. I will say that people haven't treated that area very well over the last few years. A lot of trees cut down for fire wood and they weren't dead trees. I think the number of visitors are having a negative impact and exceeding it's ability to handle them.
Then it dried out once I hit the Foothills trail. I enjoyed that part of the trip. The first section, which was the Fork Mtn trail, had a lot of lay downs to crawl over, under and around. I don't mind that though, that's just nature. I think it's had very little maintenance in the last few years.
All in all it was a good trip, except for the Chattooga trail part. Although, the river is very scenic.
I only camped one night since it was so wet along the river, but that's a doable backpack in 2 days, since it was only about 23 miles with a few detour side tracks.

Now I'm starting to think about section hiking the foothills trail.

[CeeVee]

From the sound of it your overnight was much the same as mine in Oct '14. That last stretch coming south from the bridge back down to Burells Ford was dry and I should've tanked up better. Got down to the Fish Hatchery road with zip left to drink and a tad overheated. That and the blow downs were annoying.