Chattooga River

With the birth of our third child closing in quickly on us and projects around the house in dire need of completion, it was looking like this trip was going to be the last trip for a while, so I had to find a pleace that was worthy of the last trip of the Season. Did I want to paddle the Edisto or do some hiking and fishing along the Chatooga? With the Chatooga river being the backdrop setting to one of the best romantic comedies of all times, it really was a simple choice. Not only that but the Edisto River is really HOT this time of year.

With a plan in place we (me, Penny - the dog, and the "The Doctor" - a friend from church) set out for a stretch of camping sites along the Chatooga River. With schedules being as they are, we were not able to pin down a good weekend until the second weekend in June for the "LAST TRIP OF THE SEASON", or at least the last trip for a while with out the kids :).

On Friday, June 10, 2011 we loaded up the truck and started on our 2+ hour voyage. The trip thru Oconee County was a little disconcerting - It was raining buckets thru Seneca and Walhalla. Once we headed up the mountain though the skies started clearing up and it was nothing but blue skies and rainbows (well no rainbows but blue skies).We finally made it to the Burrells Ford parking area around 6:40pm and were on the Chatooga Trail by 7:00pm. After a short hike in temps that hovered in the mid 80s, we got to our camping site.

Because "The Doctor" was new to hammock camping, set up was an exercise in the basics of camping site selection and tarp/hammock set up. Even with the tutorial, our tarps and hammocks were up in no time and we were able to start relaxing around the fire. Dinner that night was steak and potatoes, The steak was thin cut ribeye grilled satay style directly over the coals while the potatoes were boiled over the open flame of the campfire. The sound of the river and a distant thunder storm lulled us to sleep the first night.

The next morning we were up at 7:30am and after cooking oatmeal over my diy Venom alcohol stove we were up the river trying our hand at trout fishing. Unfortunately both of the rod-n-reels and all of the lures were defective so we didn't catch any fish. So we decided to head back to camp for a snack and then head out on the trail in search of some waterfalls. As you can see from the pics below, we were successful in this venture.

Saturday afternoon on the way back from King Creek Falls the skies unloaded on us about 20 minutes from camp. It was really unfortunate that it started raining. The only thing to do was test out the hammocks for an afternoon nap. The meal that evening was tuna and mexican rice burritos. Again the sound of the river supplied the soundtrack for the evening.

Sunday morning found us in no hurry to break camp but because we were hammock camping, take down took no time. Penny - the dog - was able to get a little site seeing in before hitting the trail back to the parking area and the drive home.