Big South Fork Trip Report, baby!

“Had a beer in the bathtub last Sunday night... Tried to post this earlier, but the site was down.

What a great weekend! Sure beats spackling
and painting the home...

It all started Friday night. It was spittin' a little snow as I was
cruising through Oneida on my way to BSF. I made it past Charit Creek
trailhead, and took the dirt road that Bbinkley told me about and made two
right-turns. It was about 11:00 or so and pitch dark. I baha-ed in
mud, and I reached a barricade with an SUV parked near it. The directions
sounded right. I walked down the trail a bit with my good ole buddy, ole
pal, Buster. I started to get a little nervous, and thought maybe I was at the wrong
trailhead so I got back
into my truck, and drove to the Charit Creek trailhead parking lot. Shew! I
was thinking my truck would get stuck in the mud... Anyway, I pulls up and
park and - lo and behold, I see a headlamp!! The headlamp in the bushes
says to me, "I thought I was the only one coming in this late." Yes,
Ductape!!! Weeeeee! We
traipsed around a bit kind of confused, and finally decided that where I was at before WAS
the right way. Dammit! Oh, well - at least I ran into Ductape! We found the glo-sticks that
Binks put out,
and eventually found them and an awesome fire. Hell yeah!! The campsite was along Laurel Forge Creek.
Bbinkley and
Rachel got there earlier at five, and had enjoyed plenty of brewskies. We all stayed up til about
1:00 or 2:00 being merry. Ole Ductape packed in some Foster's oil cans. I
had a few Southpaws on the way in. :D

Next morning, we hiked Laurel Forge Creek trail to the end near another
lovely campsite along the creek. Laurel Forge Creek trail had about 15 or
16 creek crossings - and more than half of them weren't no rock-hopping jobs
either. In and out of the creek for about 8 miles. The sun was out. Our
feet were icy. I think it was good for my ankle, which has healed nicely
since last weeks Smokies excursion. So far, the trip was lovely, and it sure
beats the hell out of laying down newspaper and putting on two coats of
primer!! The trail had a couple of real nice swimming holes that I was
eyeing for a sweaty summer hike. When we made it to the second campsite,
Bbinkley got some nice big logs for the fire (!), and we all helped retrieving
a nice little pile of firewood. The next set of campers will be tickled at what we
left them!

I made a little bed for Buster. He was about to pass out, poor doggie. He
did real well for his first backpacking trip.

Ductape broke out his old speckled hen.
Bbinkley got his shoes and socks dried completely by the fire. (I gave up
on mine.) And Rachel made a friend for life feeding Buster treats.
We ate dinner (or dinners) and got merry around the fire inching closer and closer burning our socks, our shoes, and my
ace bandage roared up the fire some - I think Bbinkley burned a hole in his thermarest the night before - mine almost burned. That "wintry mix"
gave us a couple false alarms to dive into our bags a little early. :o

The next morning, I peeped out of my tent. I made some coffee and sat in my
tent staring off into space. I listened to the forest, and thought... "This
sure beats cleaning up paint drippings and rollers at home." I finally got
my crap together, and we started the rest of the trail up to the road. This
one bluff along the trail had neat little rock steps. We camp to Forge
Creek Road and the Slave Falls trailhead. Rachel had hurt her foot pretty bad wearing
her water sandals when we were fording in and out of the creek the day
before so she ended up hitching a ride back to her SUV. Ductape, Bbinkley,
and I hiked on to Slave Falls, Jakes Place, Twin Arches, and Charit Creek
lodge. Slave Falls was wonderful. A rock overhang with a waterfall, and
this neat bowl-shape at the bottom. Jakes Place was an old homestead that
was trashed by wild hogs. We chatted a bit with two hunters that were
scouting for the pigs. I dreamed of a big hog roast...

Twin Arches was
spectacular. Very, very neat. The view on the top was breathless. I heard
so much about the arches, and I was glad I finally got to see them. We hiked pass Charit Creek
lodge, and back to the cars by 3:00.

Bbinkley planned a cool trip. I got a good taste of BSF, and Buster
had the time of his little doggie life! He barked at Ductape and Bbinkley
around camp at times, probably from their hats and headlamps, but was real friendly
to other people on the trail. He ran away once - bad doggie. Whew - great weekend. Thanks again, y'all for a
great time. Until the next time... Yeeehah!”

“That was way too long... eh well!”

“Nice report.”

“Cool trip! Sounds like yet another place for the To Do List!”

“Smokygirl, that was a great report.
Do you have pics up on your website?”

“Awsome Trip report SG. Sounds like y'all had a BLAST!”

“Hey Ewker! Ductape took all the pics with his digital. I will swipe some from him, and put a few up. I think I am going to start a BSF page on my website too!

Buddha and Chili - thanks!

Tilt - I held out on BSF for a long time. I like it that I can take ole Buster out there. Not as pretty as the Smokies, but there aren't as many rules and restrictions...”

“It was definately a great trip!! I had a great time with you guys. We'll have to do it again soon.”

“I emailed Rachel and she said that she had a torn ligament in her foot.
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery. Where is that injured reserve list at we have a new member”

“Tanks SG and HEY!”

“Hey Jerbear!! When you coming up to the Smokies?

Rachel thought it was a torn ligament - that sucks!! Speedy recovery!!!”

“Hey Jerbear!! When you coming up to the Smokies?

Rachel said she thought it was a torn ligament - that sucks!! Speedy recovery!!!”

“how did my edited and unedited comment get in there? weird..”

“wow”

“sounds like this trip was pretty cool... i'd like to hook up with you guys next time you do a trip to bsf... i've done a few day hikes there and stayed at the lodge... but no backpacking... if no one objects to a new person anyways...”

“happy early birthday smokygirl...”

“A few of us are heading to Savage gulf on the 17th. you're welcome to join us.”

“Thanks, Mr. Coordinator! Tee hee!! My bday is the 17th - I can't wait!!
You should definitely try to make it to the Red River Gorge....”

“that's tempting but i might get my hide tanned if i don't show up for a previous committment... i'll definetly join you guys for the red river gorge trip - thanks!”

“Great trip report SmokeyGirl! It was great meeting you and Buster...I saw the doctor on Monday morning, I do have a small tear in a ligament on the bottom of my foot, plus it's badly bruised. So I'm hobbling around with one shoe and a big bandage! Maybe we can do it again sometime, and I'll be more careful :-)”

“Curious here, just how did the foot injury happen? Slipping off a rock, I'm gonna guess? It just sounds like a weird (albeit BAD, dangit!) injury. I just sprained my ankle at Thanksgiving, turning it over on the outside. A gal I work with seems to have hyperextended her foot on the inside of the ankle.

So how do you get a small ligament tear smack dab on the bottom of your foot?”

“cool report, ilove the BSF”

“Well, lizs, rather than have frezzing wet feet all day, I took my boots off and wore my soccer sandals to cross the creek. The water was SO COLD I don't actually know when or how I hurt my foot(the entire lower half of my body was numb at the time), but I'm guessing I stepped on a shap rock while wearing the sandals. In the end, I got tired of taking my boots off (we had to cross this creek 26 times!), so I ended up with wet feet and an injury! Go figure.”

“that's a sharp rock, not a shap rock :-)”

“i just thought you coonass accent was coming out.”

“Good meeting you too, Dmb! Buster misses you!
Definitely when you heal, come on out to the Smokies!”