Dayhike Jones Gap, SC

“Decided to get out of the house and check out Jones Gap State Park. It's only about 45 minutes from the house. My girl, Sarah has raved about the place since her 3rd grade class went there for field trip earlier this past fall.

Gemini was to meet us there, which was really cool to get a chance to meet her.

Me, Alex (12) and Sarah (9) left out aroun 8:00 to meet Gemini at the park. We started out with our daypacks on the Jones Gap trail to make a quick junction at Rim of the Gap trail. The kids were FULL of energy at this point, which was good since Gemini is telling me that the first half of our planned loop is pretty tough. After a short hike on Rim of the Gap we junction with Pinnacle Pass trail and begin the climb up Little Pinnacle Mountain. The trail clambers over some boulders and is generally in pretty good shape as it climbs up the side of the ridgeline.

At intermittant spots the trees break and you can see across the valley to the opposite ridge which has huge exposed rock faces (looks like it might be a good spot for climbers).

After climbing fairly steady and at sometimes steep for about 2 miles, Sarah is starting to wear out. The trail is turning out to be tougher than I had expected and it's kicking her butt. Gemini really helped to encourage her on and was extremely patient (we were moving really slow). At one point I was kidding Sarah that I should have brought chocolate to dangle in front of her on a stick!

Came to a really nice overlook that let you see the whole valley floor and opposite ridge. According to the topo we were at 2,600 feet and had climbed about 1,200 feet so far. You could see the Park buildings and some houses further down the valley.

Finally stopped as we thought we were at the top where we'd junction with a connnector and start the return trip down. The kids ate lunch to recharge a bit and we all rested our legs. Sarah got some of her wind back and we continued on.

Found out pretty quick we weren't at the top, just a false gap. Sarah was really starting to complain at this point and we stopped very frequently for her. I was starting to feel bad that I'd picked such a tough trail and was starting to worry that I might have to carry her if we didn't level out pretty soon.

We finally leveled out and started heading back down. Sarah felt much better about this and seemed to be "recovering" and laughing a little once again.

We started to worry that we might have missed our connector since we were only going about 3 miles and thought we surely should have covered that distance by now. After much map studying and looking for fenceposts we finally decided that the connector had to be just ahead.

While we were looking at the map, Alex had plowed ahead and when we caught up with him he was sitting alongside the trail sign for the connector. Stopped for a good break here and I ate my own sandwich, Gemini had an energy bar (Army issue energy bars are good - search the surplus stores).

Me and the kids were going to take this connector back to Rim of the Gap and loop back to the parking lot while Gemini was going to go a little further up and make a longer loop with some other trails. She tried to convince Sarah to go with her, but to no avail.

So me Alex and Sarah headed over the little hill on the connector and caught the Rim of the Gap. This was ALL downhill and would have been even tougher to climb than the way we came, much steeper. We passed a couple of people going up.

The kids did much better on the downhill and started enjoying the hike again (thank God). The last 2.5 miles went pretty quick and soon we could hear the river (Middle Fork Saluda) and see the Park buildings below. I pointed out the rock outcrop way way above us where the overlook was to the kids and got a couple of "WOWS".

Sarah kinda forgot how tired she was on the uphill and really enjoyed the last part of the hike, as did Alex, but the heavy downhill was hard on his ankles.

All in all a good hike, great weather, fun time. Sarah says she wants to go again as long as I don't make her go up that same hill. LOL I'll find her a new hill!

Took several pics, gotta get them developed and scanned. Gemini took some good ones with her digital - she promised to post them.”

“Sounds like a tough hike for the kids,.. you are a very patient dad! Can't wait to see the pictures and sounds like you had a blast. The kids will sleep well tonight LOL”

“Yeah, they'll sleep goooooodd. School starts back tomorrow.”

“Hey, I am back. Didn't make it until about 3:00 to the parking lot.

Ishi Trail is pretty steep and rocky for most of the part. can't go down too fast or you'll fall. A little bit of uphill on this trail, but really not that much. After you have to climb down a ladder you'll see this huge granit wall. Pretty cool.

It's a fun trail but very narrow. Prolly too narrow for the kids, it's easy to miss the trail and it's no fun to fall down the cliff. Probably wouldn't kill you, but you sure would be hurt. :)

I found a couple of primitive campgrounds, one right after we have seperated, and two not far from the parking lot. Not sure if you saw any at all. Ha, I am not even sure if you guys want to go back.

Not too nuts about downhill, have a blister on the bottom of my left foot and the pain of the blister on my right foot. Now can you explain this to me??? :)

Blisters and all, it was fun and really nice finally meeting you Roam Around. Your kids were great. This is a really hard trail on some parts. I should've known better, but I really forgot how hard parts it was.

Hiking solo you really don't notice certain things, you just hike and enjoy.”

“Pictures pictures!

Hey, Gem, did u upload the rest of the pics from RI, MA, NY, and NJ yet?”

“Glad you made it back safe Gem. We got to the parking lot about 2:30.

They're up for going back, but I think I'll avoid the ladder with them for a couple of years.

I might check that out though, sounds cool!

Thanks for being so patient with us.”

“Sounds like fun it was a learning tool for the kids and it looks like all had a great time.


Can't wait too see some pictures.


8)”

“Scorchfire: I haven't had a change to upload all the pics. I am trying to get them on CD, but it's also giving me problems. I'll keep trying, but not today. :)

Roam Around: I'll post those pictures tomorrow. Don't feel like doing much today.

OH, and I checked the topo, we started out at 1300 ft elevation and at about 2 miles (I think) we reached the highest elevation of 2652 feet. Not really high, but climbing this in 2 miles (maybe a little more) is really a butt kicker. At least I thought so.”

“Yeah, that's a pretty kickin climb, some of it was fairly steep too. It was really nice (and relieving) to see Sarah laughing again on the way down.”

“Gem- That's fine! Whenever you get a chance to upload them to CD.”