Fork Mountain Trail- Sloan’s Bridge to Burrell’s Ford - October 25, 2008 - Member Trip Report

Hike Name:	Fork Mountain Trail- Sloan’s Bridge to Burrell’s Ford
Country:	United States
State:	South Carolina
Trip Rating:
Trip Date:	October 25, 2008
Duration:	2 days
Trail Conditions:	Good
Trail Traffic:	Light
Trip Weather:	Sunny
Trip Winds:	Light
Trip Precipitation:	None
Trip Temperature:	High: 61-70, Low: 31-40 degrees Fahrenheit
Trip Report:	This hike was Oct. 25, 26, 2008. Weather was beautiful. High 65 degrees, low 37 degrees. We dropped one car off at the Burrell’s Ford Campground and then drove to Sloan’s Bridge to start. We hit the woods at 10:00 Saturday morning. The Fork Mountain Trail starts about 50 yards north of the Sloan’s Bridge Picnic Area and goes west. There should be a red-orange blaze on this trail, but I never saw one. Fortunately, the trail was in very good shape and the lack of blazes was not a problem. There is a nice small campsite just about a mile in, right next to a small creek. At the 3.4 mile mark is a very nice large campsite. The trail is mostly downhill all the way to the Chatooga River, 7.7 miles from the start. You will hit the Chatooga at a large campsite, about .2 miles north of Ellicott Rock. Turn south and walk along the river past Ellicott Rock. The next 20-30 minutes is the most difficult section to hike. A lot of roots and rocks on the trail make for very difficult footing. About a mile from the Rock, there is a beautiful campsite next to the river, where we stopped for the day. 10 minutes later, a second, larger one. All of the campsites we saw had rocks or logs to sit on, nice stone fire rings. Hard to call it primitive. Eating on a campout is a big deal to me. I’ve never been one for Ramen Noodles and food bars. My cooking eq. is Jet Boil PCS with skillet and coffee press accessory. I also took my Outback Oven on this trip. Just for the record, the Jet Boil is great but the skillet is about worthless. Everything sticks to it. I won’t take it again. I’ve been learning to use my dehydrator and supper was chicken quesadillas. I had dried canned white meat chicken and it rehydrated perfectly. Quesas were great. Dessert was white chocolate macadamia nut cookies in the Outback Oven and coffee by the river. We let the campfire die down and hit the hay about 9:30. I have been camping in a Hennessy Expedition Asym Hammock for about a year now. It was a very comfortable night. I don’t think I will ever go back to the ground. Woke up at 8:00, temp was around 37 degrees. Got the campfire going again, put on some coffee, and started cooking breakfast. Overnight, I had rehydrated hash browns and breakfast sausage in Nalgene bottles. I rehydrated scrambled eggs that morning. Fried some onions, then the potatoes, threw in the sausage and eggs, topped with cheddar cheese and had a breakfast casserole. Then made more coffee. Since we had hiked about 8.5 miles the first day, we only had 3.5 to get to the car, so we were in no hurry to leave. We spent the morning relaxing by the river and started out at 1:00. It was a beautiful, though uneventful hike out. We took our time, checked out every campsite on the way and detoured to Spoonauger Falls. It is only 0.1 miles off the trail and worth the hike. We got to the car around 3:00. I will definitely do this again. Another option for a day hike is to park at Burrell’s Ford, hike in to one of the campsites and just spend the day by the river. Fish a little, nap, drink coffee, eat, life is good.