Day 3, Jackie's Branch Campsite to Bearcamp Creek Campsite

I've been trying to wake up with enough time to complete breakfast and morning camp chores before Sasquatch and Polecat are ready to leave.

I got up a little too early yesterday morning, so I set my alarm last night 10 minutes later. That turned out to be about right. Sasquatch was ready a little earlier than Polecat and me and started a short time before us. We began hiking at 7:45 a.m.

We didn't get far down the trail before sunlight began to filter through the trees. The day warmed up quickly. Starting a big climb as soon as we left our campsite added to that warmth, and I didn't get far before needing to stop and remove my jacket.

The trail was much like yesterday and the day before, frequently switching between single-trail footpaths and former logging roads. The old roads were always easier to walk because they made the elevation changes much more gentle.

I've gotten used to switching between single-track and logging roads. Whenever a trail changes to a single-track, I know a steep ascent or descent will likely happen soon. The only difference for this trail is that anything steep will include a set of steps.

After walking nearly two hours, the trail crossed from South Carolina into North Carolina and entered Gorges State Park. The state purchased the land for this 7,709-acre park from Duke Energy Corporation in 1999.

The park was part of large tracts of land bought by Duke in the 1940s and 1950s that the power company intended to use for hydropower projects, some of which were never developed. Before Duke owned it, much of the land was used by Singer Sewing Machine Company to supply lumber for sewing machine tables.

There was a lot to see on the walk through the park. First were views of an inlet of Lake Jocassee. The lake was created in 1973 when Duke Energy built a 385-foot tall, 1,750-foot wide dam in South Carolina. It impounds the waters of four rivers and several creeks.

The trail followed the lakeshore for 2.4 miles around the inlet where the Toxaway River and some of those creeks flowed into the lake.

Rock Creek was the first of the streams to cross as I walked around the lake's inlet. A small footbridge was here, though it wasn't necessary. The creek had plenty of rocks to hop across.

Two-tenths of a mile from the bridge were several of the steps I mentioned. These took me up the side of a ridge. Then after continuing a half-mile along the ridge above the lakeshore, the trail descended more steps to where it again followed the shoreline.

I met a hiker named Papa along the way. He told me he had section-hiked the AT and a few other trails.

When I arrived at the next bridge, which crossed Toxaway Creek, I noticed some picnic tables nearby. They were in campsites that dotted the area.

No one was camping at any site, so I chose a table to stop for a short snack break. Before leaving, I collected and filtered water from the creek.

The bridge over the creek and the next bridge, which went over the Toxaway River, were suspension bridges. The name "Toxaway" is said to be derived from a Cherokee word that means "land of the red bird."

Roughly five miles upstream from the bridge is Lake Toxaway, another manmade lake. This one has a much longer history than Lake Jocassee.

Lake Toxaway was created by an industrialist and entrepreneur named J. Francis Hayes. He moved to western North Carolina in 1890 and soon began building hotels. One was on the top of Mount Toxaway. The lake was formed when Hayes built a 500-foot earthen dam to create an attraction for hotel guests.

Then in July 1916, most of western North Carolina was drenched by 10 days of rain. It came from two hurricanes that moved inland, one just days after the other. A third hurricane made landfall in the following month, bringing at least 20 more inches of rain to the area. So much rainfall in a short time was too much for Lake Toxaway's dam to hold. It gave way, unleashing five billion gallons of water.

The lake was drained. The resulting torrent flushed downstream, taking trees, rocks, and everything else in its path. Remarkably, the land below the lake was mostly uninhabited and there were no human casualties. A local legend says only a blind mule died in the flood.

The lake remained empty until 1961 when the dam was rebuilt for a golf community project.

After crossing to the other side of the river, a long climb on wooden steps led me up another ridge. The section along the ridge didn't go far before more steps took me back to the water level.

Then after crossing another creek that flowed into Lake Jocassee, the trail turned away from the lake and began following another old logging road. This was the start of a climb of 700 feet in 1.1 miles.

From the top of the climb, the trail continued for the next mile and a half with several small ups and downs. There were no views of the lake through the lush forest.

The time was now past 1 p.m. Though I was starting to get hungry, I didn't want to stop walking. I figured Sasquatch and Polecat wouldn't be far ahead and were probably waiting for me.

Finally at 1:45, I couldn't wait any longer. I still hadn't caught up to them, but my hunger could no longer be ignored. I stopped when I saw a log to sit on and ate my lunch there. The spot was a short distance before the trail left Gorges State Park and entered Toxaway Game Land.

Polecat and Sasquatch were still waiting for me when I arrived at a campsite about 15 minutes after I finished my lunch. Perhaps I could have waited until then to eat, but I was famished and didn't regret stopping.

It was good for me to catch up with them, though. We were able to discuss where to stop for the night. Bearcamp Creek Campsite looked like our best option because it was near a stream. The other sites before it were dry.

At this point, Bearcamp Creek Campsite was a little more than five miles away. I kept up with Sasquatch and Polecat for the whole distance.

We stopped when Polecat was stung by a yellow jacket. Though painful, it wasn't unexpected because yellow jackets often make their underground nests where the ground is bare, such as on a footpath.

I've been stung many times by a yellow jacket while hiking, and once or twice by several at a time. Nearly all of these happened around this time in the fall. Yellow jackets are especially aggressive in defending their nest now because their queens are mating and preparing for winter.

We crossed a bridge over the Horsepasture River at 4:15 p.m. This was another stream that flowed into Lake Jocassee.

Carrasan Power Company had been granted preliminary approval in the mid-1980s to reroute this river's flow for a hydroelectric power plant. Doing this would require destroying a large waterfall. Local residents organized a campaign to fight the project and succeeded in derailing it.

In 1986, 4.2 miles of the river upstream from the lake were designated a national wild and scenic river.

No one knows for sure how the Horsepasture got its name. There is more than one explanation. Both involve a place where local settlers hid their horses. One story claims the horses were hidden from Union soldiers during the Civil War, and the other says they were hidden from Cherokee Indians.

What we do know is the Civil War story was discredited when researchers found land records referring to a location called "Horse Pasture" that predated the war by nearly a half-century.

The last stretch to our campsite went along a nearly flat former logging road. I noticed some bear scat on the trail just before the campsite.

When we reached the campsite at 5:30 p.m., a hiker was already there and set for the night. Two more hikers showed up a short time later but didn't stay. Then two women arrived and set up their tents near us. Two men came into the campsite a few minutes later. Fortunately, there was plenty of space for all of us.

I ate a leftover snack bar along with my dinner. Even though I didn't have hiker hunger today, I realized I need to be more mindful of how many calories I consume.