Jacks River Falls

I am very late writing this blog...

My first trip to Jacks River Falls was with a buddy of mine, bmorris. bmorris is the same person who bought the Mountain Hardware pack on a whim (but for a steal) on the way to StoneDoor, courtesy of Allison and Marjorie at Mountain Outfitters in Monteagle TN (that will be another blog eventually).



We originally planned on bringing a couple girls with us on this trip but for various reasons that fell through. We changed our route accordingly since we did not have females with us.

We hiked in from the East Cowpen Trail. To get here take 575N through Blue Ridge, left at the McDonalds on to Hwy 5, then about 3-4 miles take a left on to Old Hwy 2. The road turns into a dirt/gravel road and you remain on that for at least 20 minutes. Parking will be on the right (cant remember the number of the parking lot). The East Cowpen Trail is pretty challenging with little picturesque views unfortunately. I believed it was about 8 miles, then we got on the Jacks River Falls trail where we finally had to cross a river. I thought we were going to be crossing a lot of rivers on the trail but did not cross one till we got to Jacks River. A few months before this trip I had purchased a pair of Gortex North Face shoes (which are comfortable and lightweight) and decided to wear these with water shoes as my backup for deep water forging.

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We arrived at the falls at about 3 to find quite a bit of people already at the falls. I am terrible at estimating the amount of people in a given place but there were probably 30-40 people that day. We decided we would go find a spot to camp. Due to the exclusivity of this campsite, I am not going to describe where this site is located. Sorry, but I want to keep it my secret.



We headed back up to the falls at around 5 and there were only a few people at the falls. We hung out up at the falls for about an hour then headed back to our campsite. I was starving (shocker) so I started cooking dinner. I brought along a Mountain House and I think it was wild rice and chicken, whatever it was, it was delicious. I really wish I did not wait so long to write this blog, my memory is terrible... If you have not tried a Mountain House, you need to, they are relatively cheap, easy cleanup, just boil water and pour in bag and let sit! bmorris had just bought a new tent which I really liked. Sierra Designs Velix 2 with footprint, two person, 3 season, 3 sides mesh, with doors for each person. The 2 doors made it very convenient. This tent will most likely be my next tent purchase; Sierra Designs makes a quality product.

It was relatively warm when we went to bed around 10. I think it was in the high 70's and humid. Luckily I had brought my summer bag for that night, the next morning, it was pretty chilly, in the high 50's, but it felt pretty good.

We decided to switch it up on the hike out and took the Hickory Creek trail out the next morning. We immediately regretted this decision. It was 6 miles uphill. Now, I do not have too many blogs yet but as many of yall know, I am an avid backpacker and am not exaggerating when I say it was 6 miles uphill. The total hike was 8-9 miles and met back into the East Cowpen and back to our car.

I have to say, the trails that we took were fairly strenuous. I would not recommend these trails to beginners. Also, the trails are not very well marked, making it difficult to figure out which trails are the ones you want to be on. Overall, the trip was awesome. Jacks River Falls is really fun and would be a great place to take kids and/or your girlfriend/wife. Unfortunately, I was just with bmorris (no offense buddy) but I wouldn't mind having a female to enjoy the falls with... The trip was so fun I took a few buddies and my roommates the next weekend.