Moonshine Falls

2/24/18

Ashley, Daina, Riley and Cooper

A day hiking with my girls and dogs. A very rare and awesome treat for me!

We are all coming from different directions so we decide to meet at Asbury Hills Camp at 9am. I called yesterday to get the gate code to get in. Diana arrived first then me and Ashley right behind. It’s a beautiful Christian camp. We go down to the trail head and park. No one else is here.

We unload the dogs and start up the trailhead. The first part of the trail is kinda washed out with rocks but lots of signage.

It’s going up but not to bad, I’ve been sick all week and this s kinda hard on me today. We let the dogs run and Cooper is dodging all over the place and Riley is following the best he can.

We follow the red trail called Asbury Trail. After about a mile and a half we see the trail to Cascade Falls. I decide we will do this on the way back.

We come to the Cable crossing over Matthews Creek. The water is pretty high so we have to figure out how to get the dogs across.

Daina crosses the cable bridge and walks down to a calmer part and calls Cooper to cross. He goes almost all the way across. It’s kinda deep and he swims some then jumps to a rock. Instead of going to Daina he turns around and crosses back to me!

Ashley crosses the cable and goes where Daina is. Daina has her shoes off and is wading in the water trying to get Cooper and Riley to cross. Riley makes it across but it is kinda deep.

I cross the cable bridge and try to call Cooper across but he is having none of it. He is sitting there not moving looking scared or mad.

I cross back over pick Cooper up and carry him across. It is deep in spots. I get wet over my knee. I’m getting used to walking in wet shoes.

That was a lot of fun!

We go up find the trail and keep walking. It intersects with the pink trail. There is a sign saying 1.7 miles to Raven Cliff Falls. Good to know. We hiked to it from Cesar’s head and it was a hard hike. Maybe on the way back if we have time!

We walk a little further and see a kiosk who’s only job is to tell you you might get lost. We keep going up the trail and Riley has a whole pile of leaves in his mouth. We think he is eating a dead animal or something and try to get it away only to find out it’s a big pile of poop! Must be people poop too because there is toilet paper nearby! Poor Ashley is gagging and about to throw up! Daina and I can’t help but laugh our heads off and make jokes! I say damn shithead! Etc. we can smell poop for miles. We finally come to another creek crossing where he gets some water. We’re still disgusted!

We turn at a pile of rocks to the first trail without any signs.

We go down a little further and find the trail to Moonshine Falls. At this point we can here it. First we go behind the falls. I read there are only 2 waterfalls in sc you can get behind so……..

There are old moonshine drums under there and an old sleeping blanket.

It’s pretty cool back there.

I tell the girls to wait there while I go down and get some pictures from the bottom. It’s kinda overgrown down there so I have to scramble over rhododendron trees.

Its a 40 ft falls. The dogs are running from the top to the bottom having a blast. At the bottom Riley drinks a ton of water. I guess washing down that poop sandwich!

After we head back up and decide to have lunch we finally see our first people. We eat lunch then head back. I completely forgot that Confusion falls is just up ahead!Story of my life!

We head back . No one wants to hike to Raven Cliff Falls so back we go. We get to the cable crossing and I don’t hesitate to pick cooper up and wade back through the water and Riley just jumps in and follows me! No problem! The girls cross the cables and we head back. We come to the sign for cascade falls and take the trail down to a little falls with a nice swimming hole at the bottom.

I as usual scramble over some trees to get to the bottom of the falls and get the biggest Charlie horse in my leg! God that’s painful! Daina wants to rub it out but it hurts! Ashley just wants to take my picture in pain! Payback I guess for the poop sammich crack! Riley looks concerned!

I’m finally able to move on! Those hurt!

We finish the trail and get to our cars and decide to ride down to Aunt Sues. It’s back toward Table Rock a couple of miles but we can sit outside with the dogs.

We have some lunch and hang out for a while.

What an awesome day hanging with my girls! We all decide it’s time to get going. Cooper doesn’t like car rides and he never lays down he always sits in the back seat. Well he slept most of the way home sitting up.