Our eleventh hike of the year ... April 6, 2024
We set off back towards Oconee ... this time utilizing the Stumphouse Park. There's an entrance fee of 5 dollars ... and it appears you can also buy an annual pass online ($25 for in-county residents and $35 for out-of-county residents). If you come here often - I'd definitely think it'd be worth considering the annual pass. We make our way to the parking area - where there's a three areas to park. The first area to the right gets you closer to Isaqueena Falls & Blue Ridge Railroad trails, to the left is a larger lot with a toilet area, covered picnic pavilion, and gazebo (there's also several picnic tables too!) which gets you closer to the bike trails and Stumphouse Passage. The other lot is on up just before Stumphouse Tunnel. Our intention was to do a combination of Stumphouse Passage and Ross Mountain Passage!
We hit the trail - where there's a sign with the passage map and on the opposite side is a bike repair station. Continuing past the gate - the trail goes to the right up a small hill before coming to a bit of a confusing junction - a wide gravel path coming from your left (where you could go back to the parking area and continuing to your right (where it goes down to some old ruins), another wide gravel path to the left-ish (which no clue what it's called - but it does rejoin the trail a little ways down), and a trail ahead of you. I chose this option - but I will say there's no signs here - but after double checking the map, we continued following the single track trail ahead of us. Thankfully, a few yards down this trail - one of the small metal Palmetto Trail signs was on the tree - so our choice was confirmed that we were on the right path! You pass above the ruins that the earlier wider path takes you into - but there's a side trail to walk down (which we did to see the dam and lake. Do use caution here ... this dam looks OLD and I don't know how stable it actually is - and there's a lot of poison ivy in this area as well. Also, these ruins (and old water treatment facility) are really cool to see - so don't use it as a canvas for art - enjoy what it is and leave no trace!
After rejoining the main trail - it continues to follow the lake side and through the forest. This is a relatively easy trail but do be mindful that this is also a pretty popular biking trail .. so be aware of your surroundings. Just before the Walhalla Reservoir - there's a small waterfall (Pollock Falls) - that's really. nice to see from the trail. The reservoir Is really pretty, surrounded by all the hills/mountains. This is about 1 mile from the trailhead and you take a right here to stay on the Palmetto Trail then you get to the end of the earthen dam and take a left to stay on the Palmetto. From here the trail gets a little more forested with some different trees than what was in the first mille of the trail - this is probably my favorite part of this passage. At 1.74 miles you come to the end of the Stumphouse Passage and start the Ross Mountain Passage. One thing I will note - the Palmetto Trail passage map (both the one in the parking area and the one by the reservoir) both refer to the Ross Mountain trail as being a future trail.
The trail is complete - but this could be confusing for others. So, we continued on - where you cross the SCDNR road at 1.77 miles. From here the trall weaves up and over various hills - but again nothing too technical and there were some really nice views through the trees. You begin a road walk at 3 miles.... this part is very exposed and there's dove fields for hunting - thankfully there wasn't anyone hunting this day but we did get passed by a couple of vehicles so we had to pause our hiking to let the dust cloud settle. I'll be honest ... I've never seen or heard of a dove field - so that was interesting. There were several dogwoods blooming along the road and there were some nice views looking southeast. At 4,98 miles, you come to the end of the road and you resume single track hiking. A short ways after resuming single track hiking - you enter Oconee State Park where the trail takes a left (there's also an unmarked trail going straight) at 5 mlles. You continue winding your way around and over various hills ... and at 5.9 miles - you cross the Old Waterwheel trail- and this is where the Ross Mountain passage and the Old Waterwheel trail overlap for awhile. Around 6.25 there's a side trail that goes right down to the old waterwheel ruins - this was worth the short side trip to see - and Sally enjoyed getting in the water!
Afterwards, we start our last climb before the end of the passage - at 6.93 we've reached the end of the passage - and got to see where we'd just been the week before when we did the Oconee Connector Passage. From here ...we continued on along the Old Waterwheel trail - this portion of trail was more technical that anything else we'd encountered all day - several large steps and various roots. Honestly, it still wasn't bad but it certainly wasn't the easy hiking we'd had all day. We came out in the main parking area where the southern terminus of the Foothills trail is at 7.4 mlles. From here - we followed the road up to where the Old Waterwheel trail goes left at the end of the overflow parking area (7.58 miles) and a short ways down the trail we were back at the intersection with the Ross Mountain Passage. We continued straight - because at one of the trail maps - it said there was a wildlife viewing area (which i'd seen the clearing before as we were hiking in - but didn't think anything of it other than thinking it may have been a logging landing area or something). Plus, this area wasn't a controlled burn area - and I was hopeful I’d find a place to hang in my hammock for a few minutes to enjoy a snack and a rest.
Unfortunately, I didn't find a spot for a hammock nor did we spot any wildlife. But, I did enjoy a snack and just wandering around the clearing. We then retraced our steps back to the passage. From here - it was a leisurely stroll back to Stumphouse Park. There wasn't too much to note for the return trip - except I did try a side trail (at 11.81) that allegedly connected up to the Blue Ridge Railroad trail. But after making a climb - it didn't lead to where it sald it would and I didn't see the "trail" that shows on Gala/AllTrails. So, reluctantly we backtracked to the passage trail to return to the car. We did get back to the main parking area and took a left to go to Isagueena Falls - we just enjoyed it from the viewing platform instead of making the scramble down to the base. It was a great way to end the day!
Things to note ... there's quite a bit of sun exposure when the leaves on trees haven't bloomed out and there's very little shade on the road walk and there's what appears to be a controlled burn area on the Oconee end as well. As I mentioned . there is a parking fee for Stumphouse Park. And the other end is in Oconee State Park ... which is also a fee or requires the SC park pass. For an easier trek ... you could leave your car at one end and get shuttled to the start. Stumphouse Park is really nice .. but you do have to be aware of mountain bikers. This is a pretty easy pair of passages to do and between the lakes/reservoir at Stumphouse, ridgeline views from the road walk, and the sights in Oconee ... it's not quite as boring as I'd expected it to be.
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