"We few, we happy few," we band of hikers? Anyway, while the bulk of Scenic City departed for the fall retreat, a few of us decided to continue with the Tuesday hike. Our group was small with only 5 hikers, and after rumors of smoke from the fires in the Laurel-Pocket forest near the trail, two hikers canceled. Tim Booth, Kathy Bowen and I decided we would hike as planned.
We started at the Roaring Creek trailhead. The day was beautiful with a few clouds. Fall colors were abundant with leaves covering the trail and in places obscuring it. The day was clear enough for magnificent views of the distant ridges and mountains especially when we crossed Brayton Mountain road. Conditions were extremely dry and as we neared the bridge on McGill Creek, we were extremely disappointed to see the usual roaring and rushing creek was dry except for a few pools of water. We crossed the bridge and eyed the path to the waterfall, which was narrow and overgrown. After we discussed the unlikelihood of water at the falls we decided to start the return to the car.
Our finished hike was around 5
miles with an elevation gain of between 800 and 900 feet. These stats are
closely aligned with Alltrails, which doesn't always occur.
The group enjoyed the hike and found the trail pretty in its fall colors. We agreed it should be revisited in the spring, when we can see the full beauty of McGill creek and its falls.
If you would like to see a couple of pictures, click here.