This weekend I went rafting and backpacking with a group of Winthrop students. The first day we woke up at 3:40am to drive about 3 hours to raft down section 4 of the Chattooga River. It was so much fun! The first rapid was a 7ft drop that is almost guaranteed to knock someone out. Halfway down we ate lunch on a beach with the guides after hiking to a waterfall. A motorboat usually waits to take you across Lake Tugalo but we ended up paddling 2 miles because of low levels and the motor chord broke the second we met him. But it was so beautiful crossing the lake and being able to see things you usually wouldn’t notice in a boat.
After rafting we arrived at our campsite and quickly hiked to see a waterfall, ate then passed out. I fell asleep to ”Wagon Wheel” that a group of drunk college kids two campsites down were singing and playing it on the guitar. They were actually pretty good. So the next day while hiking it was stuck in everyone’s head! We stopped for lunch right next to the river that was covered on one side by a rock wall. After hiking 9 miles we made it to our second campsite. There was also a waterfall close by where one girl chose to swim in the freezing water. She was from Michigan. Later while sitting around the campfire someone mentioned “snipe hunting” to which others started to chime in with their personal stories of it, I told everyone that my great uncle showed us a feather of one when we were kids. 4 out of 18 of us had not been snipe hunting, so naturally we took them running up and down the narrow trail in the pitch black dark, dodging roots and trees, instructing them on how to call a snipe and rattle bushes to scare them out. Once all was said and done we had a “sniping” debrief.
The next morning we hiked a little more than 4 miles to get back. We decided to stop in Anderson to grab a beer and some food before heading back to the Thrill.
Super long story short, I woke up this morning and wished I was still in the mountains with all these people. Before we even finished hiking I was already planning my next trip.
This is amazing. I read this while Amber sat to the right of me recanting the same story about snipe hunting. I’m glad you had a good time, more people should camp.
