Chattooga River, near Rock Gorge

This was a solo hike, exploring a way in to the Rock Gorge area, for fishing and camping purposes.

Deep pool

Eight photos follow; click on 'read more' link below.

The trailhead was at the end of Nicholson Ford Road, in Mountain Rest, SC (off Highway 28), about 35 miles from the Blue Fish Lodge. The Foothills Trail takes you from the parking area down to the Chattooga, about 0.7 miles. From there, you can take the Chattooga River Trail downstream a few hundred yards, to see Pigpen and Licklog Falls. Or, you can go upstream along the ridge top, about a mile and a half, to where the trail rejoins the river, just upstream of Rock Gorge. (The Gorge is too rough to run a trail alongside the river, hence the ridge climb.)

Chattooga River, just above Rock Gorge; this is about 2 miles from trailhead

Sims Fields, a popular camping area just above Rock Gorge

Sandbar on the Chattooga

Moss

Ferns unfurling

Trail sign, Nicholson Ford Trailhead

Licklog Falls

Allow me a brief digression. A 'licklog' is a felled or fallen tree trunk, with grooves scraped out on the top, which are filled with salt for cattle or game. Cattlemen would often take their stock by the licklog just before delivering them to the slaughterhouse; the salt would make the cattle thirsty, they would drink lots of water, and therefore they would weigh more on the slaughterhouse scales, bringing more money.

The expression 'getting down to the licklog' thus refers to the next-to-last step before something is finished. Old-timey Georgia lawyers might say, when meeting to discuss settlement on the eve of trial, that  'we're getting down to the licklog here.' In that case, the negotiation is the metaphorical licklog, and the trial is the metaphorical slaughterhouse, at least for one of the parties.

Pigpen Falls, just above Licklog Falls. Pigpen Branch is a tributary
of Licklog Creek, which flows into the Chattooga.