Agile Trekker: Foothills Trail Day 1 - Oconee State Park to Simms Field Campsite

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Foothills Trail Day 1 - Oconee State Park to Simms Field Campsite

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/8/2022	13.3 miles	7 hours 10 minutes	1,537'	2.5	325.6

Parking:

One car at Oconee State Park
One car at Bad Creek Access Area
One car at Table Rock State Park

Maps:

Trail map, pocket profile, guidebook from Products – Foothills Trail Conservancy
FarOut app, Foothills Trail

Directions:

Backpack from Oconee State Park to Simms Field Campsite

I was joined this week by Tara, Sharon, and Eva, on a 7-day backpack of the 76-mile Foothills Trail, which runs along the North Carolina/South Carolina border. This is a challenging but doable backpacking trip. My goal was to average 11 miles a day. My Gaia GPS app was giving us higher than expected miles. We did take some side trails to waterfalls, which did increase our mileage though. We hiked from west to east, which meant our first few days were easier, and the last few days would be more difficult. This is one nice trail for so many reasons.

One great thing about this trail: WATER!

We had daily waterfalls and cascades either on the trail or a short distance off the trail. This also meant that filtering water was very easy, as we were almost always hiking by a river or a stream. Another benefit of all of this water - on most nights we camped next to a stream or river. On our first night, we had a view of a waterfall from our private tent site. You can't beat that! Almost every night we were lulled to sleep by the sound of running water. We also had the opportunity to take creek baths. The water was oh so cold, but after hiking all day, was very welcome.