Sometime in the year 1999, Ford Motor Company produced it's 2000 model Ford Explorer Ltd fresh off the line with all the bells and whistles. To have seen it then would have been to behold one of the finest vehicles in all of America.

Scott and his faithful sidekick, Gomer.

Nearly 20 years later and countless memories made and miles went by, the same Ford Explorer Ltd found it's way into my life by being the preferred chariot for transport for waterfall adventuring by my buddy, Scott McGaha. The vehicle and Scott could not be more perfectly suited for one another.

On this particular day, I sat in the parking lot of the Gorges State Park Visitor Center awaiting Scott's arrival as a steady rain fell on the roof of my truck. Katie sat next to me patiently tucking all her gear away in an already busting at the seams backpack. Beside us in the lot was Tracie loudly jamming to whatever tune was passing time until the final member of our party arrived. Scott was late. Scott is always late, but he has a way of presenting it that keeps you from being overly upset with him.

Nearly 30 minutes passed before a vehicle came careening down the curvy road wheeled in next to us and rocked to an abrupt stop. Our ride had arrived. The Ford Explorer at first glance looked good despite some obvious age and we all grabbed our gear in attempt to load up. We quickly discovered a tricky sequence of door handle use was required for entry into Scott's SUV.
Scott was in full story mode from the time his foot hit the payment. "Hey sorry I'm late guys, Gomer didn't want to start and I had to jiggle the cables for a bit to get him fired up." The car had a name, of course it did.  I pulled on a door handle that didn't work as he continued. "Oh yeah, the handle is messed up you gotta open it on the inside and the back one doesn't work at all.' All of this was said with a wide smile smacked across his face. "It's a heck of a car though and has been in some of the roughest places you can imagine, some of those places we will be seeing today!" I was nervous already.

Please dont let me die today.

Our mission for this day was pretty simple. Ride along Chestnut Mountain Road until it intersected Auger Hole Road at Turkey Pen Gap and descend deep into the gorges to Scott's shortcut to see Bearcamp Falls and Lower Bearwallow Falls. Tracie and Katie were wedged firmly in the backseat along with our packs and cooler bags. I cramped into the front seat next to Scott and we were off after he jammed it into gear. "Transmissions been trying to go out on me," he said.

The paved road led us down a hill to a large parking area for access to Rainbow and Turtleback Falls. Seeing so many cars there that early in the day was a little staggering considering Ive hiked there years ago without a seeing a soul. At the end of the lot a gravel road begins along with a large wooden sign of warnings and regulations, we were on Chestnut Mountain Road. Growing up in Scott County, Va a dirt road doesn't phase me and CMR was in good shape as far as gravel roads go. There were several insanely steep sections that required me to hold Gomer's radio in it's harness. And on the steep descents, Scott had to continually turn off the windshield wipers my knee slamming into the on switch on his dash kept turning on. The brakes were already hot as we approached Turkey Pen Gap but Scott was unphased; together he and Gomer were invincible.

The beautiful thing about the friendship between the four of us is if we're in danger we're always laughing too hard to realize it until after the fact. The girls bounced around the backseat as Scott picked up steam wheeling around Turkey Pen Gap and we caught up to some young kids in some brand new lifted Jeeps. Scott decided to stop so we could watch them from above and we all got a good hearty laugh watching them crawl around all the mud holes as the road dropped us down closer to the Horsepasture River. Eventually we caught our Jeep friends again as they were stopped on the river bridge taking photos of their rides. We lined up behind them and waited. One of the boys finally noticed us and came over to the driver's side window. Scott asked him what they were doing and he asked Scott what our plan was. Scott said, "Well I'm gonna cross this bridge and go to a waterfall over near the South Carolina border when y'all move your Jeeps." The boy's eyes widened and he said, "oh you can't go any further than the bridge the road is in too bad of shape from all the rain we've had." Scott chuckled momentarily and said, "pull over and I'll show you." (Please keep in mind it's still raining.)

Gomer parked next to the Tercel.

What a ride that must have been!

We watched as each Jeep pulled off to the side of the bridge before it was our turn. The bridge over the Horsepasture is a metal slab with about a two inch lip on either side and the ramps on either end are large stones laid in place to raise the bridge high enough to avoid flood waters. Getting on the bridge was a piece of cake for Gomer but the opposite side was rutted badly and all the boys had lined up to watch our demise. Scott stomped it and we scraped across the boulders before bouncing so hard my entire weight was lifted off the seat. I caught a glimpse of them looking defeated as we slung mud climbing the opposite side of the ridge.

Ttacie and Katie making their way up Auger Hole Road.

Scott was pumped up. He laughed wildly and we slid up the ridge avoiding trees and boulders like he was some sort of professional wheelman. Our luck would be short lived when we came to a rock that slowed us enough that we became temporarily stuck. Scott and I exited Gomer and looked for a solution. Uncle Jim paid me a visit in the form of inspiration. When I was young he would has us help him lay rock to get out of muddy spots in his road so I told Scott we just needed to build enough road to get around the largest of the rocks. We moved several stones and sticks and made a track that would make the most hardcore redneck proud. Scott jumped back in while i stayed outside to direct him over our engineering marvel. Sure enough it worked and I climbed back in to continue our harrowing ascent up the ridge.

Despite Scott's confidence, he did admit the road was in terrible shape and said if we did get stuck he would just leave Gomer and we would hike out and "wait for it to dry up enough to come back and get him." Katie seemed unphased by all of it but Tracie shared in some of my concern and we cautioned Scott when we came to obstacles. Soon we had developed a system of me getting out and flipping rocks out of the way and Scott carefully squeezing by. It sounds corny, but it worked and we all felt more like a team as our ride took us deeper into the gorges. The road soon disintegrated into a mess of red clay mud and traction was tough to come by, on several stretches I was convinced we would never make it back.

Luckily persistence and common sense prevailed and Scott found a rutted out old forest road wide enough to park Gomer so we could hike the remainder of the way to the falls. Surprisingly there was another car there as well, although it looked like it may have been there for decades. The Toyota Tercel wagon was riddled with bullet holes and missing anything of value. The person that drove it there to begin with probably has never been able to walk since from having such big balls. The Auger Hole road had been reduced to soup and although I felt better about being on my feet walking, it wasn't much easier. We picked a narrow track along the edge of the road as we climbed around a ridge to find a tree across the road, apparently the good Lord was watching over us. Scott surveyed the tree before looking back at me, "I believe we could have went under that, might have scraped a bit though" before busting out with laughter.

"We might have scraped."

The road leveled off and Scott jumped into the woods following an overgrown ridge line off to the left. I was under the impression we would be hiking trails but this was Scott's famous Bearcamp shorcut. This waterfall seemed as if it would cause me the most trouble of all of the Carolina Mountain Club challenge facing a 12 mile hike for most folks but with Gomer's wheels and Scott's guts we were gonna hike less than half a mile. Soon we were sliding down a steep bank toward the sound of falling water. Bearcamp came into view, and it was a stunner. The majority of the falls slid over a massive wall of rock before the final 15ft free fall into a large but shallow pool. You could walk behind the veil and Katie and I both played along the falls as Scott and Tracie looked on. Eventually I joined them and full blown story session ensued. Katie snapped a picture of us all there that now proudly hangs on the wall in my home.

The beautiful Bearcamp Falls.

Peace out, Bearcamp! Photo by Katie.

The hike out was a piece of cake and soon we found ourselves reunited with Gomer. We all loaded up and Scott turned the key to nothing. Like completely dead. He didn't panic but had me pop the hood which I couldn't find the latch for, and then expected me to know how to remove the battery cables and "smack em into it until you see some fire" which I also failed but Scott was able to get Tracie to man the wheel long enough to get us cranked and back on our way...hopefully. The occasional rock had to be removed by yours truly but for the most part the ride back to the river was kind of pleasant. The red clay mud I dreaded so badly Scott maneuvered through like a champ and Gomer had just enough speed to pull us over the hard part. When we arrived at the river. I exited the vehicle and tried to eyeball our best route. Several large gaps needed to be filled just to get on the bridge so the four of us all carried various sized stones and rebuilt the access ramp. It looked rough but doable. I suggested I should film the sequence and Tracie walked the bridge to film from the opposite side.

Rebuilding the bridge over the Horsepasture.

Scott and Katie prepare for launch.

Katie road shotgun and squealed loudly as Scott laid the pedal to it to move over a rock he was jammed on and soon they popped up on the ramp with our rocks shifting ever so slightly and onto the bridge! He drove to the other side and waited for me to join them. Once in tbe truck, I replayed the video that showed how narrowly he had came to sliding off the bridge. Scott's eyes got wide as he said, "Man! I almost drove it in the river!" He then settled into another gut busting round of laughter before stomping the accelerator heading toward Turkey Pen Gap.

Road hazzard clear!

At Turkey Pen Gap, several roads branch off including a continuation of the Auger Hole but it's gated (thank God) From there we would road walk before visiting our final falls of the day at Lower Bearwallow. I've not seen Katie so amped up as she set a blistering pace to the ridge we would descend to the base of the falls. Scott caught up with us and fixed some rope down the steepest sections as we followed close behind. When I caught up to Scott I was almost staggering as I was overwhelmed at what a great waterfall I was seeing. A beautiful free fall of about 35ft that catches several small ledges before emptying into an incredible swimming hole. Before I could turn to see where Katie and Tracie where I heard a loud splash as Katie was swimming as hard as she could to go sit on the falls!

Me and Katie playing at Lower Bearwallow. Photo by Tracie.

Me and Tracie at Lower Bearwallow. Photo by Scott.

I stalked around the pool before taking a more gentle approach into the pool and after some mild persuading I talked Tracie into jumping in with us as well. Scott looked on while the three of us played and savored one of my new all time favorite  waterfalls. We all regrouped at the base and enjoyed a snack before our steep climb out to the Auger Hole but what a day it had been!

Scott's rope really helped on the climb out.

What a great group of adventure buddies!

With only a few miles of Chestnut Mountain Road separating us from our vehicle old Gomer saved his best for last, firing on the first turn of the key. Scott had me back on holding the radio in it's place duty as we bounced out of the gorges and toward some dry clothes and hot food. Its hard for anyone to appreciate the ruggedness of the gorges that surround Lake Jocassee but if you've been there it will be easy for you to relate to this blog. And as for Gomer, the last I saw of him was his taillights riding into the South Carolina night as Scott turned for home. Built Ford Tough...I agree.