80 Miles in 4 Days: Foothills Trail Hike

I began the Foothills Trail like most would-be hikers: anxious and nervous, but confident in my plan.

It was my first solo trip, so I had all the details in mind, at least I thought so.

My bag was packed, my food was organized, and my husband stocked the car with Diet Dr. Thunder and snacks. I was ready to go.

I left work that Friday, promised to take a long nap, failed miserably at said nap, and hit the road at one in the morning. The destination? Table Rock State Park, South Carolina.

The first few hours were fueled by terrible coffee at the gas station and pure excitement. It was working for me, but after a while, I was looking forward to the sun coming out for a much-needed boost of energy.

At some point when I arrived in Virginia, the sun greeted me and I spent the rest of the trip ogling the Blue Ridge Mountains that kept me company along the way. I understand why they say Virginia makes you sad; It is a LONG state.

As I drove, the mountains became more vast and impressive. Before I knew it, I was entering South Carolina. I made it on time too!

At 5pm, I was checked into Table Rock State Park for a primitive campsite.

For those of you who don’t know, a primitive campground is usually a walk-in site. That is, you park in a parking lot and follow a short trail to your site, where you can set up a tent or hammock. While they require a little more effort (the hike is short), they are significantly more affordable than regular campgrounds. At Table Rock State Park, the primitive sites are across the street from the main park.

I stayed at Table Rock for the rest of Saturday and Sunday night.

Although I tried to stay still as much as I could; It’s bad luck to walk before a long walk, I get bored easily.

So I spent Sunday walking across the street to the main area of ​​the park. I looked at the Nature Center, which is where the Foothills Trail ends, and the parking lot where I would leave my car, which was surprisingly a good distance from the center.

To leave my car at Table Rock State Park, I paid $6 per day for the reservation. I gave myself 6 days to complete the route, although I had hoped to finish sooner.

Park staff are willing to refund unused days if a hiker finishes early, although I wasn’t really that worried about the $6 parking fee.

On Monday morning at 8am I drove to the Pinnacle Pavilion.

Carla, also known as Mrs. Taz, would take me to the trailhead at Oconee State Park. Both Carla and Taz are incredible resources on this path. Carla can be contacted through the Foothills Facebook group and is a real pleasure to be with. Taz can only be reached through his cell phone number. While I didn’t get to meet Taz, he provided some much-needed trail magic on my last day.

I started morning number one already exhausted. The excitement of starting my hike, along with the anxiety of «what happens if I fall asleep while my alarm goes off?», made me sleep terribly at night. However, that didn’t shake my spirit. I was ready to hit the road and see what it had in store for me.

I shared my transportation with another hiker, a man named Adam. He had a lot of energy and was also very excited about his adventure. The trip to Oconee was full of positive energy and before we knew it, we were standing in front of the Foothills sign, one at a time, while Carla took pictures of us.

This was it! This was the beginning!

Immediately, I was thrown to the trailhead. We were told we HAD to register there, but in SC it seemed like the registration kiosks used cards, instead of trail log books. Surprisingly, there were no blank registration cards anywhere around the kiosk. The place intended to store the completed cards was full of old papers and cards, some of which dated back to 2024.

I scribbled some basic details on the back of an existing card:

• my name
• the date
• How long would you expect to be walking?
• party of 1

And with that I said, “Pretty good,” and continued on my way.

It was around 10:30 when I started, and the trail was very quiet. With the ground soft under my feet, I walked forward.

My goal for the first day was just over 15 miles. Carla warned me that the path may throw a lot of people off and suggested that 15 might be a little too ambitious. She said the trail has a lot of ups and downs, or as many people like to call them: PUD (useless ups and downs). I appreciated your care and concern; It’s easy to get overambitious on a hike and hurt your chances of success.

But I’m from the Adirondacks and I eat PUD for breakfast.

I had studied and made notes of all the different viewpoints I wanted to see along the way. There were many waterfalls along the route, but many of them require trails to access, which can add many miles if you are not careful.

Hidden Falls was the first “side quest” I encountered. I scrolled through screenshots and notes on my phone for what seemed like an eternity, trying to remember if it was important. After probably 3 minutes of impatience, I stopped finding said notes and decided to leave Hidden Falls hidden. It was late in the morning and I had places to be.

The trail continued, beautifully following the edges of gullies and ravines. While Carla was right about the ups and downs of the trail, I was glad that they were mostly made up of switchbacks, which really take away from the elevation changes.

I started my walk in a simple tank top. After a couple of hours, the straps of my backpack began to wear on my shoulders. After taking off my backpack, I found raw, sore spots on my shoulders—little mementos to remember my backpack by.

I only had one option: my sun hoodie. Honestly, I was hesitant to wear it, thinking there was no way I could walk around in long sleeves. However, to my surprise, I stayed cool and didn’t suffer a single sunburn. The fabric was thin, but enough to stop the rubbing on my shoulders.

I walked the entire 15 miles, surrounded by rhododendrons and butterflies. I followed the Chattooga River and the white blazes until I reached Burrell’s Ford Campground.

This place was the Hilton of Campgrounds, and the best part? It was FREE.

The camp was accessed via a straight path and the signs were well marked. Since the sites were right next to the river, water was plentiful.

As an added bonus, each site not only had a bear-friendly food container, but also had this interesting perch, which I used to filter my water:

Unfortunately, I got distracted cooking dinner while the water seeped in, so I ended up with a shoe full of water. Shortly after, I realized that I could have balanced my bottle on this log.

To be honest, I think it would have taken me less time to filter the water the normal way instead of having to do all this and wait. But hey, you live and you learn, and it was a lot of fun…in retrospect.

For dinner I had protein pasta with mushrooms and packaged shredded chicken.

Of course, I didn’t bother measuring, so I did it with too much water. I usually boil water and add it to a freezer bag with any dry food I have. The food is rehydrated and then I can eat from the bag without having to do the dishes. I would pack the food in the freezer bags anyway, so it doesn’t add anything to the trash, it just makes cleanup easier.

Thanks to my water mishap, I accepted the fact that I would have to wash the dishes and dumped my now “soup” into the pot. You could at least try to boil some water. It didn’t really work, but I added some ramen seasoning and it ended up with one of the most delicious chicken and mushroom soups I’ve had in a long time.

After cleaning, I spent way too much time processing and accepting that the next day I would be walking in one wet shoe and one dry shoe. I threw all my food and anything that had any kind of smell into the bear bin and called it a night.

The next day, I had originally planned to walk 16 miles. For some reason, that night I had a surge of inspiration and decided that 22 sounded much better.

And with 22 miles in mind, I went to sleep.