Pregeocaching we had talked about going here. Since we waited so long to do it, we thought we would combine the hike with placing a geocache.
Ellicott Rock (N35° 00.077’ W83° 06.513’) marks the spot along the Chattooga River where Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) originally indicated the intersection of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. In 1811, Ellicott etched the letters NC (some say NG) on a rock at the point where he believed the three states came together. Ellicott, it turned out, had miscalculated. Another surveyor in 1813 calculated it to be about 10 feet farther downstream, and the point was etched upon another rock, known as Commissioner Rock.
There are multiple trails to this area, the Ellicott Rock trail from the northwest, the Bad Creek Trail from the northeast side, the East Fork trail from the southeast and Burrells Ford.trail from the south. Unlikely as it sounds the worst way is the Ellicott Rock Trail, because the rocks and cache are on the east side of the river.
The Bad Creek parking is at N35° 01.384’ W83° 05.737’. The length of the trail is about 3.5 miles (one way). The trail is easy at first. You go up gentle grade along an old logging road. You climb about 200 ft to a ridge at about 3000 feet. There (N35° 00.662’ W83° 05.862’) we saw bear sign. Check out the picture. The trail leaves the logging roada and goes to a footpath which has a gradual downhill slope and you go down the 200 ft. Then for the next mile the trail goes down another 500 feet into the gorge via switchbacks. If you go this way, do not over estimate your ability to climb the 700 ft after walking in.
The East Fork trail (N34° 59.121’ W83° 04.317’) has a steady down hill all the way to Chattooga river. Which of course means it is a steady climb back out, again make sure you are able to climb back out.
The Chattooga Trail starting at Burrells Ford. (N34° 58.485’ W83° 06.884’) is of course at the Chattooga river, so you don't have climb in and out of the gorge. It does have some elevation change when the trail has to go away from the river.
If you go down the trail to the Ellicott rock and Commissioner rock, be careful, they are on the riverbank below the trail and sometimes are under water. People have fallen in the river hunting them.
For more information on the area and trail:
Backpacker.com Article
http://inspirezone.org/chattooga.html
The cache is in a 30-caliber ammo box (largest that fit in the Camelbak). Since we believe the main thing about hunting geocaches is the location, this cache is pretty much a standard cache. Also we want anyone who comes here to find the geocache so we try to make it easy to find. While the geocache was put in a place that we don't expect nongeocachers to go to, you will notice by the picture the geocache isn't hidden please keep it that way. Also since satellite reception can be bad in the gorge with the tree cover, the hint is a full blown spoiler.
A little history of the geocache.
- July 10, 2001 First placement by Johnnie, Allen and Robert
- September 3, 2002 Second placement due to geocache going missing by Allen and Robert. It was placed further up the gorge side to try and avoid being found by nongeocachers..
- January 15, 2005 Maintenance visit by Allen.
- August 18, 2005 Third placement due to geocache going missing by Johnnie, Allen and Robert. We placed it further from the camping area to reduce the chances of it being found by nongeocachers.
- September 10, 2016 There was a log saying the contents were wet. Allen hiked in with a replacement ammo box and transferred the dry log to it. Then Allen removed the old ammo box and its wet contents.
Obligatory list of potential dangers: exhaustion, dehydration, wildlife encounters, loose footing, and falling in the river and drowning.
The last time I checked on it 4/13/2011, the geocache had been moved and this made the hint wrong. It was placed back in the correct location. So if you find it, and its location matches the hint, put it back there, if the location doesn't match the hint, then please put it so the hint is correct.
