Twin Arches (Big South Fork)
Sawmill Trailhead
6/14 - 6/17/20 (2 nights)
2020 Bag nights: 14
The weather was unseasonably cool for the middle of June so I figured I would take the kids backpacking for a couple nights to somewhere new. I have spent some time on the west side of Big South Fork but very little on the east side. In addition, I had heard good things about the Twin Arches area, so our destination was settled.
I planned out a 18ish mile loop for 3 nights with a potential bailout that would make it more like 13ish miles. This seemed reasonable since 5 mile days have not been a problem in the past (note the foreshadowing here).
As we got closer to D-Day, the weather forecast started to look a little more wet, but not so bad that I thought about bailing.
So load up food and gear and into the car for a 2.5 hour drive. It rained the whole way down (~2.5 hours) and as we were getting close my son (9 years old) says "I don't feel good". He has a past history of car sickness, so I told him hold on, but there was nowhere to pull over. I told his older sister to give him the lunch bag and I hoped to find a pull over. Of course I found a place to pull over just as he emptied his stomach into the empty lunch bag. Once he puked he immediately felt better, but still not 100% and it was still raining. We were just a couple miles from Pickett State Park where we had got a cabin a couple years ago. I could see this ending up being the trip that made my kids hate backpacking so I stopped to see if there was a cabin available, no dice. By then the rain had stopped, so I surveyed the backseat and everyone wanted to go backpacking :)
10 minutes later we were at the trailhead. We headed down the trail towards Slave Falls and then hopefully a nice campsite before everyone got too tired.
Slave Falls was pretty cool, but there was not a lot of water. It is likely more impressive in the spring.
The kids were more impressed by the big rock walls on the way to the falls.
A little farther down the trail we came to Needle Arch which made a good rest break.
And then not much later we came to a great campsite next to the creek. I thought we would make it farther, but everyone was ready to stop. The kids played in the creek for a bit and then easy dinner and bedtime as it got a little colder once the sun dropped below the ridge.
Woke up the next morning and it was a little chilly for them, somewhere in the upper 50s (I thought it was perfect). We took our time packing up and then headed down the trail towards Twin Arches.
About 1/2 hour into our hike, my son was in the lead and he says "Bear". I did not see anything at first and assumed he saw an odd shaped log or something. I caught up to him and then came around a large tree and there was a 3ish year old black bear about 15 feet up the hill just looking at us. I was so surprised I said "Oh Shit" and told the kids to get behind me. I waved my hands and banged my hiking sticks together and the bear just looked at us. I told my kids to start talking and my oldest very calmly said "Hi Bear, go away bear" while the other two just sort of yelled. The bear looked at us for a couple more seconds and then ambled up and over the hill and out of sight.
I was very proud of my kids for not panicking and especially for my oldest being very calm. I have repeatedly emphasized that you don't run from a dog or a bear because either one will want to chase you. Evidently, that lesson has sunk in :)
Not much later, we ran into a mom, dad and two teenage daughters who had heard that there was a bear on the trail ahead of them. They asked if we had seen it and what should they do if they saw it. I told them that the chances of them seeing it were small but do what we did and they should be fine. And then we moved down the trail.
Not much later we got to a trail intersection and "Jakes Place". I suspect it was an old homestead, but all that was left was a sort of open area and these allium like flowers.
And then we started getting interesting geology, really big rock walls and shelters. This made a good lunch spot and play area.
This is a pano attempt to capture how big a nearby shelter was. The pano makes it look deeper than it really is, but gives an idea of scale, the tree in front is about 100 feet tall and the large rock in the right foreground is about 10 feel tall.
And then we got to Twin Arches. This is the North Arch, the man in the middle provides a bit of scale.
We climbed the stairs to the top of the arch and then followed a user trail and a short scramble to a great view. As we were climbing down we ran into the family from right after the bear encounter, they never saw a bear.
Then check out the South Arch, again for scale, my kids are the small color blobs on the lower right.
Interesting flowers, never seen these before.
We hiked down towards Charitt Creek Lodge (a hike in lodge in Big South Fork) and then had a decision to make. We had originally talked about 3 nights, but we had been going a lot slower than I expected. If we kept going down the trail, we were setting ourselves up for a long last day. I gave them the choice of find a campsite nearby and head to the car after 2 nights or go longer and everyone voted for 2 nights. At this point, the three of them bickering with each other was wearing me out, so two nights sounded pretty good. Not long after, we found a great site next to the creek, not far from the lodge. My son wanted a fire so I sent them off to find wood in a very picked over area. They found enough for one fire and I gave them the choice of evening or morning and everyone voted for morning.
Here they are in PJs the next morning enjoying the warmth. My son thinks that a Buff is like a face mask :)
We packed up and climbed the steep trail to the gravel road and then a road hike of a couple miles got us back to the car. To pass the time, we played a new game where I was the genie granting them each three wishes, but I twisted it around so their wishes did not work out the way they expected (think King Midas and everything he touches turns to gold, including his daughter). So a box of Twinkies exploded in their faces, the flying dragon choose to feed on the neighbors, the flying car need special fuel. My oldest liked trying to outsmart the genie, but my son hated not getting his way :) Oh well, it made the couple miles go by quickly.
This ended up being a standard "not what I planned, but still good trip". Most importantly, all three kids had fun and want to go backpacking again.
