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(Not So) Bad Creek Trail
Written By: Emily Crowell | Issue: 2018/05 - May
The first time I hiked this trail, I didn’t like it. I thought that it was only a few miles round-trip and so didn’t bring any food, breaking one of my most important rules for living: When in doubt, bring food.
The next time, I brought food. It was a good day.
The Bad Creek Trail in the Ellicott Rock Wilderness is good for quiet seclusion and a steady work-out on the way back. A warm, sunny, breezy day found my sweetie and I taking several hours to stroll its length down to the river, stopping to hunt for treasures of the woods along the way, listening to a symphony of birdsong and burbling streams. It doesn’t get much more idyllic.
The trail starts off relatively level in a tunnel of mountain laurel and rhododendron before beginning a gradual ascent and suddenly emerging from the tunnel into the company of conifers. For a couple miles the path leapfrogs from shadowy, muffled laurel tunnel to open, bright pine territory − a plus for those of us drawn to contrasts. When the trail forks, stay right and start descending in a series of switchbacks. At some point (if you’re only vaguely paying attention) the voice of the Chattooga River becomes distinguishable from the voice of the wind in the trees overhead. One could easily find oneself deep in metaphors involving wind being breath, water being blood, earth being body…
In a little over three miles the trail puts you out at a campsite right smack next to the Chattooga with some great swimming and wading spots. You can continue the trail to the left of the campsite to try and find the fabled Ellicott and Commissioner’s Rocks (I couldn’t begin to tell you where to look − I’ve never found them), or you could do like I do and just sit by the river, watching and listening and being.
To reach the Bad Creek trailhead from Highlands, take Horse Cove Road from town for 4.5 miles and turn right on Bull Pen Road. In 5.7 miles, the parking area for the trail is on the left. The trail itself is a short walk up the road on the right.
From the Cashiers Crossroads, take Highway 107 South for seven miles to a right turn onto Bull Pen Road. In about 2.8 miles, the parking area will be on your right.
