Panther Creek Trail

It was a good day for a hike with 45F to 55F temperatures and cloudy skies, but we did not complete our hike to the Upper Panther Creek Falls. The new access trail we took was quite usable despite having quite a number of small to medium-sized, but passable, blowdowns. The real problem was the condition of the trail had unknowingly and dramatically deteriorated since our last hike in June 2023. There were several sections of the Panther Creek Trail below where we joined it one mile above the falls that were washed out, uprooted or just worn to a narrow ledge with nothing but roots to walk on. There were also several places where slippery rocks on these narrow ledges were present. While our hikers were able to push on despite these challenges, it came to a point less than 1,000 feet from Panther Creek Falls, that we decided not to proceed further due to hazardous conditions including the lack of fall protections guywires and stanchions that had uprooted and were not usable. I apologize for encouraging participation by classifying this hike as "easy" when in fact this is a “difficult” hike and should only be attempted by those who are physically capable and willing to accept the risks of a trail in generally poor condition. This is too bad since this is a beautiful creek and waterfall.

Today's Hikers: jack Treadman, Allyson Aldrich, Angela Evans, Beth McDonald, Edwin Pruitt, Jenny Bell, Dave Norton, Mary Lu Norton, Vic Robson, Lynn Hotle, Alicia Morris, Eric Hotle & Mike Bell.