Winding Stairs Trail

Dead tree on shore of Lake Jocassee

          I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but we have not had winter yet this year! I remember a few cold days, a few cold nights, not a real SC winter. Now, I'm not complaining just stating facts as I see them. This pass Tuesday was a warm day- high 60's- and beautiful. Did not leave the house until after eleven  AM, drove for over an hour to the Winding Stairs Trail up in the sunshiny Mts.near NC. Trail head is near the Cherry Hill campground off of Hwy. 107. You hike uphill for a short ways and then it is a slow steady descent for the next 3.5 miles.Gracie and I hiked two miles turned around and hiked back up the mountain. As you go down the trail you can hear and see a creek flowing along side. At one spot there is a wonderful water falls, and a short side scramble down to where you can see it. I, of course took pictures and even a video with my camera phone which still will not download onto my computer. [ Just so you know I have been to the Att store twice asking for help. Both times I have done what they told me to do, but still will not work. It has been suggested that maybe my computer is too old to shake hands with the more up to date camera phone. That is a bummer! I will try again at a later date. Really have some good video of a few waterfalls and rivers.] My other option is to buy a new digital camera and reenter the real world. That is a bummer too, Turtle's world is pretty uncomplicated and he likes it that way.

          When we first began hiking this trail, off to the right I spotted a small clearing through the trees and Gracie and I made a quick exploratory trip. It is the home to an old old, yes one more, old cemetery. Most of the head stones were just that; stones sticking out of the ground marking graves. No writing left on them, weather worn and weary, waiting for the Resurrection Day. Three markers were made of white marble and lined side by side, small and sad. All had names and dates cut in there faces, easy to read and decipher. The last name was same on all three, a first name and no middle name or letter. A birth date and a death date. Each child only lived three or four months and were real close to a year apart. The years were 1908- 1911!  My heart was heavy as I thought of the hard life people lived back in the "Good old Days"  A mother burying three children, one after another. A father digging three small holes in the ground to hold the pine boxes and harsh realities of living and dying. Each year a small group of hardy mountain folks gathered to sing and pray as they committed their babies to the Lord. No telling how many more children were buried in this clearing along with the young and old of that mountain region.  I left wondering why these three graves were marked with better headstones. I don't know. 


           God is good! See ya on the trail!

           Turtle