Blog

‍JLT guides and crew members headed out onto Lake Jocassee on Monday to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. We were the only boat on the lake. The day was quiet and overcast. The waterfalls were full and powerful, but clear of mud. The lake was back to full pond, after weeks of low water. There were numerous chunks of bank newly collapsed, undercut from summer wakes, trees toppled in straight lines into the edge of the water. A small landslide has bared rock inside the alcove of Laurel Fork Falls, another is barely visible on the river side of the Foothills Trail bridge crossing the Toxaway River. Horsepasture River contains a maze of tree trunks. The debris field in front of the Thompson River is large; the one in front of the Whitewater River is massive. The Laurel Fork access to the Foothills Trail is buried under fallen trees for as far as the eye can see, and the Foothills Trail Conservancy has requested that everyone cancel their hiking plans here until volunteers can be organized to begin a cleanup effort that promises to take a very long time.