LickLog & Pigpen Falls

Another Sunday hike for our family and some friends.  Taking six children hiking may not sound like a good idea in theory but it actually has gone very well.  Fighting and whining has been an absolute minimum and everyone seems to be having a great time.

This past weekend it was a trip to a waterfall that I had seen once several years ago while hiking the Chattooga Trail.  Pigpen falls is on the side of the trail and is a great spot to sit and enjoy the water.  My first visit during that hike was in the summer and I remember people swimming and standing in the falls.  It was much too cold for anything like that this past weekend.  

We continued farther down the trail to view the Licklog falls.  Licklog is a set of falls I had not seen before.  There is an upper section that is a little shorter in height and requires some scampering down the banks to get to.  We made it down the bank with even the youngest children.  

The lower falls is not much farther down stream and is where the falls dump into the Chattooga river.  

We stopped for lunch at the river and I spotted some tracks that did not look like they came from a dog.

The trail didn't wipe us out of energy so we drove down the road to Stumphouse tunnel.  I would have expected some of the kids to be nervous heading in but with such a large group they rushed in without a second thought.  

I was able to capture this picture inside the tunnel showing the rough rock walls.  The tunnel was dug out of the granite mountain with hand tools in the 1800's.  At peak production they were able to move 200' a month.   

I probably wouldn't have made it very smooth either.

The next hike:  Pushing the limits - the top of Table Rock.   This one isn't for the kids.