Monday was beautiful day in North Carolina for a hike. The group consisted of Ralph and I and six other guys. The hike leader, Chan was very familiar with the area as he had hiked in the valley many times before with Carlton, an older man who had lived in the valley and made many of the trails. We parked at Carlton's house and took a few short cuts to start the hike. Panther Valley has a very primitive trail system, there are some logging roads in the area that you can follow, but we followed Carlton's trails. The trails looked more like deer paths to me. We followed them through Carlton's Field of Ferns to Devil's Elbow where we crossed a stream. Ralph and I had to go barefoot. Brrr!!!! We hiked back upstream and up hill to Camille's Falls where we had lunch. Each time we went down to the river we had to find a trail through the rhododendrons and mountain laurel bushes, no cut branches to make it easy for the tall guys. Chan took us to Green Creek Falls, Warren Falls and the most well known falls in the area, Schoolhouse Falls. You can walk behind Schoolhouse falls if you are careful. It was a great ending to the hike with a fairly short uphill climb back to the start of the hike.
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