Our first Upcountry outing - April 1, 2015

Wednesday promised to be beautiful weather, and Mother Nature didn't fool us.  We decided to take our first real sight seeing trip to one of SC's upcountry waterfalls.  Issaqueena Falls at Cane Creek is north of a small town called Walhalla, about 30 miles from here.  The falls were named for a Creek maiden who fooled a band of Cherokee into thinking she had fallen into the rapids and drowned, and thus was able to escape and warn her English lover of an attack.  There is a nice picnic grove near the falls, and the walk to the observation deck was easy.  It is incredible to see how a small stream can morph into such a cascade of water.

After viewing the falls, we drove a short distance to Stumphouse Tunnel.  Stumphouse Mountain is know as the mountain that stopped the railroad.  Back in the 1850's, there were plans to connect a rail line from Ohio to Charleston, SC.  Despite the efforts of around 1500 miners working around the clock, they could not cut through more than 200 feet of the granite mountain per month.  After 4 years of labor, and 1600 feet into the mountain, no more funding was allocated to the project.  

In 2007, a private developer intended to buy the land around the falls and tunnel and turn the area into a gated community.  The citizens of Walhalla united and raised about 4.3 million dollars in a few months in order to buy the property and keep it open to the public.

From the tunnel, we stopped in Walhalla and I went into a couple of the antique stores.  On our way back home, we had pizza at Peppino's in Seneca.

 

 

 

 







 

 

 

Looked as though that rock had fallen fairly recently.  Glad we weren't on the path when it did.

 

 

 



 

 

 





 

 







A sign at the gate entrance cautioned visitors to not wear the same clothes or footwear that they had worn to other caves.  Caveat was because microbes could be attached to those items which could infect the bats residing in the tunnel.  One of the other signs told of how in the 1950's scientists at Clemson University discovered that the climate in the tunnel was perfect for aging blue cheese, and used the tunnel for this purpose for several years before moving the process back to one of the campuses.  I doubt I would want to eat the cheese that came out of the tunnel!

 

This shot was taken just a couple of feet inside the tunnel.  Water was dripping from the top and there were channels of water on both sides of the walls.  Neither Bob nor I had a desire to venture forth into the damp darkness of the bat tunnel.  The temperature just outside the tunnel and inside was a good 10 to 20 degrees cooler than elsewhere.  Bob said it might be the place to be on a hot summer's day.

 

Entering Walhalla, the town that saved the tunnel.

 

Shops and parking along the main road, and no parking meters.

 

This shoe repair shop has been in business since 1936.  What caught my eye was the Cat's Paw logo which reminded me of the shoe repair shop in my hometown.

 

We had tried  Peppino's last week when we were in Seneca.  The pizza here was as good, if not better than what we've had in Jersey and Roma's in Naples.  The Wednesday special is slices for $1.25.  Sucha deal!

 













Bob has already gotten a reputation as the "go to guy".  Back at camp, a neighbor asked him to see if he could figure out what was wrong with their air conditioning.  Guess it was a good way for Bob to work off the pizza!