Hiking From The Blue Wall Preserve To Vaughns Gap

Last August I visited the Blue Wall Preserve, located just west of Lake Lanier in northeast Greenville County, to explore the preserve and its two waterfalls. The Blue Wall Passage of the Palmetto Trail runs from the Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE) in Polk County, North Carolina to Vaughns Gap, Greenville County, South Carolina. At Vaughns Gap, the Palmetto Trail transitions to the Poinsett Reservoir Passage that continues on to the Orchard Lake Campground in Henderson County, North Carolina. Last year, my visit to the Blue Wall Preserve inspired me to make another trip here to hike this section of the Palmetto Trail up to Vaughns Gap. I wanted to do that last year, but for whatever reason it didn't happen.

Last Friday was cloudy with a few sprinkles and a breezy north to north east wind. Not a perfect day for a hike, but plenty good enough. The parking area for this section of the Palmetto Trail is the same as the one for the Blue Wall Preserve. The distance to Vaughns Gap one way is a bit more than 3 miles.

The parking area is off Pennell Road. A yellow gate blocks vehicle access from this spot forward without a key to the gate.

A sign marks the entrance to the Blue Wall Preserve.

The first of two lakes offers a great view of Hogback Mountain, Vaughns Gap, and Rocky Spur.

The first part of the hike was heading moderately uphill on this old road...

then past what was once a green gate, then a white gate.

The trail left this old road, but I continued up to see where it went. I found this old dam along the way.

The road didn't seem to go anywhere interesting so I went back and resumed my hike along the Palmetto Trail. The trail soon rejoined the forest road for a while. Actually, the trail would go off on its own and join with an old forest road one or two more times on the way up. On the way up, I came across this abandoned saw trimmer dating from the early 1900s, used by a saw mill also dating from the same era.

On one the end...

I could easily make out the words:

The "Tower" One Man Trimmer
The Gordon Hollow Blast Grate Company
Greenville, Michigan

I found out more about the company while writing this post. From The History of Montcalm County Michigan by John W. Dasef, I found some information about Gordon Hollow Blast Grate Company:

The Gordon Hollow Blast [Grate] Company was incorporated on March 14 1890 for the purpose of manufacturing and selling hollow blast grates for which the organizers held patents.

So what is a blast grate? The book also answers that question and where the "Tower" name comes from:

...EJ Gordon invented and patented what is now known the world over as the Gordon Hollow Blast Grate an apparatus used under steam boilers to force the fire and create steam in greater quantity and thus enable the mill or factory to accomplish much more work without enlarging its plant The manufacture of these Blast Grate Outfits as they are called constituted almost the entire business of the RJ Tower Iron Works until 1896 when these shops began the manufacture of the Tower line of edgers and trimmers These machines go to make up a part of the outfit of a large proportion of the saw mills of the United States, Old Mexico and many other foreign countries and are sold exclusively through the agency of the Gordon Hollow Blast Grate Company of Greenville, Michigan.

R.J. Tower Iron Works later became Tower Automotive, which was sold in 1994 but still exists as part of a conglomerate. Tower Automotive has played a major part in Greenville, Michigan's history as the oldest company still operating there.

The area around the trail by abandoned saw mill became steeper. Steep steps led down to a creek and then steep steps led away from the creek.

A series of switchbacks soon increased both my elevation and my heart rate. My map showed I was close, and sure enough in a few minutes I arrived at Vaughns Gap.

I stopped for a bit to relax, then I took some more photos:

This is the view from Vaughns Gap. If you're coming up for the view, you will be disappointed:

As I came back down, the clouds thinned enough to let some sun through at times. I took a few more photos from the lakeside view to compare them with my earlier ones.

The clouds were thinner, but that's about it. I was hoping the sun would come out to help light up the leaves, but apparently it wasn't meant to be.

I had a meetup to go to down in Greenville, so I couldn't stay and visit the two waterfalls like I did during time.

I shared my trip photos to the album Palmetto Trail (Blue Wall Passage) to Vaughns Gap - Nov 2019 on Google Photos should you want to see them in a larger format.