South River Falls to Pocosin Cabin - Appalachian Trail VA. - Zoom IQ7

Skip to the second half of the video if you want to see the amazing South River Falls. These falls are in Shenandoah National Park. After hiking 7 miles on the AT, the steep 1.7 mile hike down to the base of the falls was a little tough. I was pooped on the way back up. The hike to the base of the falls is totally worth it. At 1.2 miles, there is a small viewpoint of the top of the falls from far away. It was rather disappointing. It's not obvious that there is a trail to the base of the falls. The sign in the parking lot does not mention it and there is no sign post until you pass the viewpoint as if you are doing the whole loop. The falls are slippery and dangerous - DO NOT CLIMB ON THE FALLS. There is no sign, and as you can see in the video, there was someone climbing on the falls when I arrived. I did manage to find a bushwhack route clockwise around to the upper part of the falls. Portions of it are a bit precarious. Go up there at your own risk. There is a deep pool at the bottom of the top section of falls. The person there before me swam in it and said they could not find the bottom! The beginning of the video is a short section of AT between South River Falls parking and Pocosin cabin. The spring at Pocosin was flowing, but barely. A few hundred feet downstream of the spring, the water flows under the service road. The flow was much stronger there! This video was shot with my new Zoom IQ7 stereo microphone. It works pretty good, although I almost lost it over the falls...  :( Another thing I've noted about the pattern is that it is optimized for the front of the phone, which means that the camera operator's voice is a bit off. I need to do some more testing to characterize this!
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rdPR5txnB654puBm2

https://www.zoom-na.com/products/handy-recorder/zoom-iq7-professional-stereo-microphone-ios

https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-iQ7-Mid-Side-Microphone-Devices/dp/B00S9WNULM

Map: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/2017_SouthRiver_RoadTrail-508.pdf

A free permit is required to overnight in the park.  More information can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/campbc.htm

Watch my other hiking videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

My new trail name is now "Alpha Gal"!
I’d like to make a public service announcement to bring awareness to the tick borne illness called “Alpha Gal”.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy
This is a pretty serious allergy caused by the bite of the Lone Star Tick. Sometimes called Mammalian Meat Allergy (MMA), it has no cure.
This tick is present across the South and has spread to the Northeast. It is present in Shenandoah National Park and I was bitten by one (I removed it) and was later diagnosed with the allergy. In a nutshell, you become seriously allergic to red meat and dairy (anything that came from something with hair)! Beware of ticks, especially the white spotted ones, I never thought it would happen to me!