I stepped onto the wooden observation platform, taking care not to slip on the smooth and wet wooden planks, and I came across a familiar sight. The bottom tier of the falls plunging into an aqua pool below is an iconic image for the trail and the area at large. Only on this day the usually placid-looking fall was somewhat of a raging torrent, which did even seem to be possible to have been birthed by the same shallow creek I had crossed just moments before. A solitary vibrant-colored sweatshirt was draped over the railing on the platform. With no other person in sight, I can only presume the owner drowned in the creek and the body was never found.
Category Archives: autumn
2019/11/03 – Afternoon Explorations at Benton Falls and Goforth Creek
“No longer Bono”. That’s what the text said which I sent to my wife as a frantically setup my tripod on a rock. Thankfully it did not send as I attached a picture to it in an area where I had limited reception, for I certainly would have simply gotten back a quizzical response which, while chasing pictures in the last few fleeting glimpses of light before dark, I would not have had time to answer. What
2019/11/03 – Panther Top Tower
My ascent up the trail was greeted by the pleasant sounds of nature. My feet on the dirt. Gun shots. Wind rustling through the trees. Gun shots. Small animals rustling in the brush. And gun shots. So many gun shots. Nothing but gunshots. Drowning out all other sounds. Gun shots. There’s a shooting range just downhill of this place. It gets LOUD. Though the sounds of bullets piercing the air interrupted what would have been a peaceful walk in the woods, I felt comforted to know that I would be so protected should any dangerous situations arise.
2019/11/03 – Trouble at Turtletown Falls
I ran my windshield wipers. They glided gracefully over the surface of the ice. They may have even performed a triple axel. What they never did was move a single particle of ice. So that didn’t work. The towel didn’t work, though I supposed I could have thrown it in. Suddenly, I had an idea.
2019/11/02 – Ascending Brasstown Bald
I eased off my break and attempted to get to my gas pedal as quick as possible. I was on an incline and had to be sure I didn’t roll back too far, lest I roll into the vehicle behind me. I hoped that they noted the Florida license plate on my vehicle and allocated me a little extra space than they would usually provide. I needed it. I wasn’t sure how people managed this in the mountains. Do they keep one foot on the break and hit the gas with the other foot? I wasn’t sure. But I would have ample time to try out any method I could conceive of, for I was stuck in traffic roughly half a mile long leading up to Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s highest point. (I guess that would mean I was also stuck in Georgia’s highest traffic jam, for whatever that’s worth).
2019/11/02 – Hike Up Blood Mountain
I looked up, but I didn’t like what my eyes saw. The hill stretched as far as I could see. Hundreds of feet in the air the trail weaved a serpentine path up the hill, and dozens of tired people littered its path (unfortunately sometimes literally), bestowed in bright colors of neon green and pink, ostensibly to try and ward off hunters. Or maybe to make it easier to find the body in the woods, I’m not sure. One might have called it a stairway to heaven, except it was going to feel like hell. Gravity pulled me downwards while my insatiable curiosity for spectacles lied at the top of that hill pulled me upward. Such is hiking; moments of physical discomfort, boredom, terror, all endured so one can satisfy curiosity and enjoy the natural rewards of a trail in an organic way that driving to a scenic spot could never provide.
J. Parker Nature Stories 