Fall Creek Falls State Park

After posting my blog last night I went out to eat at an out of the way restaurant that my Airbnb host recommended.  Only problem was I got there at 8:05 and they close at 8.  They were kind enough to serve me anyway.  It was scrumptious!  Had rainbow trout sprinkled with bacon and bleu cheese over rice with roasted asparagus.  Yummy!

This morning I again had doubts about my planned hike because the remnants of Harvey caused a tremendous downpour all night.  But when I awoke at 7:30 there was sun peaking through the window so I figured I'd get up and at 'em.  It rained on and off as I drove to the park but the hike was never really affected by the rain.  On the way, I was listening to Christian radio and Selah came on with "God bless the broken road that led me straight to you".  The tears were just streaming down my face as I remembered listening to that song while Debbie had her "false alarm" when we thought she was passing the Friday before she died on Sunday.

I made my usual stop at the ranger station for my map and off I went.  This hike was supposed to have a pretty cascade, a huge waterfall and a pretty gorge.  The cascade was at the beginning and it was really nice.  It had been dammed up in the 1800's to reroute the water for a mill to grind mainly corn.  After about forty years the dam washed away in a bad storm and the mill was never rebuilt.

After hanging out there for a bit I went across a cable bridge to get to the rest of the hike.  This was quite a feat for me as when I was a kid, I used to have recurrent dreams of crossing a rope bridge that broke and I fell into a crevasse.  I always woke up before hitting bottom.  Weird, I know.

The pictures I had seen of Fall Creek Falls were amazing I hiked with great anticipation.  There were several overlooks into the gorge that were pretty but the more I hiked the more anxious I was to see this 256 ft high falls with water gushing into the gorge below.  I finally made it to the top overlook and what a disappointment.  It looked like Fall Creek trickle.  And with all the rain we had the night before I couldn't believe how little water "falled". 

There was a strenuous hike into the bottom of the falls and I thought "why would I do that when this is such a piddly waterfall (so to speak)?"  But it was the adventure of climbing into a 256 ft gorge down a pretty steep path made up of moist, slippery rocks.  There were times when I would lose my footing a bit and think what kind of crazy, nearly 65 year old hikes alone down these steep, slippery rocks to get to the bottom of a wimpy waterfall?  Well I want my kids to know I was very careful and there was a railing to hold on to.....most of the way.  And it was the adventure of the process, not the final outcome that was inviting.

I must say that the people I ran into (not literally) in the park were not as nice as the other two parks I visited.  In my time over lunch, it occurred to me that this could have been considered a disappointing day between the wimpy falls and the grumpy people. But it really wasn't.  It still felt great to be outdoors in God's creation, doing some physically challenging stuff and talking with my Creator all the way.  How can you be disappointed with that?

So now I enter a different phase of this journey.  I am in Nashville until Monday.  It's going to be different in a city.  I'm concerned it will be more lonely.  But I believe God can use loneliness too.

Panorama of the gorge

Not a bad selfie!

Cascades

Cable bridge

What the falls are "supposed" to look like

What the falls looked like from the gorge

What the falls looked like from above

Rock formation in the groge

After hiking into the gorge, soaked with sweat.  As we say in F3, a beatdown