Our vacation began innocently enough. A stop in Dahlonega, Georgia a week after GOLD RUSH DAYS.

We stayed at the Dahlonega Square Hotel and Villaswhich was very nice.

We visited the Dahlonega Gold Museum…And various shops..And enjoyed brunch at Picnic Cafe.

Then afterward headed toward North Carolina for mountain roads and a search for waterfalls.

There is a self imposed challenge to find the most beautiful waterfall in the southeast. Last year there was the creepy climb to see Rufus Morgan Trailhead.

This year we attempted to have a less creepy encounter.

LB tried to keep things safe and purchased a waterfall brochure while we were in Georgia to study before venturing onward.

He decided that while on our way to Highlands we would look for the Trahlyta falls in Georgia. We followed the GPS and took a turn down a road which promptly became a one-lane, unpaved road.I immediately [but silently] don’t like this.

After two miles of hoping no one would be coming in the opposite direction, and a bit of confusion, there was a sign:

A sign?

The road eventually led us to a small parking area where we saw that others had found the same location and were setting out to investigate.

Well if HE did, I probably will too.

I changed into my big girl boots, and we set out to find the falls.

We reached the bottom of the falls and LB felt adventurous, and he took off onto the rocks.He quickly discovered something that looked like it didn’t belong. It was a walking stick. My first thought was, “it probably belongs to the people that went down the trail ahead of us”.

LB rescued it anyway.

We continued up and met the couple that hiked up ahead of us. Sure enough, the man had dropped his brand new walking stick and would likely not have been able to retrieve it alone. LB happily handed it over to him and the couple gratefully used it to continue their descent.

Shortly thereafter LB and I began our trek down the trail. As another gentleman came toward us, I had an uneasy feeling and thought “I wish I had a gun stuck in the back of my pants right now”.

We continued past him to the car.

As we were leaving, LB pointed out a sticker on a truck that had parked beside us.