Chasing Waterfalls - Brasstown Falls

So the night before leaving South Carolina, I managed to make it to one last waterfall - Brasstown Falls. Which means... I made my goal of seeing 10 SC waterfalls! If/when I make it back to visit my Brooks buddies, maybe I'll take my pack and do another one. I was thinking I could after In the Heights, but Woody won't respond as to whether or not I can work, so it's not looking good.

So Thursday night after packing up all of my worldly possessions and loading up the truck, I headed out for this one last South Carolinian hike. It started out well... I got lost and ended up in Georgia. :-P I realized where I went wrong and finally made it to the trail head. The trail was nice and short and flat... until I got to the actual falls. There's a steep, rocky cliff that you have to fight your way down. As I climbed down as gracefully as possible, I realized that there were half a dozen people watching me. Apparently it's a popular spot.

The falls had three tiers. The first is where all the people were watching me look like an idiot.



They were nice and moved for me so I could get some people-less shots of the falls, though.





As I was about to head to the second tier, one of the guys came up to me and said that I probably didn't want to take the lower trail since there was a yellow jacket nest hidden somewhere and a couple of guys got stung about 20 times earlier. If that man ever reads this blog... thank you. lol

I opted to take the high road, as it were, and fought my way to the second tier of the falls. The "path" was steep, rocky, and exhausting. I made it to he second tier, though, and it was awwweeeesssooommmeeeee.







This is the first one I've seen that you could stand under like a shower. lol

There was a third tier, but I was tired and in the middle of moving, but here's a shot looking over the edge:



There were some more people down there swimming, and I didn't feel like fighting my way over more cliff while people watched me flail. lol

This was definitely one of my favorite series of falls, but I wish it had been more secluded. (Although the warning about the yellow jackets was nice!)

I'm excited to start getting out to see some PA waterfalls. I'm ordering this book from Amazon. I think it's the same person who wrote the SC Waterfalls guide I was using. My friends and I have also talked about going to Ricketts Glen State Park for a weekend and seeing the waterfalls there.

Seeing as this was my last SC waterfall for awhile, I had to get an awkward pic of me in front of it!

Wonderful Wine

Since this is my last week in SC, instead of a cocktail post we're going to discuss the wineries I've been to in South Carolina and Georgia.

I'm rather proud of my current wine collection. There are several Georgia wines, a few South Carolina wines, some PA wines, and a German wine I got at the Outer Banks, NC.



I've found three new favorite wineries in and around upstate SC. Since I just took my parents there yesterday, we'll start with Habersham Winery. It's located in Helen, GA at the Nacoochee Village. They're pretty fairly priced, and have a complementary tasting of up to 4 wines in their tasting room. That's also where I got this:



It's pretty much the best thing ever. Also in Nacoochee Village is an amazing antique store in an old 3-story mammoth farm house. It's a never ending maze of gorgeous antiques and collectibles. There are also a working river-powered grainery, and a little coffee shop in the Village. Down the road is a Pizzeria/Tavern. We didn't eat there because we didn't want to fight the horrific traffic.

The first winery I found when I moved here was Victoria Valley Vineyards in Cleveland, SC. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this, but it's a gorgeous winery - very European looking. They have free tours of the winery and vineyard, and tasting is (I believe) 5 wines for $5, and you can buy your tasting glass for $2. They have a lot of wines that I loved, and this is where I discovered Viognier and White Merlot. Loooove.

The last winery that I went to around here is the Boutier Winery in Danielsville, GA.



The woman who was there is one of the owners (the other is her husband - the winemaker), and is from Ireland. I could have stayed all day just to listen to her accent. The tasting is 6 wines for $6, but I was the only one there and she kept telling me I had to taste this and that, and I ended up trying about 10 for $6. I was pretty much tipsy by the end. The wines are a little pricier, but amazing!

Yesterday with my parents, we also stopped at Sautee Nacoochee Vineyards and Yonah Mountain Vineyards, both in Sautee, GA. The first one allowed free tasting of up to 10 wines, and had this slushy wine mix stuff that was AMAZING. The woman who did our tasting was a super-nice Italian lady with a fun accent. We got some of the slush mix and a couple of bottles of "Red Headed Stepchild".

Yonah Mountain had tastings of 4 wines for $4, or 10 wines for $10, and you got a free glass with the latter. We just did the 4 because by this time, I was probably already 3 glasses of wine in and had barely eaten all day. Their wines were good, mostly dry, and pretty expensive. I did get a bottle of the Bearly Sweet Red because it was delicious. Mom really liked their Dolce Bello wine that actually had chocolate extract in. I wasn't really a fan of that one, but it would probably be amazing with something like chocolate cake or fondue.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the wine scene around me. Once I'm back in PA, maybe I'll do a post on wineries up that way!

Chasing Waterfalls - Twin Falls

I found this website the other day with 27 waterfalls in upstate SC - SC Waterfall Trails. I came across this site after hunting a waterfall that wasn't really a waterfall at all... it was this:



That's a dam. I mean, I guess technically there's water falling over it, but really not what I was expecting. So, after work yesterday, I picked a waterfall off the list and decided to find it. Now, some of them on that list take hours to hike to, one is only recommended to be reached by boat, and some are just short walks. I picked one that was only about a quarter mile from the parking area - the Twin Falls in Pickens County.

Now, all I had were Google Map directions to the general area, and the instructions off the Trails site. I'm used to my GPS that tells me when to turn and where, so of course I got lost twice, even ending up in North Carolina once. It should have taken me 45 minutes to get there, but I ended up driving around these steep, curvy mountain roads for an hour, and it took me almost two hours total to find the falls. It was so worth it, though:



Once you got to the parking area, there's a quarter mile-long trail along a creek to walk up to get to the falls. Along the way, there was a ton of mountain laurel in bloom, and little paths shooting off to the side toward the creek. I wish it had been a longer trail.



I passed a couple and a family leaving as I was going up the trail, and once I got to the little viewing booth across from the falls, there was a family playing in the water.



After a awhile, they started climbing up around the falls and disappeared into the woods. I took a page from their book and climbed down off the viewing area to poke around.



After awhile, those people who wandered into the woods reappeared on top of the falls. I may have to go back some day when I'm not in my work clothes, and it's not late so I can poke around some more and make my way up to the top.

All-in-all, it was pretty amazing, and well worth the half a tank of gas, and accidental excursion to North Carolina. It felt like some epic quest. I'm pretty sure I destroyed the One Ring, killed Voldemort, and/or defeated the Dark Side while finding these falls. This weekend I might try seeing one with a longer hike involved. If anyone wants to go with me, I'd love a hiking buddy!

I now leave you with this amazingly awkward picture of me. It was next to impossible to get a shot of me and the falls, and I'm even more awkward in the only one in which I got all of the falls behind me.




Hint: click on pics to make them bigger.