Waterfalls and lightening bolts

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My weekend started on Friday. Ewker joined me on Friday on my search
for waterfalls. (I have Mark Morris book Waterfall Day Hikes and am
trying to see all the falls in the book) We started our day with a
quick trek to Slick Rock Falls (it is just off the road) and then we
were looking for Log Hollow Falls. It is off FS475B but the person
who was reading the directions (will remain nameless) was not reading
the directions correctly and we were looking on the wrong end of the FS Rd (Big DUH) After walking a ways on what we THOUGHT was the
correct trail we agreed it was the wrong one. We agreed to look for
it another time and headed off for Cove Creek Falls. This was a
beautiful falls located off of Caney Bottum trail...as we were
enjoying the falls and taking pics it started to get dark. We decided
to head back at this point and as we climbed back up to the trail the
rain began...it was like walking in the river back to the car. We
were drowned rats by the time we got back to the car but it was fun.
Thanks for coming out of your way to help me on my quest..next time
will do better job at navigating.

BTW these falls were located at Cove Creek Camp Ground in Pisgah Forest. It is a group camp ground and would be a great location for any future TT events if any are ever planned this way.

Sunday, my youngest who I have named Lightening,Duffy, my cock-a-poo and I headed out to Dupont State Park Sunday afternoon. We arrived at Guion Farms Parking
area to a down pour. After a few minutes the sky cleared and there
was blue skies. So off we headed..our destination was Wintergreen Falls. It wasn't far there aprox 1.7 miles but we took our time chattering and such along the way. I was amazed by the huge boulders scattered through out the woods. We walked along Tarklin Br Rd most of the way then it turns off to Grassey Branch Trail. As we reached the falls we only had time for a few pics and then had to head back because......YEP dark clouds, thunder and approaching rain. As we got a ways down the trail the rain started really coming down. Tarklin Branch Rd leaves the forest and runs along the woods line and to the right is a meadow. This is approx 150yds from the edge of the woods to the parking area. When we reached this point I stopped to ponder if we should wait here for the storm to pass or high-tail it across the meadow to the car. The storm was really raging at this point and it was raining so hard I couldn't even see.
I decided it was better to get out from under the trees and we
started to the car. About 50 ft from where we were pondering the sky lit up brighter than a baseball field and it was the loudest explosion I had ever heard....Eric hit the ground face first and I was screaming at the top of my lungs...he turned to look at me and as he did a tree near where we were just standing had been struck by
lightening. We took out running the rest of the way to the car, I
found keys and wet dog, wet packs, and wet ppl all fell breathless in
the car. I couldn't believe how close we had come to being struck!
We returned yesterday to check out the damage to the tree and see how
close it was to where we were...we found that the 80ft pine had the
top blown out of it and that there were pieces scattered as far away
as 50 ft. Man am I thankful to be here to report this to you!!!

Sorry this is so long...glad everyone had a good weekend, I still need to read your reports.”

“Phew...”

“Wow, Craz. That is some report. Glad you all are ok. Smart move getting out from under!

As for the waterfalls, I love them. I think it's cool that you are trying to do the whole book. I'm sure it makes for a good little adventure..”

“yikes.

I've heard lightning can travel a good ways (50 ft?) through the ground after it hits a tree. People have also been injured from pieces of the tree that gets blown off...

Glad you're Okay!”

“I know Tilt...we were pretty close and I thought the same thing.”

“Glad you're okay. :D
Found some info on this, not much, and I think most of us know this already, thought I post anyway: Lightning info”

“Yikes! Good thought about getting away. Glad you're okay.”

“Thank Gem!”

“On the positive side, you're probably a safe person to go hiking with because the chances of nearly getting hit twice are pretty slim.”

“Well, my spouse told me yesterday that he didn't know if he wanted to go anywhere with us...that was after the cow ran out in front of the car!!!”

“always an adventure...Glad your ok.”

“Thanks for posting the info on lightening....As we were hiking off the trail Sunday, we were hiking in a thunderstorm with lightening strikes that were very close....I really did not have a clue as to what would be the best thing to do...to take shelter in the woods, or continue hiking down the mountain...according to the article the best thing to do would have been to seek low lying shelter in the woods....at least that is how I read it...that is not what I did.....so thanks for answering the question for me......”

“The Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) or the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA)?

<G>”

“Or... the Presbyterian Church in America, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church or the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church?”

“I forget... LOL”

“My weekend trip to the Smokies started with this trip Friday.

I would like to thank crazygurl for being such a great hostess. We had a great time searching for that one elusive waterfall. The ones we found were nice and I enjoyed being in an area I hadn't been in before.
I will take you up on that trip to find the one we missed and we can go looking for other waterfalls that day to.

Thank you for a great time :)”

“Ummm....Forrest...I'm Presbyterian what are you saying? (PCA)

You are more than welcome Ewker..I had fun as well! We will find the missing falls for sure.”