Do you know there are over 100 miles of the AT in Shenandoah? No, don’t be ridiculous. Even though we’ve been here for almost a week we have not done over a 100 miles of hiking. Kismet walks remember? That’s also what kind of shape we are in these days, plus the whole daily rain thing. Do you think this rain is an East Coast thing and this is why we are burning up in the West and always on the verge of a drought? All the rain lands in the east? Actually everyone we run into does say it’s been a very rainy year for them, so this has not been normal for them either.
Back to the hikes, we’ve been incorporating waterfall hikes now here in Lush Greenville Valley. I can see why so many places are actually called Greenville around here. This is very green country. So we needed to break this up with some water (OK, I’m missing my ocean), some flowing water and what else but waterfalls? They are gorgeous, because they have had 50 million days of rain this year. Some almost look Hawaiian because the vegetation is so lush. Some are straight out of Hobbit Land and all that Tolkien brouhaha with the cascading water over the stepped rocks and then the side falls with Mini World little cascading streams and some coming out of sheared rocks and then plummeting down through the mossy rocks after that. Waterfalls are spectacular, but you do know to create a waterfall you need depth. You need something for the water to fall down from. Around here they call these things gorges and down the mountain we go. Of course once you’re down there and all oooooooohhhhhhhed and awed out, back up and only up you have to go. The more spectacular, the further down you have to hike and the very humid (because of all the water people), continuous uphill you have to climb back out of. Let’s just say, we saw some pretty spectacular waterfalls and no one does humidity like the South.
