The plan was to meet at a specific point of the Appalachian Trial called Three Forks, and then hike about one mile to the Long Creek Falls. We were supposed to meet around 12:30, eat a picnic lunch, and then hike. The meeting place was provided as some GPS coordinates, which the Apple Map on my iPhone didn't really care for. Siri doesn't like these things, apparently. So, I used Google to find the spot, and then discovered that the address Siri preferred was the actual waterfall. Since I saw the meeting spot on the directions just before the waterfall, I just used that to navigate. My trusty phone told me that it was going to take 2 hours to get there, so we packed our lunch and left in time to make the drive in 2 hours.
While we were driving, we noticed something strange. When we were about 10 miles away from the waterfall, it said that we were still an hour away. This makes no sense. And then we turn onto a dirt road and start driving up a mountain. (It's about 11:15 AM at this time.)
Several things happen now. First, I have to put my trusty SUV into 4 wheel drive. Then, I notice that we are driving much slower. Going up a mountain on a dirt road is a 10 MPH thing. Sometimes as fast as 20 MPH. And I remember that I am navigating to the water fall, and that my drive time probably includes about 1 mile of hiking, as the navigator tells me that my next step is to park the car at the top of the mountain and walk to the waterfall. So I figure that we are on course and everything is fine. We are just going to be a little early.
Then, we lose cell service.
But, I figure that we are fine. My map is still working, and we are going to be in the right spot at the right time. So, on we go.
We find Three Forks and park the car on the edge of the dirt road. It's not a real parking lot, but there are a handful of cars around. It's about 12:15. We set up a nice hammock and picnic blanket. The kids start playing. It's a beautiful, sunny day. Everyone is happy and being very pleasant to each other.
We are close to the creek, so we do a little exploring while we wait for everyone else.
Every time we heard a car drive past or a car door slam closed, we made our way back to the main road to see if we can see our friends. That's when I notice something. All the cars we can see parked on the side of the road are trucks and SUV. Cars that go off road. Cars that climb mountains. And I begin to wonder if our friends can even make it up the mountain in their vans.
Finally, we head back to our picnic area and decide that it's time to eat lunch. We have a nice lunch in the sunshine and decide that it's time to hike to the waterfall. We have been waiting an hour, and it seems unlikely that our friends can make it up the mountain. We try to call them, but the phone doesn't work at all. Also, we reason that the trail is the same on the way there and back, so if they are late, they will see our car, figure we hiked to the water fall, and either meet us there, or we will meet them on the way back.
So, off we go.
It was a great hike and everyone was in a great mood.
The falls create a fair bit of mist in the air.
It's pretty cold.
But it also makes pretty rainbows.
Selfie at the falls
We hiked back to the car, and didn't see our friends. We headed back down the mountain. Towards the bottom, I started to get the messages. Their vans couldn't make it up the mountain, and we had been too early and lost cell service before they got there and found out. They found a different trail lower on the mountain and did some hiking there. We kept an eye out for their cars, but we didn't see them. So, we missed them entirely.
But...we had a great day.
Notes: This is the Appalachian Trail, so there are nice little first-come, first-serve rustic camp spots along the trail. We saw a lot of people that were obviously on much longer treks. But it is remote! There are no facilities. No garbage cans. No bathrooms. No parking lots. No ranger stations that we saw. No cell service.
The pure nature was amazing.
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