WATERFALL
The hike down is steep. You hold onto trees and place your feet deliberately into crags and roots on the descent. Some scattered but well-placed ropes assist the return ascent back to the top. Most people enjoy the largely flat, manicured trail at the top of the 80 foot falls located on Signal Mountain, TN, the mountain on your right as you face west from downtown Chattanooga. The more adventurous and able-bodied folk make the trek to the base of the waterfall to savor the view from a different angle or to take a dip in the cold, pooled water. We usually leapt, hopped and bounced along the bouldered-filled creek a little further from the base of the waterfall.
Krue, Neal and Jeff had a secret that only the locals knew. If you traverse over the smooth, moss-laden stones and felled trees about a quarter mile down the creek, you would discover the sliding rock. When the water is running fast you can place yourself at the top of the chute and zip down twenty feet before plunging another ten feet into the water hole. In spring, the shock of the water takes your breath away; in the fall, the water is simply refreshing. Regardless of the water conditions, there are a couple huge rocks that when the light penetrates through the trees in just the right places, you can warm up from the radiating touch of the sun.
Though familiar to the boys from Chattanooga, Bryant and I soon became enamored with Rainbow Falls ourselves. It was a happy place for all of us. During college we would take our weekend trips to Chattanooga just a two hour ride away. The drive, the hike, playing in the water, soaking up the sun on the hot rocks, the extended conversations as well as the moments of comfortable silence - hours of carefree time spent out in nature and with one another. Time. Just time. We were learning that simple things like adventures in the woods were slowly shaping our friendships like the rush of water smoothing out that chute carved into the rock.
