We set out to see “Upper Bald River Falls” which we later learned also has another name. I put that into Google Maps and they showed a destination and off we went.
Along the way we came across this small falls, Buck Branch, which Google Maps alerted us to.
It was a bit over an hour drive from Tellico Plains. The last 6 miles was a very remote road that got rougher and rougher towards the end.
On this last part of the drive the road ran along a ridge which was the border between Tennessee and N Carolina.
A bit further along I realized that Google Maps was leading me up this very rough road to the top of a hill and the road ended. The description of the trailhead in the book we referred to was different (the road did not end). So I started to realize I was lost…
Anyhow we came to the top of the hill and the end of the Google directions (and the end of the road) and we parked in a field beside two trucks.
We parked beside the truck with the hounds, and the driver, a young guy, had a good conversation with Debbie while I spoke with the driver of the other truck who seemed like the Dad, about where we were and hiking directions etc.
Debbie learned about Plott hounds and to her amazement, that these two guys were bear hunters.
Anyhow we decided to strike off down the other side of the hill on a trail that the Dad assured me led to the waterfalls.
We didn’t really get lost but we also did not have a good reference to how far away the waterfall was. This trail just went down and down and we knew that we had to climb back up so we finally turned around and headed back up the hill to the car.
After we got back to the car, and now that I knew where I’d made the mistake driving (should have used the latitude and longitude numbers, not words, in Google Maps) – we decided to go back to the right place. We did not have time to try the trail to Upper Bald River Falls, but near that trailhead, and only a short walk from the road, was Torino Falls. So we went there to see another falls that day.
After the short hike to Torino Falls (above) we headed back to Tellico Plains and we again passed Bald River Falls.
