There Was No Virgin

I'm sure that the sign for Virgin Falls is in some teenager kid's bedroom as a bragging point. Missing also was one for Bridgestone-Firestone Wilderness Area. My buddy Roger and I spent all day driving around and asking locals how to get there, to no avail. Virgin Falls is in the map and the Chamber of Commerce brochure, and the last turn is in Google Street View, but, even with GPS, we did not see it. Maybe virgin innocence can no longer be found, falls or otherwise. We tried and, yes, we did have fun looking for the end of that rainbow.

Or was it a snipe hunt? One local mentioned the difficult rating for the Virgin Falls hike to be "Maximum" rather than "Difficult." We'll never know. I rate it "Impossible (to find)," or maybe also "Maximum (fun!)."

Other middle Tennessee falls were easier to find, magnificent in their size and splendor. Back in college days I rapelled down a rope at Fall Creek Falls, and, enthralled with the beauty, I caught my long hair in the rack and had to cut it off right then and there, on-rope. I looked funny until my next haircut.


Note Roger, the hiker with red wind shell in the picture, for scale, at Ozone Falls.

- © 2010 by Willy