650 - Stiles Falls
Today we visited a waterfall named after a sailor that fell to his death.
Sounds dark, right? Wait til you find out that this waterfall is owned by the church. Here’s how it all went down:
Once upon a time, a Confederate sailor named Randolph Stiles was showing off his vine swinging skills to all the locals in town. A skill that he had acquired by climbing ship riggings on a daily basis while out at sea. But one faithful Sunday morning, a tree branch unexpectedly gave away, and he fell to his death in front of the entire Sunday School picnic.
The waterfall “Stiles Falls” was named in his honor, partially as a pun to his misfortune.
I’m glad to see that some churches these days have a sense of humor. And that they let anyone hike to the falls, despite it being on private property.
Which is where we come into play.
The hike really wasn’t bad at all, despite being advertised as a multiple river-crossing adventure that involves boulder scrambling. It was about 3.2 miles roundtrip, and I left with this photo of the infamous waterfall:
But I may have spoken too soon.
In true Nick and Alara fashion, we got absolutely DUMPED on on the walk back to the car. Just buckets of rain falling down.
There’s nothing quite like being soaked to the gills when you’re living in a car for the weekend.
