Jacks River Falls
Several of my co-workers and I were sitting in the employee lounge for lunch one day last week discussing things we missed from our younger years. There were recollections of parties, trips to the beach in Florida, the Bahama's or Mexico, to the Grand Canyon, or to Europe. From the stage at "the 'Grand 'ol 'Opry to the mosh pit at Offspring and 311 concerts. Our interest were as diverse as they were descriptive of our personalities.
I was quite active in my youth with my main life goal at the time being a desire to do and experience everything I possibly could before I die. I've made a pretty good run of it, too so I was able to relate some pretty entertaining anecdotes, some flattering, some rather embarrassing but all were given and received in good humor. I've paid, actually I'm still paying, a pretty steep price for my adrenaline-fired adventures with knee, ankle, hip, back and shoulder injuries and their several related surgeries and other medical procedures to mitigate the pain. Only a few of which could be deemed successes. Years of Football, motocross, rock climbing (and falling), mountainbiking and other ways of finding the next adrenaline fix all leave their marks on the body. Some of these adventures will play into a future story or two, I'm sure.
One story that didn't make an appearance, mainly because it wasn't suited for exposition in the workplace, happened when I was twenty-two years old. I'm afraid that this story won't be quite as exciting as most stories on this site, simply because it is, on the whole, a (mostly) true depiction of what actually happened one summer weekend in 1989 in the North Georgia mountains. I don't remember everybody's names but the events were pleasantly etched into my memory.
"Come on, I'll show you the way up to the top ledge."
A group of nine college students had joined my two hiking buddies and me along with about a half-dozen other transient hikers at Jacks River Falls the Friday after Independence day in 1989. The river begins in the Jacks River Gorge in North Georgia and flows north into the Alaculsey Valley across the Tennessee state line. The falls is the most popular spot in the Cohutta Wilderness and is a prime swimming area if you're willing to undergo the effort to hike in to reach it. The Jacks River Trail begins about eight and a half miles and twenty river crossings upstream from the falls and terminates about eight and a quarter miles and twenty-two river crossings downstream. The trail meanders through some of the most scenic and beautiful country you could ever hope to experience but is not suited for the light-hearted, it can be a pretty strenuous trek and some of the 42 separate river crossings can be quite difficult, especially when the water level is up after a rain. There are, however, a few other routes to the falls that are considerably easier than the almost 17 mile long Jacks.
The first route is the Penetentiary Branch Trail which covers about eight miles from the parking area at Dally Gap.
The second is the five mile Rice Camp Trail route.
The Third and easiest is the Beech Bottom Trail.
The Beech Bottom Trail is, by far, the most popular with day-hikers; those who come in to swim or explore the falls but don't intend to camp or stay overnight. Camping has been, in recent years, serioiusly curtailed or outright forbidden in much of the Cohutta Wilderness during Summer months but when we were making trips two or three times a year the camping options were much more available year round.
Jacks River Falls is actually made up of two sets of falls; the upper tumbles about fifteen feet over rocks into a large pool and the lower drops about fifty feet into a large cauldron below. Both pools are situated at the base of a large cliff on the opposite side of the river from the trail and the large expanse of exposed bedrock often covered with the towels and beach blankets of sun-worshipers striving to perfect thier suntans during the summer.
That's where I was currently, crossing the river above the first drop to a route up the stone face of the cliff, which was only obvious if you knew where to look, to two different ledges used to jump off above the falls and into the pools below. One of the, apparently, regular hikers had been climbing and jumping off the cliff. He appeared to be trying to catch the attention of the girls in the newly-arrived group. He had been trying to chat them up for the past half-hour but his obvious arogance and agressive demeanor seemed to have the oposite effect than he wanted. Two of the guys from the group were trying to find the path up the cliff themselves but were, so far, unable to locate the best way up. I showed them where to find the best hand- and foot-holds to climb the thirty or so feet up the cliff to the top and a wide ledge overlooking the top pool. I told the guys that when they jumped to make sure they got far enough away from the cliff base to avoid the rocks and because the water was shallower there, the bottom sloped away toward the middle of the pool. I asked the two guys what their names were while they argued over who was going to jump first.
"Henry"
"I'm Evan"
"It's good to meet you, I'm Gavin."
"Ok, you pussies gonna jump or just stand up here all day jerking each other off?."
I just looked at Mr. Arrogant and shook my head slowly then faced the other two again.
"If you step back and get a couple running steps then keep moving your feet and legs like you're still running in the air you'll stay stable and it really isn't that far to the water." I told them.
"Nah, I think I'm going to climb back down."
"Come on, Evan, you gotta jump!" Henry pleaded.
"Yeah, pussy, there ain't but one way down from up here and it ain't back the way you came." Mr. Arrogant, again.
"Dude, who're you trying to impress? Yourself? Because that's the only person you have any hope of succeeding with. Why don't you give it a rest?" I was already tired of his attitude.
"You're as big a pussy as they are."
I looked back to Evan. "Actually you have a better chance of getting down unhurt by jumping off. The way we climbed up is pretty precarious when you can't see where you're putting your feet if you try to climb back down, if you fall there onto the rocks you're going back to town on a stretcher or in a helicopter."
"Man, quit talking and jump or wimp out and climb back down."
"Seriously, dude, is this all you've got to do, talk shit? If we're in your way just go on and we'll be down however we see fit." I told the hiker then looked back at Henry and Evan.
"Whatever, just get the fuck out of my way, let me show you how to do this!"
He backed far enough from the edge to get three good running steps and then was gone.
"Thank God, Now maybe we can do this without his shit." I mumbled.
"Will you go first to show us?" Evan asked.
I looked over the edge of the cliff and saw asshole climbing up onto a rock across the pool from the cliff side. He sat there smirking up at us while Henry's and Evan's friends watched our exchange. I also saw Robbie and Darrel, my hiking buddies, watching our banter with smiles on their faces.
I turned back to Evan and said "Remember, when you jump you need to keep your feet running all the way to the water and you'll stay stable and not get hurt. Just kick out as far as you can to miss the bottom. And whatever you do, don't you dare try to do what I'm about to do.'
They both nodded as I stepped back as far as I could get from the edge. I took three quick, long strides, kicking as hard as I could on the last stride from the edge of the rock face but instead of stepping out into the void as Mr. Arrogant had, I extended both arms in front of myself and dove. As I arced away from the cliff face and began to drop I tucked into a forward flip and followed through until I could straighten up and enter the pool feet first. I climbed out of the pool beside Mr. Arrogant, smiled and nodded at him as I watched his smirk disolve. I glanced at Robbie and Darrel, Robbie was laughing at the show but Darrel was too stoic to let anyone know he was capable of laughter. As I approached my two friends I looked back up to the cliff and watched as Evan lept from the ledge, he never kicked his feet and he held his arms straight out from his body but he landed far enough into the pool and he surfaced, excited and cheering for himself. Henry followed without hesitating and both climbed out of the pool more confident in themselves than they had been ten minutes earlier.
The three of us made a surprising trio, in fact, other than working together and a mutual enjoyment of primitive camping we had very little in common. Darrel was a couple years older than I was and when not at work he wore the same wardrobe, January or July: long sleeve button down Columbia Sportswear shirts, long quick-dry fishing pants and nylon hiking shoes. He rarely wore shorts unless he was swimming and then as soon as he was out of the water he always put a long sleved shirt back on. Darrel spent time as an Army Medic but refused to talk about his experiences and as far as I knew, Robbie and I were the only people he ever associated with away from work. Robbie was younger than me by two years and spent most of his spare time in the gym, as as a result he had a body builders physique. He was very gregarious, seldom alone and we teased him about being a 'man-whore' because he tended to only date someone for a short period of time before moving on to someone else. At 5'11" and 215lbs, I was the biggest of the 'Three Amigos' and was dedicated to "chasing the thrill"; I was an amateur "Extreme Sports" athelete before the phrase was coined. While I often worked out with Robbie, my goal in the gym was strength building, not developing a body builder's appearance and I ony dated occasionally. Yeah, strange, I know, but I spent almost all of my spare time and money chasing some new adventure or other, SCUBA, climbing, hiking, mountain biking, motocross, white water kayaking, etc. The three of us had, at some point in the past two years, hiked most of the trails in the Cohutta Wilderness as well as a couple sections of the Appalachian Trail.
"Are you guys passing through or staying longer than today?"
I turned toward the voice and Henry was standing with several of his group of friends.
"We just came for the weekend, we'll be here tomorrow and we'll leave Sunday afternoon." I answered.
