2025 Road Trip: Part 3 (Franklin NC)

Franklin, NC

Day 3
5.24.25

Feeling well rested after a night in one of the cozy bedrooms of Benny's mountain house, we had a minor complication to our original breakfast waffle plans, that being the clear absence of a waffle iron. Benny wanted to make waffles with me since the two of us used to host a waffle event at Union together, every Tuesday night after my orchestra rehearsal, and it was always a big hit with the eccentric crowd there.  He was confident there was a waffle maker at the house before heading up, but we couldn't find it, so agreed to grab one from the store in town and do it the following day. Instead, he cooked us some traditional corn grits to get that full southern experience (his words).

Next was to head downtown and see what the shops had to offer. Since Franklin is right along the AT, it's no surprise that there is an outdoor gear shop here to cater to that crowd, as well as any other mountain activity lovers living there or visiting town. I had to be dragged out of the map section as usual. Next, we explored a vintage/antique shop that had many bizarre items for sale including rare specialty tools that Benny was eager to test my knowledge on, disturbing animal sculptures, limitless chicken and cat themed items, oversized drill bits, a frog army, old signs and license plates, even a "man cave" sign which I was tempted to buy until I saw the asking price. Instead, Yilin found two tiny wooden cats that look like hers (Erik and Watson for those who haven't met them).

It was a farmer's market day, so a number of tents were set up nearby selling various goods, and we happened to spot one vendor holding a tiny kitten in her arms behind the table. As Yilin went to get a closer look, a lady from the next tent asked if I was interested in any of her tomato seedlings. I said we were just checking out the kitten, and she said there's 8 more she's trying to get rid of??

Our kitten friend from the farmer's market

After wandering the shops a bit, we picked up a waffle iron from a surprisingly nice kitchen supply store, and stopped at Rathskellar Coffee Bar and Pub, where Yilin tried Ginger's Revenge, a blueberry flavored beer with a gingery aftertaste (so I'm told).

Benny drove us east to the trailhead of a waterfall hike nearby, locally known as High Falls. He told us there's a longer but flatter trail, or a shorter and steeper one, which he hadn't tried before. We went with the latter, which despite starting at a lake, was a downhill hike first. Once there, I finally realized the waterfall is supplied from an outgoing stream below a dam, not an incoming stream, explaining my confusion looking at the map earlier. The trail wasn't so bad at first, but soon was a steep stone staircase of boulders, descending over 700 feet in a mile or so.

Approaching High Falls

Roommates!

Upper falls

The falls has an upper section and a lower one, and as you hike down, there's an opportunity to view both, as well as rock-hop over to the opposite shore and sneak back to the upper falls as well. We did all of this, and Yilin while testing how slippery the wet rock was, discovered it was indeed quite slippery and dipped a shoe into one of the small pools. Only one toe got wet thankfully, and nobody was harmed in this experiment. Benny found a couple salamanders chilling with some tadpoles in small pool off to the side, and was brave enough to stick his phone camera underwater to get a picture.

"Science"

High Falls (Cullowhee Falls)

We climbed back up the stone steps, Benny occasionally identifying various types of mushrooms we spotted along the path. Next on our agenda for the day was to grab a few things at the store for a fried rice dinner, and I saw some fresh looking Brussels sprouts I couldn't resist, so we planned to roast those up as well that evening, while Benny fried up the rice on a huge outdoor griddle. With pleasant temperatures, we decided to eat on the screen porch and enjoy the fresh air. The biggest surprise for dinner was how convincing vegan scrambled eggs were. They are made from mung beans, and tasted nearly identical to any other scrambled egg I've had with fried rice.

Dinner together on the porch
(fried rice, balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts,
cucumber salad, and later ice cream)

Benny had intentions of folding some modular origami (our traditional pastime at Union) and possibly playing a few games of pool afterward, however we got too invested in looking through some old pictures I had saved from our time at Union, including a video of the fateful day I fell from a tree in an attempt to retrieve a stuck frisbee, captured by an unknown bystander. (As I recall, I had a sprained wrist for quite awhile afterward, which made an upcoming Taiko drumming concert much more painful.)

With our day full of interesting things coming to a close, we headed off to bed, excited to enjoy some celebratory waffles in the morning, after which we'd be heading west an a blistering pace to try to get some miles in.

Day 3 Route map: 50 miles (with Benny as our chauffeur)
Total mileage: 767