For New Years, we decided to take a different approach and headed down to a southern city this year. Our aim this years was toward Chattanooga for a couple day before the new year broke. We would drive back from PA and stop in NC for a night, pick up the cat, and then continue down and around Atlanta to reach Chattanooga.
I looked through the airBnB listing and found a nice setup that was previously recommend by other climbers that had swung by the Chattanooga Area. The place was nice and allowed cats, so we could let Mallo run around while we explored the city. The first night we wondered around the west-side of the river/city. This area was up and coming and there was a lot of construction, nice parks, and neat shops.
The Riverwalk was very nice, with an older bridge that was solely converted to a pedestrian walkway. Everything around the river area was nicely kept up and clean. We even saw some people battling each other with lightsabers. We called it an earlier night from all the driving and hustling plus it was starting to rain.
The next day we woke up to some crisp temperature and decided to drive out of the city to explore some of the climbing areas. I had heard of Foster Falls for a while but never seen it in person to appreciate it. We snuck out of the town and headed west avoiding traffic. We pulled into the parking lot and saddled up our packs for a nice hike. The night before the rain happened to dump a ton a rain on the surrounding area. The falls were raging that day. Comparing the photos that I saw online to what it was, was a very stark contrast. We took some photos and continue to hike down the cliff line enjoying how the day was warming up.
We stop to climb at 1 wall a bit, and met some additional people from charlotte and the surrounding area. After finishing climbing, we head up and out along the rim taking in more views of the gorge.
On the drive back we stop are a neat winery on top of hill overlooking at pretty sunset and reservoir. The owner was a very outgoing gentleman who was trying to get us to try it Pizza, sadly we didn’t but we did enjoy the sampling of wines they provided. We finished of the night walking through the downtown street east of the river. We trudge through the downtown area looking for somewhere to eat.
Then on the 3rd day, we said good bye to Mallo again, and drove south into Georgia towards Rocktown. We snuck along old country road that followed the valley cuts. Farm lands and cabins sprung up along the way. We past a Allis Chalmers tractor for sale, but Alexis pushed on past preventing me from trying to figure out a way on how to get it home. We were so focus on sight seeing that we forgot to fill up on gas. So we drove along and found small town gas pump and filled up. This allow us to take the long winding road back up into Rocktown. Man, the amount of people bouldering there was staggering. The place was inundated with people humping their woodland-sex-pads, boombox, chalkpots, and dogs back into the area. Luckily the area was large enough that we could wander away and spreadout from the scene. Rob Pryor gave me some quick hits list to go boulder on. They were all quite fun. We wandered around and play among the boulders, trying to get lost in the corridors.
That night we decided to stop by one place that was near our AirBNB. “Mike’s Hole in the Wall”. This was a pretty awesome dive bar. Cheap beer, fun atmosphere and a romping good time.
In the morning, we packed up the cat stopped for some food at “Aretha Frankenstein” then made our way out of Chattanooga, heading north through Knoxville and then on to 40. The drive was nice and rainy at times, but not bad at all. We were able to make it back to Charlotte before the new year’s ball dropped. We hung out at our neighbor phat’s house and had some whiskey.
