I was surprised to see a story online this weekend about a hiker who slipped and fell into a ravine, recently, in a place I have hiked many times; broke her foot in three places, and had to be airlifted out by helicopter! Fortunately she was hiking with a friend, who was able to go for help, as they had no cell phone service where they were. The old rule is, one should never go hiking alone, for just this sort of reason. (I only broke it once; but never again.)

Panther Creek Falls is a few miles north of Clarkesville, GA, about an hour north of Athens. The entrance is not marked; you just have to know where it is, just left of the bridge that runs over the creek, where there is a small grassy parking area. It is an amazing place, and mostly unknown.

I discovered this trail with a good friend of mine from UGA, many years ago, who heard about it from a friend of his. Kevin and I were dorm-mates, found we had many shared lifeviews, and got to be good friends, and have maintained that to this day.

That is another story.

I have been to Panther Creek many times since then. Because the entrance is not marked, not many people know about it. The trailhead starts where Panther Creek runs under a bridge on US 441, and then descends through a gorge. There is a good-sized pool about three miles in, that is great for wading during hot summer months; then the trail leads back up, in a bit more strenuous climb, before ending again on Hwy. 441.

One time before, we had started our hike down that trail a bit later in the day than we had before, and by the time we reached the wading pool, it looked like the afternoon sun was beginning to set, so we turned around and hurried back to the car, not wanting to get stuck in the dark there with no flashlights. What we found, as we climbed back up that trail, was that we had actually been walking down the side of a gorge, which descended lower than we had realized.

So, as we climbed back out, we went higher, and found that the sun was still high enough we would have had plenty of light to get back to the car before dusk! That was a surprise. And useful to know.

The trail itself was mostly a fairly gentle decline, crossing the creek a few times, until we got to the wading pool at the bottom. The one time we tried to go further, we discovered it got much steeper, much quicker, so we did not pursue that part of the path at that point. But we did enjoy cooling off by splashing about in that pool before climbing out and heading back home!

It was a very interesting place to explore, “off the beaten path,” and I am very glad we found it. North Georgia has many interesting places like this, you just have to know where to find them.

Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He and his wife live in eastern Liberty County, and are long-time Rotarians.

He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo. com.