Been back for a few hours and well...that was an adventure.
We didn't make it to Rainbow Falls yesterday, probably barely missed by about a tenth of a mile, but in the end I didn't mind because I had a promise to keep. The trail was good, easy to follow, but once we turned around it was very hard for me.
Because I'm Ms. Weenie Hut Jr, I wound up walking in the 2nd stream twice and when we were on our way back, I saw lightning flash right in front of me and then immediately heard a huge crash of thunder. I immediately attempted to speed up, then stumbled, and almost clumsily fell when I did. I was scared ****less.
I ended up appreciating the hike a lot more after it was over. Beautiful area and there are several places where you can look down and try to find Horsepasture River. We had a good time despite the iffy weather, but I will likely have to come back in a few years with someone I can spend 2 hours on the trail with (and hopefully better weather). Maybe during that time, I'll do something silly and try to go on to the falls on that closed fire road. Nah, lol, I likely can do BOTH Rainbow/Turtleback with a partner as long as I take my time with what the typical way is now.
I need to come back to the general area more anyway. Even though Rainbow is obviously popular, Southwest North Carolina seems like it still gets underrated compared to areas around Great Smoky Mountains National Park (although Townsend, TN doesn't get as many visitors as a Gatlinburg).
Edit: As I was riding US 64 yesterday, I reminisced on how me, my younger cousin, and his friend all played on our DS to kill time on this road and couldn't understand how we managed it (although the friend did get nauseated). I'm not sure how I pulled it off. That road outside of stretches of town seemingly never stops winding in the area.