River Walk, the rock ledge and lost in Murphy

- I had already walked a little less than a mile on the Murphy (North Carolina) River Walk when I had reached this point last Saturday.  Oh my - it was so beautiful.  Shady, leafy and a little isolated.  I did encounter other walkers here and there and plan to take my sisters there next time we are at the mountain cottage.  Murphy is about 20 miles from there and the river (Hiwassee) is the same one that flows by it.

- If you enlarge the photo, you can see the natural rock ledge going across the river that native Americans used to walk across to get to the other side.

- The marker in the photo, tells the legend of The Great Leech of Tlanusi'yi and what might have happened when they walked across that ledge.  It's kind of terrifying actually!  I'm thinking I wouldn't try that.  :)  I love the Cherokee symbols there at the top. 

- I was on a path that was referred to, on signs along the way, as a "loop", so I thought the path would circle back to my car, which I left in Konehete Park where the trail begins.  However, to end up back there, I think I should have taken the railroad tie "steps" to walk across the path on this old Southern Railroad trestle.  I went left instead and ended up, after about three miles, beside an old train depot, where there was a farmers' market going on.  I had no idea of the direction my car might be!

A very nice man, wearing a panama style hat, sat beside the open tailgate of his pickup truck at the edge of the farmers' market.  He was selling green beans and such, probably among the last of the summer's bounty and was a little amused by my dilemma.  (Probably because I emerged from the woods looking so confused.)  :)  He said I had walked a long way and that I was going to have to walk another mile of so through the downtown area of Murphy to get back to where (he thought) my car might be.  This part of the walk was something I didn't envision at all.  :)  After a couple of wrong turns, I found my car - I wanted to hug it - and made my way back to the part of the river I know so well.

Have a lovely weekend, y'all!