My girlfriends and I were tired of the summer heat and needed a change in scenery. Knowing what we were looking for didn’t include beer and chubbies, we threw together a trip to Jack’s River. It wasn’t girls only—you just had to not be a total sleazebag.

 

 

We managed to mostly stay on the trail and we avoided running into hangry bears.

 

 

We waded through about 30 river crossings. I fell on my butt.

 

 

We made it to the falls and jumped off the rocks into foaming waters. The clouds were the way I like it: nonexistent.

 

 

The second night featured a mad stack of hammocks. Our stomachs were full of ants on logs and grilled veggies and oreos and jerky and roasted marshmallows with strawberries shoved in them. We giggled and dished gossip like middle school girls.

 

 

Park at Daily Gap Trailhead. Doing it our way involved dropping off a friend hiking the AT for the next six weeks while we nervously laughed off the howls of wild dogs. We made it to Daily Gap before 4am, walked a few hundred meters on the trail, and threw up enos in some trees for the night. It’s a 9-mile hike to the waterfalls which is best done in hiking sandals and socks. Bears are active in the area so we made sure to bag up all food and trash and hang it in the trees. The cool waters and beautiful double-sided views at each crossing were top notch for July weather. We wrapped up the weekend with Korean barbeque and a Super H-Mart dash in Atlanta.