Toccoa Falls and Currahee Mountain

 The Wise Woman and I are markers of special occasions. Years ago, we made trips to the opera and symphony. Now we’re more likely to visit natural wonders. We stayed in Toccoa, a town of about 9,000 in northeastern Georgia, not far from the South Carolina line.

The falls on Toccoa Creek drop 186 feet into a pool. We sat and listened for a long time. Turkey vultures were roosting in a dead tree on the bluff. They’d take off from the tree and achieve soaring altitude immediately. It was wonderful watching them climb into the clear sky almost effortlessly, floating on the currents.

Currahee Mountain, just south of town, was the site of Camp Toccoa, where Col. Bob Sink trained airborne troopers during World War II. If you’ve read or seen Band of Brothers, you know about the camp at the base of the mountain and the long road up. Sink used to say, “Three miles up; three miles down.”

We decided half the route would be enough for us, so we missed the summit. We parked by the few barracks that remain and headed up the mountain, moving much slower than the soldiers of my father’s generation. The wind was blowing, as wind tends to do on mountains. We listened as we walked.