Adventures In Hiking: Machine Falls

By Tomeka Allgood

This year has been one for the ages so far. To date, I have had to cancel all of my 2020 travel plans, literally, every single one. With coronavirus running wild I have come to the conclusion that I must avoid indoor activities and large groups. Staying outdoors and maintaining a safe social distance while having a good time is the ultimate goal. So I started researching my home state of Tennessee for opportunities to explore outdoors. It turns out that Tennessee has a lot of hiking trails. So I asked a few friends to see if they were interested in taking up hiking as a hobby and surprisingly, they were in. I don’t my traveling alone, but I’m not going to be hiking in the woods, alone, ever!

There’s an App…

Since I have not been hiking, for real, since I was a Girl Scout, I decided to search my friend Google for a website or app to assist with my newfound interest in hiking. Turns out there is a website called All Trails that has a corresponding app that allows you to research trails near you or in places you plan to visit. I have been seeing a lot of cool waterfall pictures on social media so I wanted my first hike to be to a waterfall. I was lucky to find out that there were a few around me and I decided that Machine Falls in Tullahoma, Tennessee would be my first.

Machine Falls…

After a little over an hour drive south east of Nashville, I arrived at the trail head entrance to Machine Falls. Of course with this being my first hike, I wasn’t as prepared as I thought. Luckily my two friends were also there so combined we had what we needed. Armed with mosquito bracelets (that actually work!), walking sticks, backpacks and a positive attitude, we set out for a mini adventure. Of course, I had not actually read much from the app except how to get to the falls and the fact other hikers had rated it as a moderate trail.

So after about a half mile or so in to the hike, we stopped at a bench to make the biggest decision of the day. Do we want to take the shorter route to the waterfall, which is harder or do we want to go the long way around? As we are pondering our options, we see people older than us as well as people with kids and this gave us the confidence that we could do the shorter route.

Shorter Route…

As we start down the trail of the shorter route, we noticed everyone that past us told us the same thing when we asked how far away we were from the waterfall: “Not too far, but it is straight down.” As with life, at the beginning of the shorter route there was a noticeable decline but nothing too bad. Of course, I’m thinking to myself that oh, this won’t be too bad. A little resistance workout and no big deal, right? Uh, no… I was so not right on this one. The more down the path we went the steeper the decline. The trail became a mixture of dirt and rock. Some of the rocks were wet from people who had already been to the waterfall and were on their way back up and dripped water along the way. Me and Jesus had a full conversation the entire way down what my cousin described as… and I quote: “the loop of death!”

The Waterfall…

As we descended down the hill prior to getting to the base, you couldn’t ignore the cooler temperatures from the shade and coolness from the waterfall. That and the sound of water before we could see it helped us know we were on the right path. After getting to the bottom of the “shorter route”, the hike is super easy. There’s additional options to check out a wildflower trail for those that are interested but for us, it was all about getting to the waterfall.

I would recommend a good pair of water resistant hiking boots for this hike. My primary reason is because you do have to cross through a creek to get to the waterfall. Honestly, there’s no way to really get around your feet getting wet. We used rocks to avoid completely getting our feet submerged in the water but for those that didn’t have on hiking boots their feet got wet. After walking down the creek less than a hundred yards you will see the waterfall on the right.

The water is cold as all natural springs that I’ve ever experienced have been. So on a hotter than hot summer day it was the perfect place to take a deep breath and relax for a while after experiencing the “loop of death!” I will say that it is not a swimming hole. The water isn’t deep and I only saw little children being able to use it as a place to play in the water. Most of the adults were sitting on the rocks or hanging out near the waterfall to cool off.

Back The Way We Came…

We decided to head back out the same way we came and it was just like walking on the treadmill with the incline set to 10! I may be exaggerating but I really don’t think so. Going from the nice cool air near the water fall to the thick humid air was not fun. I admit to having to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. Please note that summers in the South are humid and even with me being a native of the state it still caught me off guard. Thankfully I had plenty of water to stay hydrated and ended up pouring water over my head after we made it to the top of the climb.

Needless to say, our first hike of the year was a mini adventure and we are definitely looking forward to doing more. I may not have been able to travel as I planned but rediscovering the world of hiking has me excited about the next hike.

All Photos By Tomeka Allgood