Upper Middle Creek Falls

We have lived three miles from this waterfall for over 16 years and it was only last year that we became aware of its existence. We had passed by the trailhead along highway 106 hundreds of times. Only on a few occasions did we notice cars parked where the trailhead is located. Even though the height of the falls is only about 40 feet, it is one of our favorites, especially after a heavy rain when the flow is at a high volume. The photo was taken two days after a three-inch rain. It is a nice waterfall to visit most any time. If you are feeling really adventurous and you are a glutton for punishment, a second waterfall, Middle Creek Falls, is less than a half mile from the trailhead. Be forewarned that it is a moderate to difficult trail that is hard to follow requiring some scrambling to get to the base of the falls. If interested, look for a hike description online.

Trailhead directions: From the intersection of US 64 and Highway 106 in Highlands, drive west nine miles on Highway 106. Look for a school bus sign on the right. Park immediately in front of the sign. There is enough space to park two cars. The obvious trail head begins a few yards east of the sign. If you pass Lazy A Road on the right, you went a few hundred yards too far.

Hike description: This hike is rated easy-to-moderate. The first few feet of the trail are somewhat steep but doable. Proceed down the trail

about 100 yards where you will take another trail to the right. After a couple hundred feet, you will come to Middle Creek. You must cross the creek. It is an extremely easy crossing as it is only a few feet wide. The last time we visited the falls there was a board across the creek to step on. The falls are just ahead. The best viewpoint is approximately 12 feet above the creek.

by Ed and Cindy Boos

From NC 106 in Highlands, drive 2.3 miles west on US 64; Waterfall GPS: N35.07180 W-83.22910 Difficulty: You can park your car in a little parking area and walk 50 feet.

From NC 106 in Highlands, drive 3.15 miles west on US 64 to a parking area on the left; Waterfall GPS: N25.06884 W-83.23869 Difficulty: There are lots of steps you must go down to get behind Dry Falls.

From NC 106 in Highlands, drive 6.35 miles west on US 64 to the pullout on the left; Waterfall GPS: N35.09268 W-83.26573 Difficulty: Don’t stop on the road itself!

From the junction of US 64 and NC 106 in Highlands, drive 1.75 miles south on NC 106 and bear left at the sign for Glen Falls. Take Glen Falls Road, not Holt Road. Drive 1.05 miles to the parking area. Waterfall GPS: N35.03128 W-83.23829 Difficulty: There’s some climbing involved here.

From the intersection of NC 106 and US 64, follow NC 106 South for 9.3 miles. Exactly 1 mile before you reach the Georgia state line, and about 0.3 miles after NC 106 crosses Middle Creek, a yellow School Bus Stop sign will be on the right. Park on the right side of the road right at the sign. Waterfall GPS: N35.00714 W-83.32916 Difficulty: The four-tenths of a mile hike is not strenuous but it can be confusing.

From US 64 in Cashiers, head south on NC 107 from 4.05 miles – there’s a pullout area on the left. Waterfall GPS N35.06599 W-83.06558 Difficulty: No difficulty.

From US 64 west of Lake Toxaway, take NC 281 for 8.5 miles and turn left at the sign for Whitewater Falls into a parking area. Difficulty: Not strenuous, though the paved path is a bit uneven.

Cashiers Sliding Rock, a million miles from the cares of the 21st century, is easy to get to. From the Cashiers Crossroads, travel south on NC 107 to Whiteside Cove Road. Head down the road for 2.6 miles to where the road crosses the Chattooga River and pull over just across the bridge. Difficulty: A piece of cake.

From Cashiers, travel on NC 107 8.2 miles. The name changes to SC 107 – travel for 4.9 miles. Turn right onto Burrells Ford Road. Drive approximately 2.0 miles to the Chattooga Trail parking area on the left (look for the Forest Service Bulletin Board) Hike north on the Chattooga Trail, which roughly parallels the Chattooga River for 0.25 mile, then cross Spoonauger Creek. Immediately on the right will be a side trail. Difficulty: There’s nothing tricky.

From US 64, take NC 281 North for 0.85 mile and bear left on Cold Mountain Road. Stay on the road. When it becomes unpaved, travel about 0.1 mile. Take the road on the right and travel for 0.1 mile to a parking area. Take the trail to the right of the information kiosk. At the intersection, proceed straight on Panthertown Valley Trail. Turn left onto Little Green Trail. Schoolhouse Falls is about 0.15 mile ahead. Waterfall GPS N35.16330 W-83.00674 Difficulty: The hike isn’t challenging.

Point phone camera at QR code for comprehensive information on more of the many waterfalls in the Highlands and Cashiers area.

“Where is my water coming from and where is it going?” This is the first question any potential buyer of property in our area should ask, especially when looking for land with a fabulous view.

The Plateau receives rainforest amounts of precipitation in most years, but finding a productive well can be a challenge. If the parcel you like doesn’t have the benefit of a neighborhood or municipal water system, you’ll have to have a well and pump installed. Most well drilling companies in our area are capable of drilling deep wells, which is important because view opportunities may require a depth of 800 feet or more.

This work can get expensive. It’s not unusual for a buyer to be quoted prices between $5,000 and $12,000 for the pump equipment and installation, depending on the size of the pump.

When water is found, but gallons per minute production is too low for a home, there is another possible solution. For low producing wells, or older wells experiencing cracks, fracking may improve performance.

Miller Well Drilling of Hayesville, North Carolina, discusses hydrofracking on their website:

“Today, most drilling companies bring in a fracker whenever they have exhausted the limits of their drilling equipment. Water well hydrofracking uses only potable water and usually produces a minimum of 50 percent yield improvement in the well, making a formerly unusable well sustainable for the client’s needs.”

When there’s no neighborhood or municipal sewer system, a land buyer may apply for a county septic permit. After processing the application, a county health department environmental engineer visits the site. In the best-case scenario, the engineer is able to design a traditional system, including tank and drain lines, which fit on the property appropriately away from any nearby well head and the home itself. A North Carolina licensed septic installer is retained to give an estimate and execute the project. So simple!

However, depending on the rock and soil depth, different types of soils, such as saprolite or clay, can present design issues for septic system engineers. Private soil engineers can work with you on development and installation of a specialized system, if needed.

In cases of delicate soils and slopes, systems may need to be hand dug. Be sure your installer is capable of such work and works closely with the county at each stage.

by Dinah Davis Broker, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Meadows Mountain Realty

As far back as she can remember, Sue Steele Thomas has had a love affair with art … and cars.

Why cars? The clean lines, sculptural forms, and reflective surfaces had her at vroom. That was back in the ‘80s and she’s still loving every detail about automobiles, from their smell to their sound to their look.

“Some people think a woman liking cars is crazy, but I really do like automobiles,” she says. “When I started painting auto images, I was pretty much the only female at any gathering. I approached my work from a painterly point of view. Then someone suggested I go to community college and study mechanical drawing so that I could nail down perspective, proportion, and the math of it all. I found a young student who tutored me in math while I walked him through fluidity of organic line. That technical study gave me and my work the authenticity I needed.”

“Along the way I fused the botanical to the mechanical. Flowers, trees, shadows, and car surfaces merged into an amalgam of naturemade and man-made shapes. That style was inspired by a friend who said, ‘Find something uniquely you, then carve out your niche in the automotive world.’ BAE (best advice ever).”

Perhaps Sue’s strongest influence was her husband, Radford. When she met him, he had seven cars. In his lifetime he’s owned 80, from Jags to Packards. Since marriage, they’ve had all kinds of cars.

She says, “We are both fascinated with vehicles. On occasion we still drive to dealers and wax poetic over an automobile’s aesthetic.”

When Sue isn’t painting cars, looking at cars, or photographing

The lines, the curves, the irrefutable suggestion of thrumming horsepower waiting to be untethered – there are a thousand reasons for Sue Steele Thomas’s automotive passion. Those reasons lie at the center of a pulse-pounding exhibition at The Bascom.

Sue Steele Thomas

them, she’s teaching. She was a college art professor for nearly two decades. The past two years she’s taught kids, pre-K through five.

It was a huge shift, but a glorious one.

She says, “When you tell a college student to darken a value, they’ll likely argue/complain. When you ask a pre-schooler, they’ll run to their table, make the change, run back to you for a high five.”

Even though Sue’s shadow work looks supremely complex, she insists it’s simple … simple lines, simple shapes, simple forms using the basic principles and elements of design. And yes, it’s drawn in pencil by hand and painted, repainted, and unpainted to perfection. No digital work here!

Sue’s a fine watercolorist, but she incorporates opaque gouache into her compositions. She might spend most of her day mixing paint and pigment to get just the right consistency and color, not too thick, not too thin or the paint will crack or be transparent. It’s a tricky balance requiring scores if not hundreds of test samples.

You can see the results of her meticulous prep and final products at The Bascom’s FreeWheeling exhibition in the Bunzl Gallery, May 11 through August 21. This special showing is in partnership with Highlands Motoring Festival.

Learn more about Sue’s process and background by visiting steelethomasstudios.com.

by Donna Rhodes

Since 1982, the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival has been bringing internationally-known musicians to the mountains in fun and creative programming, and they plan to kick off their milestone 40th Anniversary Season Live with a bang on Monday, July 5.

Cho-Liang Lin

Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival’s bravura 40th Anniversary delivers an entire season of superlatives. For information or tickets, call (828) 526-9060 or visit h-cmusicfestival.org.

Legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman opens the Festival with his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth, and brilliant young pianist George Li in a program of Trios of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. This concert will only be offered once, and will be the first concert in the Festival’s new home in Cashiers, in the beautiful new addition to the Village Green.

Cho-Liang Lin, one of the most important violinists in classical music these days, will lead a crack group of string players including members of the Vega Quartet in Mendelssohn’s thrilling Octet for Strings on July 9 (Highlands) and July 10 (Cashiers); and continuing their tradition of presenting and nurturing rising young stars at the beginning of their careers, HCCMF will welcome the Rasa String Quartet also making their Festival debut in music of Beethoven, Haydn and Dvorak on July 11 and 12. The Rasa will also be featured at a special program entitled Martinis & Mozart on Tuesday, July 13, at the Orchard House at Old Edwards Farm. You’ll have a chance to mix and mingle with the Quartet while enjoying cocktails and hors d’oeuvres along with great music of Mozart and Beethoven in a magical setting.

These concerts represent just the first two weeks of the sixweek Festival – check out the entire lineup on their website at h-cmusicfestival.org. Tickets may be limited if restrictions are still in place, so make your reservations now and secure your seat to finally experience live music again after a year away.

George Li

Of course Mussorgsky’s sensational Pictures at an Exhibition will be performed at the opening of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival’s exhibit of Program Book Art at The Bascom, Sunday, June 27. For reservations, call (828) 526-9060.

The Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival and The Bascom join forces to present a very special Music and Art event to help celebrate the Festival’s milestone 40th anniversary season.

On Sunday, June 27, at 5:30 PM, Modest Mussorgsky’s great masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition will be performed live at The Bascom in a Transcription for String Quintet by a virtuoso group of musicians from Atlanta.

At the same time, The Bascom will feature an exhibition of over 20 years’ of original artwork commissioned by the Festival for their annual Program Book and posters – almost all by area artists. Featured are pieces by Sallie Taylor, Diane McPhail, Richard Bordeaux, Susan Robert, Rosemary Stiefel, Ann Strub, and more.

Mix and mingle with the musicians – Sissi Zhang and Kenn Wagner, violins; Yinzi Kong, viola; Charae Krueger, cello; and Brittany Conrad, double bass – at a reception with refreshments afterwards. This event is the first of the Festival’s 40th Anniversary Season this summer and seating is limited – so make your reservations now by calling (828) 526-9060 or by email hccmfnc@gmail.com. For the Festival’s full schedule, visit h-cmusicfestival.org.

by Nancy Aaron, Executive Director, Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival

The Highlands Performing Arts Center springs to life with a calendar crammed with events and performances. Highlands PAC is located at 507 Chestnut Street.

The Highlands Performing Arts Center is booked and ready to go!

The Membership Campaign is still ongoing. We plan on seeing you all at PAC this summer.

The season will feature the favorite bluegrass group Seldom Scene (June 18); countertenor Terry Barber with Tony-nominee Grace Fields (June 26); the comedy Men Are From Mars/Women Are From Venus (August 14); retro rock/yacht rock with a tribute to Neil Diamond by Neil Zirconia (September 17); Broadway by Bravo Amici (formerly Amici Forever, September 26); more retro rock with Fleetwood Mask (October 1); and Thanksgiving weekend brings more bluegrass with Sideline (November 26).

Audience members are anxious to get back to live music, so be sure to check out the Season Brochure, entirely online this year. Log onto HighlandsPerformingArts.com, select PAC and follow the prompts. There is a video to help guide you through the process, if needed. You can order your membership, select and reserve your seats, all online. Membership levels and benefits remain the same as last year, discounted and complimentary tickets, complimentary beverages, and first choice of seats and more.

The MET Opera, National Theatre and Great Art on Screen can still be streamed online. Check out the website for the titles, dates and links.

In addition, the PAC will show two of the MET Opera’s stars, Renee Fleming and Jonas Kaufmann, in a combined concert on Saturday, May 8, at 1:00 P.M.; and Rigoletto on Saturday, May 22, at 1:00 P.M.

Since Covid-19 is still a large part of our lives, the PAC has improved the air filtration system for your safety. Before each event, the entire lobby, auditorium, restrooms and backstage will be sanitized with a hospital-grade disinfectant. Masks will be required; hand sanitizer and wipes will be available.

Good things are coming as we all look forward to the new normal!

Please support PAC by becoming a Member. Go online: HighlandsPerformingArtsCenter.com click on PAC. It’s that easy.

by Mary Adair Trumbly, Highlands Performing Arts Center

Highlands Playhouse’s Scott Daniel is ensuring everything is in place as the curtain rises on a season filled with possibilities.

Scott Daniel

Covid may have stolen the show last year, but it won’t in 2021. Your favorite Highlands Playhouse performance(s) will take center stage midsummer, Good Lord willing and the curtains do rise.

And that’s just the beginning of a series of exciting changes. The Playhouse is announcing its new Executive Director, Scott Daniel. Scott’s a man of many talents, among them, actor, playwright, creative consultant, designer, director, and much more. His resume stretches from Florida to California to Broadway to international cruise ships with an impressive list of successful accomplishments at every turn.

“Transplanting to Highlands Playhouse was very easy,” says Scott. “The community is passionate about quality productions. My experience and devotion to performing arts dovetailed with the community’s enthusiasm and the Playhouse mission. I am honored to be chosen for this special role.

“The Board, Marshall (director), staff and I are working together now to see how we can expand our seasonal offerings to more than what we’ve done in the past. We hope to grow from eight weeks to eight months (April-January). Highlanders are eager for entertainment following the 2020 dark year. We’re off to a carefully-paced start due to Covid. But we are making sure it’s worth the wait.”

Everyone is getting ready for what happens next. Sleeves are rolled up. Hands and knees are calloused from hours of prep. All this hard work readies the town for toe-tapping entertainment as Scott throws himself, a million percent, into the season.

He says, “An arts organization is a communicative, symbiotic relationship. Together we can make magic in the mountains.”

The most important thing you can do is when tickets go on sale, support the Playhouse by purchasing seats.

Scott closes with, “Let us know you want us there by supporting us any way you can. We are not going anywhere; we are here for you. Buy tickets, see shows, see them again, tell friends, and visit the website early and often to catch the latest: highlandsplayhouse.org.”