Today my honey and I went to Fall Creek Falls State Park on our way back from Frozen Head State Park yesterday. We came in to the park from the north entrance and stopped at what looked like a main visitor center. We went directly to an overlook and got to talk to another visitor about good ideas for the day.

We went inside the Betty Dunn Nature Center and gather more good trail information.  What we had just enjoyed was the Cane Creek Falls Overlook right beside the Nature Center. This is just off of the parking lot. Then we walked down to Cane Creek Falls. Both of these are enjoyable and can be seen in just a few minutes if you are just passing through.

We settled into the 3 mile adventure that we now had planned by crossing the suspension and climbing up 70 stairs to get on to the Gorge Trail. It is 1.2 miles of a 2 mile loop that would eventually take us past Cane Creek Overlook, Cane Creek Gorge Overlook, Fall Creek Falls Overlook and the now closed Rocky Point Overlook.

At the top of the 70 steps we met Wes and Olivia from Middleton Ohio. They are a wonderful couple in their 70’s who encouraged us to keep hiking. Wes said, “I like to hike with my Honey.”  When we took our picture together, they were so cute – Olivia was a bit apologetic about how the picture of her might turn out but Wes declared, “You take a good picture.”

As we lost ourselves in conversation Olivia shared the importance of a good system of give and take to make a marriage work. They have both been married before and are now working on year 26 with each other-thankful to God for the blessing of each other. She said, “Nobody is perfect but if you focus on the positive things it makes it work.”  It is interesting that when we are their age range we will have been married 26 years too.

She used to be a fast hiker like me but when she started hiking with Wes, she slowed down because he is like my Honey in that he likes to see every detail. I got to share this detail from our Frozen Head hike the day before:

They shared how they had met a couple in their 80’s while hiking in the Smokies.  Olivia advised, “If you will take good care of your bodies and make good food choices, you’ll probably pass us up and hike for 40 more years.”  They projected that if they could be having a good time on the trail in their 70’s that we might pass them up in hiking longevity. We left our encounter encouraged by like minded new friends. We left motivated to take care of ourselves so that we can be hiking in our 90’s like Olivia promised to pray that we would.

Tomorrow, I’ll share the rest of our discoveries and some beautiful scenery shots from Fall Creek Falls.

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When you are out exploring the world, could it be that you will meet an encouraging new friend? I challenge you to stop and chat—see what happens:)