Planes, Trains & Autos

Hey Guys!

This post will conclude our time in Murphy, NC.

Read Days 1 & 2 here & Click here to see links to all of my blog posts

We started our morning with the delicious donuts that we had purchased the day before from the Crafted Dough!

We also had eggs, bacon, biscuits and ham!

It was like a breakfast buffet! 😅

The cream filled donuts were my favorite!

After breakfast, we headed to the hot tub.

We hadn’t really planned on doing much today so, we just spent the morning relaxing at the cabin for a while.

Later that afternoon, we headed into downtown Murphy for lunch.

We decided to eat at a place called Chevelle’s.…we had only eaten here once before but it was at their location in Hayesville.

The place was pretty crowded but we were seated right away.

We took a few minutes to look over the menu.

We both decided to order a burger….I ordered the California burger  and the hubby ordered the mushroom and Swiss burger.

They were very good!

Read reviews here

After lunch, we headed to the Murphy Riverwalk.

The 4 mile riverwalk is located in downtown Murphy but has several different places you can park to access the trail.

We parked at the old L&N train depot.

There’s a historical marker here that tells about the history of this railroad.

There’s also QR codes that you can scan here and all along the trail that will tell you about the area.

The Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad opened operations in Murphy in 1888 and continued its operations until the early 1970s.

Click here to read about 3 historic railroads in/near Murphy

From this parking lot, you had the choice of either hiking the Cypress Loop or walking along the railroad tracks and picking up another trailhead.

The greenway trail follows the Valley River and the Hiwassee River.

We decided to walk along the tracks and find the other trailhead.

After walking for a couple of minutes, we saw a gravel trail that ran parallel to the tracks so we walked that trail.

Tip: Watch out for the Giant Leech on this trail!! 😉

The trail then led into the woods.

There are several markers all along the path and again, if you scan the QR codes, it will tell you about the area.

I thought the QR codes were a neat feature and I had never seen this before on a trail.

Apparently, there’s been some Bigfoot sightings in this area…if you see it, don’t make eye contact and play dead…it will be your best chance of survival. 😉

Not long after starting the trail, we saw a sign for the Cypress Loop.  It was only 0.3 miles so I recommend if you park at this parking lot, that you just start at the Cypress Loop trailhead from the parking lot.

We decided to keep walking and came to another sign that said Confluence Loop so we decided to take that trailhead.

The trail seemed confusing but I’m not very good at reading trail maps. 😅

Tip: There was a sign that warns you to enjoy the trail at your own risk which, being someone who watches too much Dateline & 48 hours, made me think a serial killer could be lurking in the woods or maybe it was because of the Bigfoot sightings! 😉

Read reviews for the trail here

On or near this trail is where you will find the historic train trestle.

There was a QR code that you could scan that told you about the history of the trestle.

Archeological evidence indicates that this is not the original railroad bridge built when the railroad connected Murphy to points east.

When the river is very low, you might be able to observe old wooden footers under the existing bridge that would have been the foundation for an earlier, wooden trestle.

You are not allowed to walk on the trestle and it’s blocked off to prevent anyone from entering.

Surprisingly, archeologists have not been able to date the bridge.

No train has crossed here since the last train left Murphy on July 4, 1992.

Near the trestle, the trail went from dirt to a wooden boardwalk.

The boardwalk gave you even better views of the train trestle.

We continued along the wooden boardwalk that runs parallel to the river.

There were a few benches scattered along the trail in case you needed to rest after running away from Bigfoot, the leech or a serial killer. So thoughtful of them to think of that. 😉

Be sure to have plenty of water on this trail or you may need the bench to pass out on due to dehydration…it’s a real thing and you definitely don’t want to find out about it on this trail that already has so many scary things that could attack you.

We came to a scenic lookout for the marshy area of the lake….all I could think about was the Giant leech that lurks in this area! 😉

After this stop, we continued the trail ….the boardwalk ended and led us back into the woods along a dirt path.

We spotted the old remains of another train trestle. 

In this area there was a QR code about the Cherokee encampment that was here years ago.

It was here where 1,500 Cherokee People encamped on the hills across the river from where you stand.

Women children and men uprooted from their ancestral homes waiting to be deported to a land unknown by the People….To walk and likely die on what is now known as the Trail of Tears.

If you want to learn more about the Cherokee People that lived in this area, then be sure to visit the Cherokee County Historical Museum in Murphy.

From here, we continued our walk along the trail.

We saw a few wildflowers blooming along the river bank.

We saw a QR. code for the Hunter Pyramid so I scanned the code to see what it was.

The 30 ft tall pyramid, that sits on the other side of the river, was built around 1930 by the granddaughter of the first known settler in this area, Archibald Russell Spence Hunter who arrived here in the 1820’s.

Initially the town of Murphy was named Huntington after Hunter who served as the town’s first postmaster but in 1851 the town was incorporated and renamed Murphy after a prominent North Carolina politician, Archibald D Murphey.

After listening to the audio abut the pyramid, we continued the trail.

After a few short minutes, my hubby decided he would climb a tree and then it dawned on me what the caution sign was for….for people like my husband!

Thankfully, he survived and we were able to continue the trail.😝

We started noticing lots of Cypress trees along the trail.

They were bald cypress trees and they had seeds hanging from them.

As we continued the trail, we came up on a ratty “boardwalk” that someone had made. You could tell that this area had water covering it at one time.

After spending about 1.5 hours on the trail, we drove around for a while.

Later, we spotted a food truck selling barbecue.

So, we decided to stop and purchase that for dinner and take it back to the cabin and eat.

I ordered the bbq chicken with baked beans and potato salad and the hubby ordered the brisket with a double portion of potato salad.

The food was delicious!

Later that evening, we headed to the hot tub before calling it a night.

The next morning, we finished off the rest of our donuts for breakfast.

Later, we enjoyed the hot tub for the last time. 🙁

After the hot tub, we packed up and headed home.

This is probably the last time we rent this cabin…so sad! 🙁

On the way home, we had wanted to stop at Myrtles for lunch but she was closed so we stopped at the Ocooe Dam Deli & Diner instead.

The place was packed out but thankfully, we were seated right away.

We both decided on burgers and they were very good!

Read reviews here

After lunch, we continued our drive home.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for our next adventure…..Vermont and New Hampshire!