Big South Fork Scenic Railway

Blue Heron Loop 6.6 miles
Yahoo Arch, Negro Creek, and Sheltowee Trace 10.9

Tornado, large hail, and server thunderstorm watch. Yep, that’s what they are calling for so its time to go hiking. We had already gotten tickets to ride the Big South Fork Scenic Railway and you can’t cancel them. We headed to Stearns, Kentucky for a train ride and hike. I took off an hour early from work to make the 11am train.

It’s an hour train ride to Blue Heron from Stearns. They slow down for some scenic areas and you go through a tunnel and through the historic town of Barthell. They had some short hikes and programs planned, but we decided to hike the Blue Heron Loop as a wild flower hike instead.

We ate at the snack bar and then hiked the loop. The Ranger wanted us to know that the hike was 6.6 miles and we had to catch the last train which left at 4:30. He made it sound like it might be hard to do. Anyway, we headed off. We hiked up through the Crack -in-The- Rock’s which is a rock formation that you actually hike through. Then we took the side trail to the Blue Haron Overlook. From there you hike to the Devils Jump Overlook. Somewhere in this area we got the thunder storm noise, but only a light rain for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Talk about a wildflower hike. We saw at least 15 different varieties including the lady’s slipper and all of them in abundance. We even had a turtle pose for a picture. When we got back we still had a half hour so we hiked over the coal tipple bridge and also caught the ranger talk which was pretty cool. She pulled out a guitar and went to singing an old folk lure about the Devils Jump. As it turns out, they were mining salt when they hit oil. Not knowing what is was, they decided to sell it for medical purposes because it tasted bad. They put it in a barrel and tried to raft it down the Cumberland River. At Devils Jump, which is a rapid, the raft crashed and the Cumberland got its first oil spill. This ordeal actually puts this as the first oil well in the America’s.

We enjoyed the train ride back in the rain. Our plans were to camp at Alum Ford. Because of the rain, we stopped at the restaurant in the train depot, Suzanne’s . Well, the owner took us for a tour of the dinner buffet and explained to us that everything was homemade by her. She was so proud of her food; we just had to eat there. It was well worth it as everything on the buffet was wonderful. We highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the area.

Well as we were sitting at the table, we recognized a lady there that had led one of the hikes. We asked her about how her hike went and after talking a bit she introduced herself to me and I recognized the name. She was one of my contacts for hiking the Sheltowee Trace and I have been sending her the trail condition reports as we have been going along. You never know where you might meet folks.

After dinner we drove up to Alum Ford. The rain had stopped and we put up the tent. More rain was supposed to come in, so we just walked down to the river to enjoy the evening. We got a wonderful show as the sun went down with all the different clouds and colors. We also got to watch as an otter swam playfully down the river in front of us. After dark we went back to the tent where we got to listen to three different owls talk for a long time. Sometime in the middle of the night, they decided to talk again and we woke to hear them.

The next morning we got up and enjoyed breakfast. As we were taking camp down, two fishermen stopped to talk to us as they were hiking up the trail a little ways to do some fishing.

We got on the Sheltowee and headed south along the Cumberland. The woods were full of wildflowers. We had a wild turkey fly up in front of us. We hiked down to Negro Creek and took Negro Creek trail back up to Yahoo Arch. We took the .5 mile spur trail to Markers Arch which is worth it. From Yahoo Arch we hiked the upper trail at Yahoo Falls, then went to the bottom and ate lunch. It was a beautiful day and the Yahoo Falls area had a lot of people on the trail.

After lunch we hiked down to the Sheltowee and took it back to Alum Ford. We would highly recommend these trails to anyone that is interested in wildflowers.

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Newton Bald Hike

Kanati Fork Trail 2.9
Thomas Divide Trail 3.1
Newton Bald Trail 5.3
Total 11.3 Miles

I drove over to Maryville for a hike with Dad’s Hiking Club, the Retired Citizens of the Smokies. We all met up at the Sugarlands Visitor Center. There were fifteen hikers in all. We drove to the Kanati Fork trailhead then the drivers dropped off two vehicles at the Newton Bald Trailhead.

They rated the hike as strenuous and it was a good workout. The Kanati Fork climbs 2150 feet in 2.9 miles. The Thomas Divide trail takes you up another two hundred feet then you drop five hundred feet so you can climb back up. You climb another hundred feet on the Newton Bald trail and then drop 3000 feet in 4.5 miles.

The weather was wonderful as well as the company. We had a great time and after we got out of altitude on the Newton Bald trail, we saw lots of wildflowers of various types.

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Frozen Head II

Day One: 3 Miles
Day Two: 11.3 Miles
Total: 14.3 Miles

After work, Lora and I headed out to Frozen Head for a campout and hike. We planned on hiking the Cumberland trail section of the park. We got packed, stopped for gas and stopped to fill our stomachs. We got to the park just as the Ranger was locking the gate. Thankfully he let us in.

We planned on hiking the two thirds mile to stay the night at Judge Branch campsite. Well, we hiked in and took the first left onto North Old Mac trail. After hiking about a mile we decided to check the map. Yep, wrong trail. So another mile and three quarters night hike and we made it to camp. You can see flowers on a night hike. We had to walk off that dinner anyway and the stars were beautiful. We got the fire going around 10pm. We didn't burn long and after a little cough medicine and listening to the owls, we were ready to call it a night. Sometime in the night we woke and listened to a couple of owls talking back and forth.

We got up the next morning and got breakfast going as we checked out the rest of the campsite. We packed up and headed back to the park office. We knew they were doing a flower hike and was wondering which trail they were hiking. It turned out they were hiking to the falls.

From the park office you have to go across the field and river to start the Cumberland trail loop. Nothing like a good old foot washing. They have applied for the grant to build the bridge and they have it marked where it would be built. We hiked up to Ross Gap and had lunch there. A couple of hunters on four wheelers drove by with a turkey tied on back.

After lunch we hiked to the retention pond and watched the fish and tad poles swimming. The tad poles were large with all four legs and a short tail. We hiked on to see mushroom rock and then on to the overlook. There were many beautiful flowers all along this trail. We crossed over North Bird Mountain trial and took a break at Bird mountain campsite. There is a spring at this campsite, but I don't think you can count on it as it was low already.

We took Lookout Tower trail back to the Big Cove campground. Lookout Tower trail is a dirt service road. When we got to the campground we looked up our TTA friends that were staying the night. We had a good visit with them and then headed back to the house.

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