On a beautiful Sunday after church, we were off to explore a new segment of the Cumberland Trail being built, a continuation of North Chick. Not sure what it will be named, maybe Cain Creek segment? I had seen pics on the Chattanooga Hiking Club page, and sent an inquiry to Don for directions. Got to the gate on Barker Camp Rd and the gate was closed. We followed the trail to the right of the gate, the trail split, we took lower trail following flagging. It ended at the creek. Not sure if this is CT or trail for kayakers? We backtracked and followed the upper trail. Many road junctions to choose from. We found the entrance to North Chick trail, saw a white blaze going up the road. Lower parking area here maybe?
We decided to keep exploring, trying to follow Don's directions. We walked a graded roadbed downhill to the creek. Found Furnace Rock, or what we assumed was it. There was an opening for something; bear, fox, furnace, whatever. Nothing jumped out on Craig when he stuck his head in there. At the end of the road, there was Cain Creek, and a huge rock overhang. And beyond, high above the creek, Craig spotted the new bridge! Success! We found what we were looking for!
Underneath the overhang are lots of boulders and rocks. It's beautiful here with the creek rushing by. You can tell by the sticks under the overhang how high the creek gets. We climbed up to see the engineering work from the bridge builders wondering if they used manpower or a helicopter to get the bridge components in place. I don't recall seeing pics from the CT FB page about it. Since the trail isn't complete on either side, maybe they are not advertising it.
The ropes left by the kayakers came in handy to get up the ridge to hike out.
Pictures:
The Cumberland trail has some really beautiful sections. I love hiking along rambling creeks-especially when there is a bridge for crossing!
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