Black Bear Resort

Lora and I headed to the Roan Mountain area for a three day getaway. We camped at the Black Bear Resort in Hampton Tennessee. Very nice place up on a mountain. Very clean and very nice owners. After we set up camp, off we went on our first hike right from the campground. We did the 3.5 mile Coon Den Falls loop. That night we just relaxed around camp.

The next morning we attempted to find the Doe River Gorge train tunnel. Almost but not quite. A bridge missing the floor stopped us. We headed up to Roan Mountain to see the flowers. We crossed the Balds and made it to the top of Grassy Ridge Bald before the rain set in. It hit us hard trying to find some shelter before we got washed away. We made our way back though thoroughly soaked. We drove up to the Rhododendron gardens and walked through enjoying the flowers. After that we drove down to Roan Mountain State park and hiked the Fred Behrend trail from the campground. We got wet AGAIN! We headed back to camp and got dinner cooked before it rained again.

The next morning before we headed out we tried to hike the Laurel Fork trail out of the Dennis Cove recreation area. We didn't make it very far before we came to the first river crossing which did have a cable to use but it was so high it wouldn't do us any good. We turned around and headed back.

We loaded up the trailer and headed out. On the way back we stopped at Sycamore Shoals State Park and toured it. Then we headed to Jonesborough, Tennessee's oldest city, and toured the downtown area. After that we headed to David Crockett State Park and toured it. Then we headed to Greeneville TN to tour the Andrew Johnson Homestead. On the way home we stopped just East of Knoxville to let the rush hour traffic clear and a very large storm pass.

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TTA Tennessee River Float

On Sunday June 7 ten kayakers from the Murfreesboro, Highland Rim, Nashville and Soddy-Daisy Chapters paddled about twelve miles up and down the Tennessee River Gorge.  The kayakers were Sara Pollard, Joan Hartvigsen, Lora and Craig McBride, Chuck and Patty Deen, Paulo Smith, Cathy Conley, Kim Meeks, and Joni Perrine.  We put in at TVA Raccoon Mountain Ramp and paddled upstream about four miles to Pot Point.  We enjoyed our lunch on a shady gravel bar on river left and went for a swim.  We then headed back down river, stopping a long the way to swim at several points. We took out at Sullivans Boat Ramp.  Our journey took us through Prentice Cooper State Forest, where we paddled under four occupied Osprey nests.  We also saw Great Blue Herons, King Fishers, turtles  and Loons.  Craig saw a couple of snakes swimming along the shoreline.  Through out our river journey we were surrounded by cliffs and beautiful Tennessee mountains.

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Mitchell Ford Kayak and Canoe Launch

Lora and I headed out to our new spot I found to put in Mitchell Ford Kayak and Canoe Launch on White Cave road. It is another way to get on the Caney Fork river. We had seen this parking area before when we hiked into
Virgin Falls the back way, but I did not put the two together. I just saw it on Google Maps and it was on.

They have a nice parking area and a walkway with a bridge over a dry creek and then a path through the woods and then a nice stairway going down to a not so nice area to launch. It's a LONG haul for a canoe. We did some exploring and then found a path that went to the road cutting our carry by half and a decent launching area. It was on again.

We went down stream first passing a couple of kayaking fishermen until we came to our first set of rapids. We just turned around and headed upstream to see how this would go. When it was said and done we had gone up steam and walked three different rapids before we said enough. It is a beautiful area and would recommend it. We got to see a couple of turkeys, lots of fish, a turtle, and three otters.

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