Collins Gulf Loop TTA

I drove to Savage Gulf to hike with the Columbia/Upper Cumberland TTA  group. We met at the Collins West trailhead. Our hike leader was Gary and he planned a loop for us to hike. Other hikers were Louise, Kathleen, Richard, Jeff, Jennifer, Vicky, and Cynthia and her 2 dogs. We hiked to Suter Falls and I was thinking the last time I was here it was covered in ice.... then on to Horsepound Falls which was beautiful. Everything was a little damp so the trail was a little tricky. We had some trail dancing going on. We saw a lot of wildflowers starting to bloom, Trillium, Dutchman's Britches, Bloodroot, Toothwort, Rue Anemone, Hepatica.

We hiked down into the gulf and took the spur trail to Schwoon  Spring. We got on the Connector Trail to get to Stagecoach Road. Richard took the alternate stage road, exploring the high road. We met up again and then we took the Collins Rim Trail. We checked out all the overlook spur trails. The views were really pretty, you can see the trees budding. The boulder field was challenging today as the rocks were damp and slippery. At one of the creek crossings, one hiker had to see how much water he could get in his shoes.

The rain held off and we had a beautiful day of hiking. We did somewhere between 11 and 13 miles.

Pictures:

TTA Piney River Backpack

Stinging Fork  3 Miles
Twin Rock's Nature Trail 1.8
Flat Rock Loop Trail  0.7
Piney River Segment 8.46
Total Miles: 13.96

The Murfreesboro chapter hosted a backpack on the Cumberland Trail.  We met up at the Piney River trailhead on Shut In Gap road.  Lora and I got there early and hiked the Twin Rock's Nature trail and Flat Rock Loop trail before everyone got there.  When we had finished, the last car of hikers had pulled up.  There were three from Murfreesboro; Sara, Faith, and Jenny and four from Memphis; Deena, Lea, Jeff, and Ricky. That's not counting  Lora and I.  We loaded up into two cars and left the rest of the cars at the trailhead parking area.

Our first stop was Stinging Fork Falls Trail.  The trail starts at the gravel parking area on Shut-in Gap Road. This three mile round trip trail is rated moderate and leads the hiker through a managed pine plantation into the 140 acre Bowater Stinging Fork Pocket Wilderness.  There is a spur trail that leads to Indian Head Point, which is a scenic overlook of the rugged Stinging Fork Gorge.  The main trail descends into the gorge and ends at the 35 foot Stinging Fork Falls.

We didn't lose any hikers until just as we started the decent into the Stinging Fork Gorge.  Being the proud sweep I kept everyone in eyesight, when Deena asked where is Faith?  With a quick and calculated head count of eight I quickly figured we had lost one.  How in the h---?  We just started on the trail??  Well then it came out; one of the men said she had gone to use the bathroom before we left the parking area.  She had a fifty-fifty chance of picking the right trail and she went to the overlook instead.  So two of the girls went back for her and the rest of us continued on down to the falls.

We had lunch at the falls and our barefooted hiker went wading in the Fall pool.  After lunch we headed up and took the side trail to Indian Head Point.

Our next stop was the Piney River Segment.  It has been four years since I hiked this section so once again the search was on for the trailhead.  There is a 4x4 sign pole at Walden Mountain Road, which is an upgrade since the last visit.  The first road off of Walden Mountain Road is a gated road.  The next split is the Newby Branch Road and it also now has a 4x4 sign post.  You take the second entrance into the campground which is a "better" road and the trail kiosk is on the right.  All of the roads in this area are washed out as before.

A quick check of the packs and off we went.  When we got down to the Duskin Creek trailhead there were three trucks there from Rutherford County.  After we crossed the metal Duskin Creek bridge, we proved that the snakes are out.  I, being the fine sweep, showed everyone after they darn near stomped on him, a small water snake just to the side of the trail.  We also found a large lumber chain on the side of the trail.

When we got to the White Pine Cascades, I said my goodbye and headed back to the truck.  I only had the day to hike and the rest were there for an overnighter.

The rest of the story:

After Craig turned back the rest of us stopped at White Pine cascades to fill up water bottles. A little further down the trail, another snake was found, a baby, light brown with teeny spots, not that I got close enough to see the spots....

We passed by the Spider Den Bluff spur, no one wanted spiders, and headed on toward our camp. We found the junction for Rock House Branch but the trail sign was on the ground. We tried to prop it back up but the signage didn't make sense. No matter which way you turned the sign, it was wrong. If you pointed the arrow toward the Piney Picnic Area Trailhead, the arrow for Rock House pointed the wrong way. If you pointed the arrow toward Rock House Branch the sign for Picnic area pointed the wrong way????????Who made this sign????? Deena ran down the trail to make sure it was the campsite and ran back up to get all of us.

This is a great area for group camping. We had 8 tents and there was room for more. We had a huge fire ring with rock chairs for everyone right on the riverside. There were rock walls along the river bank on the other side and a rock wall along Rock House Branch. Old logging roads. We set up camp, gathered wood for the campfire, all stacked nice and neat.

We cooked supper, and had Belgian chocolates for dessert thanks to Ricky. The fire was big enough that the Outcasts would have been proud. Deena kept us entertained with ghost stories of Tennessee State Parks, and doing a little dance when her Jetboil boiled over. You are on fire girl! The stars put on a show for us too.

The next morning we were up and eating and packing up, and realized three of us were still sleeping to the sounds of the river rushing by. We woke them up and then Deena demonstrated again how a Jetboil  boils over.

We hiked on crossing more creeks flowing down the mountain sides and then at the suspension bridge crossing Piney River we heard Dueling Banjos and hiked a little faster. We got to see some of the first wildflowers blooming. We found trout lily, yellow and white violets, Hepatica, Blood root, Anemone,Spring Beauties and a few more white flowers I haven't identified yet.

Thanks to Sara for arranging the backpack and to the Memphis folks for driving so far to backpack with us. It was fun.

Pictures:

Charit Creek

Charit Creek Trail 1.0 Miles
Hatfield Ridge Trail 6.8
Charit Creek Overlook 1.4
DAY ONE: 9.2
Station Camp Creek Trial 4.3
Charit Creek Trail 1.0
Black House Branch Trail 4.4
DAY TWO: 9.7
TOTAL MILES: 18.9

Back to Big South Fork for another weekend backpack.  To add a little excitement to our hike, we did some off trail adventures in search of natural arches found on our Tennessee Land Forms Link.

We started at the Charit Creek trailhead which has been moved since the book and map have been printed.  It is now 0.2 miles back up the road where they built a horse trailer parking lot and a hiker parking lot and gated the road.

You pass the Fork Ridge trailhead and the trail starts at the back of the old parking spot.  This trail is also now part of the Sheltowee Trace.  The trail drops down a ladder and follows the creek down to Charit Creek Lodge.  We left the trail and climbed back up to the rock bluff wall.  Near the end of the wall we found Bob's Arch which is 12' x 10'.  At the bottom is another opening that goes all the way through.  It was 1' x 6'.  We then hiked the trail down to the lodge.  Behind the lodge we picked up the Hatfield Ridge Loop trail and headed uphill.  On the map it is labeled as the Charit Creek Lodge Connector trail.  We left this trail in search of the 25' x 30' Hatfield Ridge arch which we did not find.  After further study, I feel we started too low on the hill side and even though we climbed up another level we should not have left the trail until you see the large rock formations at the top of the climb.

By now we had a pretty good work out in and decided to abandon our further searches for arches and just hike the trail.  We took the side trail to the Station Camp Creek (Charit Creek) overlook.  It had a wonderful view of the valley and an aerial view of Charit Creek Lodge.  We then headed back to the Hatfield Ridge trail and hiked down to the end of the ridge.

The trail circles around the end of the ridge with some views of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River.    The trail now joins the John Muir trail and we made camp at an existing campsite on Station Camp Creek.  We had a warm campfire and saw the stars in between the clouds.  We got to hear an owl and I scared some large critter off when I went for more water after dark.

The next morning we got up and headed up stream on the Station Camp Creek trail.  They have made some changes and rerouted the trail / roadbed to avoid creek fording.  We were let down as we are always looking  forward to some old fashion foot washing.  We stopped at the Hatfield Cemetery and also at the pond that was dammed up by a beaver.  You could see some fresh cuttings as we removed one from the trail. When we got back to the lodge we took the Charit Creek trail back to the car.  We scared five deer on our climb out.

We swapped to day packs and hiked back to the Fork Ridge Trailhead and took it to the Black House Branch trail.  This follows the new Sheltowee Trace trail across to Jack's Ridge Loop trail.  We made a steep decent down to the creek crossings.  We crossed the Black House Branch three times and the Laurel Fork once before we started up the other side of the gorge.  This is also where the Laurel Fork Creek trail crosses.  On the way up there is a very large rock laying next to the trail and also a really impressive rock house to check out.   After we got to the Jack's Ridge Loop trail we turned around and hiked back to the car.  The creeks had not warmed up since the first trip across.

Another good hike and workout.

Pictures:

Window Rock

Lora and I went exploring after church on our mountain in search of Window Rock.  It is right off Window Rock Road.  It is located in the woods all by itself with no other rocks anywhere around.  We also took some pictures of the Sequatchie Valley from the Window Rock overlook.

Pictures:

Roaring Creek with Chattanooga Hiking Club

I met the CHC at the trailhead for Roaring Creek in Graysville. We had 1 to 2 inches of snow at home but there was none in the valley. I was hoping for a snowy hike. This trail is only 7.5 miles from home. Boodie Fox was leading the hike today. There were 7 of us. We hiked up the creek road and then up the trail to the bluff. Past the bluff the trail is flagged for future CT miles. We saw a hawk flying over the bluff area.

On the way back down, one of our hikers was missing a glove and 3 went back to the bluff to look for it. The rest of us started on down the trail.  They caught up with us at the cascading waterfall on the trail. When we got back to the creek road we went up the creek another mile to a waterfall. It sure was pretty. I have lived on this mountain all my life and had never walked to this waterfall; had heard about it but never had walked to it. Boodie said there is another waterfall up the creek, but you have to cross the creek. to get to it. We didn't have water shoes and the creek was up. Maybe a future hike for Craig and me. Just down the creek from the falls was a really pretty open area that was flagged with orange flags. ??? Maybe part of the future trail?

It started snowing as we started back toward the trailhead and stopped for a snack. We didn't stay seated very long, it was cold.  Then we headed back to our cars. As I drove up the mountain, I stopped to get a pic of the chimney rocks at the base of the bluff.


Pictures:

Local Falls II - Clear Branch Falls, Power Line Falls, Falling Water Falls

Lora and I again headed out to find waterfalls on our mountain.  We headed to Soddy Daisy to start our adventure.

Just South of the North Chickamauga Creek on Dayton Hwy, there is a trail that heads along the creek.  As you look from the road you can see the falls on the left side of the power lines.  This is the 140 foot Power Line Falls.  The trail is a four wheeler path and it follows the creek.  There are a few splits on this trail so when it splits and goes uphill, go uphill.  It will get farther from the creek as it goes and then crosses under the power lines and ends at Clear Creek where you will see the 40 foot Clear Branch Falls.  We got to see a flock of twelve turkeys walking up the side of the mountain.  From here the falls are on your Left and you will see the creek coming down the Mountain side from Power Line Falls on your right which flow into Clear Creek.

You are on your own from Clear Creek as you will have to climb the side of the mountain up to the Falls.  It is steep and will work you good.  There is no trail.  At the top you will find Power Line Falls.  To your right from the falls is the bottom of the Power Line Overlook.  You will see a blue pickup and an older car that made the flight from the overlook and neither made it very well.  If you turn around you will get an aerial view of Soddy Daisy from the base of the falls through the trees.

We ate our lunch on a flat rock up there and then started our steep decent back to Clear Creek.  On the way down I hear a high pitch scream and turn around to see Lora doing the log roll down the side of the mountain.  Luckily, I was close enough to grab her by the leg and stop her.  She doesn't know how she got turned sideways on the slope.  You will walk up and down this descent on the side of your feet grabbing anything that you can both ways.  Anyway, you will know you did some climbing by the time you get back to your car.  We headed off for our next adventure.

Our next water fall was the 110 foot Falling Water Falls which is further South.  We took the Pickett Gulf Road off Dayton Hwy to the dead end and parked in a guys driveway who gave us permission.

There is no trail but there is an old roadbed which starts at the South end corner of the clearing at the bottom.  Follow the old roadbed as far as you can until you get to the valley of the boulders.  The higher you go the easier.  We followed Falling Water Creek up to the first branch coming in from the left, Little Falling Water Creek, and started climbing up from there.  It was really a rock and boulder climb.  Almost to the top you will see the lower falls and from here you can start to see the upper falls.  This is a very strenuous climb and very dangerous as the rocks are slippery.  When you get to the base of the falls it will be worth the work.

For the trip back we just headed East to get out of the boulder field as soon as we could and then headed back down hill to catch the old road bed.

Pictures:

Sawtooth / Dead Deer Arch / Rock Creek / Buffalo Arch

Sawtooth Overlook and back 7 miles
Dead Deer Arch
Rock Creek Loop 9 miles
Parker Mountain Trail 0.6
Buffalo Arch 0.5
Total Miles: 17.1

Off to Big South Fork we went with an adventure in mind.  We started off on the Map listed as Hicks Ridge Trail and Sawtooth Ridge Trail.  In the book it is listed as Laurel Fork of North White Oak Creek.  Anyways the trailhead is on Darrow Ridge Road and the sign says 3.5 miles to Sawtooth Overlook.  Just up the trail is a new trail "Darrow Ridge Horse Trail"  that goes 2.1 miles East to Hippy Cave.

Our trail is old road bed which passes a cool looking rock wall on the left.  The Wild Cat Den is at 0.6 miles, which is a large rock shelter which has opening in the roof making it a natural arch in formation.  From there you ford the Laurel Fork on pavers.  Even at 24 degrees outside, the calf deep creek felt cold.  The roadbed goes up the other side with a steady climb.  When you get to the top you will find the longest straight trail in the BSF.  We hung a right at the intersection with the Sawtooth Ridge Trail and headed out to the overlook. The trail to the left is supposed to go out to what Google shows as Montgomery Lane off 154.

The Sawtooth Canyon is totally different than any other in the BSF.  From the air it would look like a saw blade with the teeth facing each other from both sides of the canyon.  The Laurel fork works it way back and forth between the high rock walls of the canyon.  We walked one of the teeth out to the end.  It started snowing on us there and we had a couple of white outs as we were eating our lunch.  Then we followed our trail back to the car.  We did not find the trail listed on the map as Pond Ridge Trail.

Next we were going to drive down to Hippy Cave.  Just past the Sawtooth trailhead there is alot of roads built for land that was for sale.  Maybe a quarter mile down the road turned into a mud pit with a field on the side.  We stopped and walked around the mud pit and saw that the road continued along the side of the field  but you would need a tractor or a good four wheel drive to make it.  We saw a trail heading into the woods and followed it for a bit and it connects to the new trail Darrow Ridge Horse Trail.  So we called this adventure off.  All the other trails off Darrow Ridge Road must be for hiking in dry weather only.   Maybe mid summer.

Next on our agenda was Dead Deer Arch.  This is an unmarked arch with no path going to it.  A hunter found it while looking for a deer.  The deer fell in the crack that makes the arch.  We found it in the book.  We drove the 1.8 miles up Divide Road and pulled off to the left.  We found the two signs on the post for the Pickett State Forest and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and started our bush whacking for the 0.1 miles down into the gorge.  Lora found a rock wall on the right with an opening so we headed that way.  After we explored the area around the creek and did find a small waterfall, we decided that we were in the wrong area.

On the way in I thought I saw a large rock wall over the next hill so we went and followed the next draw back up towards the road.  Here we found the arch.  It has a 40 foot span and is higher than the advertised 18 feet high as you can tell from our pictures.  After exploring the area, we headed up the North end of the arch and in about fifty feet we were back on the road and came across a tree with the same signs.  So if your looking for this arch, it is between 1.7 and 1.8 from TN 154 and look in the woods for the drop off you can see about 50 feet into the woods.  Go in by the tree with the two signs.  This is before you get to Watson Branch Road.

Next on the agenda was 9 mile Rock Creek Loop.  We hiked it clockwise to get to a campsite with water within a mile.  There was a group of Boy Scouts camping across the street from the Southern trailhead.  We parked up the road at the main trailhead and walked the road back to the Southern trailhead.  There was about a half inch of snow on the ground when we started.

We dropped down into the gorge and to Rock Creek.  There was a campsite at the junction with the JMT so we made it ours.  We collected alot of wood for the 19 degrees it was going to get down to.  We had a peaceful evening with a clear sky, lots of stars, and a moon so bright we didn't need flashlights.

The next morning we continued our hike of Rock Creek.  We were looking for the intersection of Coffee trail from across the creek, but never saw it.  It was another plan that we were considering as a trail into the Rock Creek loop.  We also found out that the Sheltowee has been rerouted for anyone that has hiked it.  It used to end at Pickett State Park, but now it is following the JMT and crosses over to the Charit Creek Lodge and goes back to the JMT and on to Leatherwood Ford.

The Rock Creek Loop is a beautiful trail covered with rock walls, the creek, a waterfall, and lots of green.  We had lots of icicles too this time of year.  The prettiest section is the rail bed out of the gorge with the waterfall and rock walls.  We passed four backpackers from Ohio along Rock Creek and one bicycle rider on the last section before the graveyard.

Now for the Buffalo Arch.  We drove back out to TN 154 and drove North past Pickett State Park.  We passed the trailhead for Coffee Trail which is a gated road, and headed into Kentucky to FR 562.  The first road to the right off FR 562 is the Parker Mountain trailhead.  You follow this trail 0.3 miles and the Buffalo Arch trail is a 0.25 mile spur trail  off to the right.  This is an amazing looking arch as it comes off the end of a rock wall.  It spans 82 feet and is higher than the advertised 19 foot clearance as you can see in our pictures.

So back to car as time runs out for this weekends adventures.  Life is Great!

Pictures:

Flipper Bend Trail

Clear Branch Short Loop:  6.6 miles

Lora and I decided to do a quick hike after church and try to beat the rain.  Well we didn't get to beat the rain, but we did have a good hike. We took the Flipper Bend Trail in the N. Chickamauga Creek WMA State Natural Area to the 1.8 mile Clear Creek Short loop.  You really need to pay attention to the trail markers on the Flipper Bend access trail as there are many road beds and trails through this area.  We did the short Clear Creek Short loop which they advertise as 6.6 miles.  It is a pretty walk through the woods and along Clear Creek.  We will have to go back and do the rest of the trails.

Trail Description

Map

Pictures:

Maudes Crack TTA Hike

I went to Big South Fork Saturday to hike with the Upper Cumberland Chapter of TTA. Talking to Craig along the way and he was asking the usual questions of “did you remember your….” and I thought I did remember…Only when I was almost to the park I started looking for my wallet……no wallet. I called Mom to go to my house to see if I dropped it somewhere between the house and the car or the mailbox. She found it in the garage and offered to bring it to me. (two hour drive) I declined the offer and watched my speed from that point.

I started down the Divide Road and was almost to the trailhead when I saw a ditch in the road. I stopped and thought “what would Craig do?” and drove thru it slowly only dragging the hitch coming out of it. Then found 4 more ditches dug into the road. I got to the trailhead and no one was there. I waited a while and started wondering if the others might not be able to get thru the ditches. I drove back to look for them, met up with a couple of hunters with their dogs. I asked about the ditches in the road and they explained about water bars. They must be expecting floods. I found the other hikers, warned them about the ditches and turned around to follow them back to the trailhead. We managed to get thru without losing a muffler or oil pan.

There were 7 hikers ready to get on the trail with Kathleen leading the way. We hiked the Longfield Branch Trail to No Business Creek and crossed in our sandals. Pete showing us a better way, used plastic bags over his boots. We hiked the JMT up to the JMT overlook then back to the No Business Trail. We reminded Kathleen that our lunches were calling to us so we stopped along the creek to eat. We saw old homesites and one had daffodils budding and one blooming in early February!

Then on to Maude’s Crack where we followed Pete up and thru, then a view from the top. We followed Maude’s Crack Trail back to the cars. We found firewood in the parking lot and Lillian the engineer came up with the idea to use the firewood to put in the ditches to try to keep our vehicles from dragging so much. They put this plan into action with Lillian and Richard placing the wood, letting us drive across and then taking the wood to the next ditch. In and out of the van till we got thru all 5 ditches. I told Lillian she should get a job with TDOT.

The others headed on to another adventure at the Twin Arches and I headed home, without my license, driving responsibly and not stopping for ice cream, boo hoo. My fellow hikers did offer to give me money if I needed some, I knew I had enough water, a snack and enough gas to get home. Wasn’t thinking about ice cream until I passed the Sonic in Crossville. Lesson learned.

Pictures:

Water Falls

Lora and I took the afternoon and went in search of a couple of waterfalls on our mountain.  We found the 90' Crystal Falls and the 20' Brush Creek Falls.

Pictures: