Cumberland Mountain TTA Hike

We had five people do a backpack trip on the Cumberland Mountain Segment of the Cumberland trail.  Eric Luncford, Lora McBride, Craig McBride, Marco King, and Pete Broehl.  This was my first backpack with the infamous Santa Claus.

This is a strenuous hike of a special mountain.  It has two rock formations that stick straight up and run on both sides of the mountain for the entire length. They call it the Devil's Race Track. The trail actually spends a lot of time on top of the rocks.  There are lots of views!  There is also Bruce Creek and Bruce Creek Falls on the lower section of the trail.  There is a shelter with a spring to spend the night at.

We started at Eagle Bluff parking at the overnight parking area 0.2 miles down from the overlook. There was a group of four wheeler riders at the overlook when we got there. They were excited to see Santa as well.  We hiked a total 3.6 miles to the Shelter and camping area.  The rock formations are amazing and the trail traverses across some rock areas that are narrow as well.  There is one rock with a hole going through it they call it the window rock.  There are numerous overlooks all along this trail giving you a chance to enjoy the scenery and take in the color changes.

After we got camp set up we hiked another 0.1 miles to the "Rock climb", which is a large stack of rocks you climb a ladder to get on top of, for an evening view of the valley.

We hiked back to camp and had a great evening telling lies around the campfire.  The next morning Marco got a good fire going to warm us up and eat breakfast around.  We headed out for the Bruce Gap trailhead which is 8.9 miles away.  Lots of up and downs along the ridge.  We ate lunch shortly after the short road walk we had.  We enjoyed the overlook for the Devil's race track where someone has put up an American flag and then we started our downhill trek.  At the bottom we enjoyed the walk along Bruce Creek and seeing Bruce Creek Falls.  Then more ups and downs going towards Cove Lake State Park.  We even saw a large black snake for Pete.

Between the weather, scenery, water fall, and snake, I think we covered everything on every one's list on the 12.7 miles we hiked.  We had a great hike with some great people.

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Cumberland Mountain Segment - Cumberland Trail

Cumberland Trail to rock overlook back to shelter 9.5
Shelter to trailhead via Volunteer trail 10
Total Miles 19.5

Lora and I headed to the Cumberland Mountain Segment of the Cumberland Trail.  We started at the trailhead next to Cove Lake State Park in Caryville, TN.  The trail will climb the Devils Racetrack (as pictured above) and go the length of Cumberland Mountain.

The trail starts on Bruce Gap Road and follows I-75 for a couple of miles until you climb the Devils Racetrack.  During that couple of miles you see a lot of wildflowers as you go by several wet areas and streams followed by hillside walking where the trail is pinched between the interstate and Shelton Hollow Lane.  We got to watch a doe and her youngster feeding as they did not hear or see us.  When we moved on they took off.  From here you drop down to Bruce Creek and climb it upstream past the man made water falls.  A bridge will take you across Bruce Creek and then you start the steep assent of Cumberland Mountain and the Devils Racetrack.

There is a beautiful 360 degree view from the top of the Racetrack.  The rock formation that you see of the Racetrack continues the full length of Cumberland Mountain.  The trail follows the rock lines and often the rock ridges are the trail.  It is an amazing formation and really cool to hike such a mountain.  The area between the rock formations is like a bowl or valley.  I have never seen a Mountain like this one.  You are ridge walking the entire way which is also a lot of ups and downs.

5.6 miles into the trail you come to a gravel road and then a house.  They have built a fancy fence there and a  gate for hikers to walk out to Eagle Bluff which gives you another aerial view of Jacksboro and Lafollette.  You can see the fingers of Norris Lake as well.  From there you get back on the trail and hike the ridges until you get to another one of the long skinny rock formations that have a hole in it called Window Rock.  I just had to climb through the window to see the other side.

From Window Rock you continue to walk the ridge and then you drop down between the ridges and the trail drops down to a wet spring area and then follows the bottom of the other ridge as the springs come together to form a good creek.  Just past this creek is the shelter which is in really good shape.  We set up camp by the shelter and gathered our water and firewood.  After dinner, while we still had daylight, we continued on down the trail 0.3 miles to the last really good overlook which they label the Rock Climb which is back on top of the rock ridge.  A ladder assists you with the climb up to the magnificent scenic view.

We hiked back to camp and enjoyed the sunset followed by a bright moon and stars.  We enjoyed the heat of the campfire as the temperature dropped.

The next morning we hiked back the way we came.  We saw the dam of the La Follette Reservoir off to the north and saw some more deer early in the day.  When we got to the Volunteer trail we took it which looped around and pass a beaver pond and then comes back into the main trail.  It blocked the sound of traffic on that section of the trail a lot better.

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