Cumberland Mountain SP

Today’s hike at Cumberland Mountain SP. We hiked the Lake trail, the Pioneer Short trail, and the Pioneer Loop trail.

Pictures:

Cumberland Mountain State Park

Byrd Trail .5

Pioneer Short Loop 1.8

Pioneer Trail 2.55

Total 4.85

New year's day hike at Cumberland Mountain SP. We hiked from the Ranger Station down around the lake. Lot's of people out today and the weather was great.

 Pictures:

Cumberland Mountain State Park - Overnight Trail

Lora and I did a day hike at the Cumberland Mountain State Park. We did a counterclockwise hike starting with the Red blazed Cumberland Plateau trail, the Yellow blazed Byrd Creek trail, and the Blue Blazed Cumberland Overnight trail. 9.1 miles in all.

Lora had not done the Overnight trail and it had been ten years since I had. When I did it with the Outcasts, there had been a recent tornado that had destroyed the trail and it was rough. They have really cleaned it up since then.

Pictures:

Cumberland Mountain State Park

We met Dad and Mom at the Cumberland Mountain State Park in Crossville.  They brought their motor home over and we parked in the campground for an overnighter.  After a good visit we headed over to the boat house to rent some kayaks.  When we got there the boat house was closed so we went to the visitor center and found that the pool and boats were closed due to manpower during the week and where only open on the weekends.  So we headed to the trails.

We walked the Pioneer short and long loops for a five mile hike around Byrd Lake and creek.  We saw lots of varieties and colors of mushrooms and wildflowers. We saw fish, lots of frogs, and one snake. It was warm and quite muggy so we didn't mind when we got a light rain towards the end of the loop.  We headed back to the campground and grilled out some steaks.  It was a nice evening to sit around the campsite visiting.

The next morning, after breakfast, we hiked the 2.1 mile Byrd Creek trail and .5 miles of the Cumberland Plateau nature trail.  Again more flowers and mushrooms with a treat of ripe persimmons.  All the trails were in great condition with lots to see.  We stopped by the park store for an ice cream and after a grilled out lunch we packed up and headed home.

Great weekend!

Pictures: