Cumberland Trail New Segment

Lora and I checked out the progress being made on the new segment of trail off Leggett Road. It's a beautiful area and should be open soon. Lora saw a snake two different times and didn't scream!

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Cumberland Trail Soddy

Lora and I started at the Little Soddy trailhead off Hotwater Road and hiked to where the trail heads down into the Big Soddy Gorge. It was a hot day for hiking, but lots of flowers.

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TTA Backpack Cumberland trail

 

Eight of us backpacked the Graysville and Laurel/Snow pocket wilderness segments of the Cumberland trail. It was a very hot weekend! We started at Roaring Creek trailhead and headed North. Enjoying the waterfalls, overlooks, and rock formations. We set up camp about a mile before Hwy 30 with a good water source, flat area, and a campfire. Sunday we contiued on across Hwy 30 and dropped down into the Morgan Creek gorge. Wonderful display of wildflowers all the way down the mountain. We crossed Morgan Creek and followed Richland Creek up to the campground and back down to the parking area. It was around 16 miles.

Backpackers were: Sara Pollard, Cynthia Skidmore, ,Cindy Strang, Curtis Thomas, Bryan Tauchen, Jean Breuer, Craig McBride, and Lora McBride.

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McGill Creek on the Cumberland Trail

We took advantage of the weather and hiked in August in the high 60's to McGill Falls on the Cumberland Trail. It was still hot due to humidity so we took a swim at the falls to cool down.

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Piney River - Cumberland trail

Lora and I went to the Piney River Segment of the Cumberland trail checking out wildflowers. It was a beautiful day to be out. We hiked out to the suspension bridge and back.

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Roaring Creek Segment of the Cumberland Trail

Lora and I headed down to the Roaring Creek segment of the Cumberland Trail. We just hiked along the creek checking out the flowers. We followed the roadbed to the end and headed back before the rain set in.

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Hall Road Section of the North Chickamauga Creek

Today’s hike on the CT. Starting at the Hall Road trailhead which is on Old Anderson road. We hiked 3 miles in on the South end of the N. Chickamauga creek segment. We saw a salamander, a deer, and six hikers. Beautiful day to be out.

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Hinch Mountain Segment - Cumberland Trail

Lora and I hiked 10.6 miles with the Scenic City TTA doing the Hinch Mountain segment of the Cumberland trail.

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Morgan Creek Segment

Hiked the Morgan Creek Segment of the Cumberland Trail from Hwy 30 to the Snow Falls trail. All new trail rated difficult due to the climb out of the gorge. Beautiful area with lots of mining history.

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Graysville Segment of the Cumberland Trail

Lora and I hiked the Graysville segment of the Cumberland Trail. We started at the climbers parking and headed North to the overlook. We picked up a couple of dogs to walk with us on the trail.

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Morgan Creek segment of the CT

Today's hike was at Laurel Snow Pocket Wilderness checking out the new segment of Cumberland trail going to Morgan Creek. We hiked to the new Morgan Creek bridge and then a little further to see the mines. This segment, when completed will go to Hwy 30. Our excitement today was seeing a Mink carrying it's baby up the creek towards us.

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Moccasin Creek Segment CT

 

Today we checked out the new Moccasin Creek segment of the Cumberland Trial. We parked at the Moccasin creek bridge on Pine Creek Road. You walk back up the road a hundred yards on the East side of the creek to start the trail. It's three miles long right now. The rockwork that they did for the rocky areas were AMAZING. There is a nice camping area at the confluence of Moccasin Creek and Piney creek with a good swimming hole. On down the trail you climb up to a great view of the creek gorge. The trail ends as you drop back down into the gorge. 

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Head of the Sequatchie Segment CT

Lora and I decided to check out the new segment of the Cumberland Trail between Stinging Fork Falls and Hinch Road. We figured it would be a three day backpack to go both ways on this section. 

We parked at the Stinging Fork Falls trailhead and then headed North on the CT. The trail drops down to cross Little Soak Creek and then climbs up the other side. You hike through a pine forest and then turn left on an old road and follow that to a clear cut section. From there you go down to Soak Creek and walk along the creek. You climb up out of the creek gorge and cut across the Little Soak Creek again. About four and quarter mile you cross a private gravel road and shortly afterwards is there designated campsite. After following the creek you will climb up out of the gorge where there are three small waterfalls from the bluff walls. From on top of the bluff you will cross several old roadbeds and tributarys of Sweeny Branch. At seven miles in you will drop off into the Soak Creek gorge and pass the 30' Keeton Falls. There is a metal bridge crossing Soak Creek. That is where we set up camp. It took us a long time to get to this point because we were picking up sticks and clearing the trail from all the branches that had fallen since they built the trail. We had a peaceful night under the light of a full moon by a campfire. 

The next morning we contiued to clean trail. You climb out of the gorge and then cross many old roadbeds until at nine miles you drop down into the Pond Cove gorge. You cross over Pond Cove Creek and then at about eight and three quarter miles end up at side trail to 40' Pond Cove Falls. There is a tent pad set up at the falls. At nine and a half miles you see the pond and then Hinch Cemetery. You cross the gravel road to the cemetery and go down switchbacks where you get a good view of the Sequatchie Valley. All along this area the Bloodroot was at peak, and it covered the hillsides. Also Virginia Bluebells were starting to bloom. You cross a dangerous crossing of drainage and then hike along a bluff wall. One you pass the wall you go back to roadbed. We turned around about three quarters of a mile from Hinch Road being out of time and hiked back to our first campsite. Another beautiful night around the campfire. That night I woke up to the sounds of leafs shuffling. I turned on my headlamp and looked under my hammock to see a critter on it's back rubbing all over the leafs. I yelled it and it ignored me. It finally rolled over and was a raccoon. I kept yelling at it and it ignored me. Finally I hissed at it and it looked all around. I hissed at it again and it walked off. It never did get into anything.

The next morning we got up and headed out. We made a lot better time not having to clean up the trail. We ate lunch on the trail and was back at the car about 1:30.

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Piney River Segment of the Cumberland trail

Lora and I did a backpack of the Piney River Segment of the Cumberland trail. We got a late start on the trail and did three miles in to the Piney bridge crossing and camped there. There were lots of wildflowers blooming along this section. We also saw a hawk, a deer, and a bat. We collected wood for a fire, set up camp, and ate dinner. It was a wonderful night under the stars and bright half moon. 

The next morning after breakfast, we packed up and continued along the trail. We saw more wildflowers, butterflies, and woodpeckers. We hiked another two and half miles to the Spiders den and went down to check it out. It had been a while. Then we headed back to the trailhead stopping at the Hemlock Falls and the Picnic area where Lora and I climed in the river for a quick bath. It was another wonderful backpack.

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Barker Camp section of the North Chick Creek

Today we went in on the CT trail at the Barker Camp trailhead and headed South. It was a beautiful day to be out on the trail. We went about five miles in and back out.

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Duskin Creek

Lora and I headed up to the Piney Creek section of the Cumberland trail. We started at Duskin Creek and hiked to the Piney River Picnic Area on the trail. It was loaded with wildflowers. We stopped at Spider Den for lunch which had lots of flowers as well. 

Blue Cohosh, Dwarf Crested Iris, Baneberry, Red Trillium, Gaywings, Wood Vetch, Little Brown Jugs, Chickweed, Foam Flower, Spring Beauties, Phlox, Yellowroot, Barren Strawberry, Anemone, Wood Sorrel, Alumroot, Cumberland Spurge, Mandarin, Firepink, Perfoliate Bellwort, Jack in the Pulpit, Purple Phacelia, Red and Yellow Buckeye, Mayapple.

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CT - Ozone Falls Segment

                                     

It was the perfect day for a hike. The day was sunny and temperatures in the upper 50's. We left a vehicle at the Ozone Falls parking lot and shuttled to the top of Black Mountain to begin our hike. Early spring wildflowers were scarce, but there was lots of water coming over Ozone Falls. The shallow streams were beautiful because of all the recent rains, and steppingstones made it easier to cross them. We enjoyed our lunch beside a small stream. The new steps leading from the bottom of the falls to the top are nice. Hikers were Jay Brain, Craig McBride, Lora McBride, Sara Pollard, Georgeanne Ross, and Wayne Yancey. 

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Heiss Mt. Trailhead

 

Lora and I head out to the Heiss Mt. trailhead for a morning walk. It is a beautiful day and spring flowers are out. We had lunch at Perkins point and then came back. Places to go.

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Hall Road section of North Chickamauga Creek

 After reading on the CTC newsletter from August about some folks hiking this trail, we went hunting for the trailhead (newsletter said Hall Road). We drove Hall Road twice, no trail. Google North Chickamauga Creek, boom, Old Anderson Road. Dirt, rough, but found a parking area and a kiosk (with nothing on it) and a brown Cumberland Trail sign along with a Wild Trails sign. It was cold and we had a little snow falling. Lora had her mask on, not for covid, just for cold. Trail followed North Chick Creek, so pretty, lots of hemlocks, mountain laurel and lots of camping areas. Easy walk. About 5 miles in we turned around at Seed Tick Branch. Found remnants of a still. The sun came out and we had blue sky and a little bit of warm air. 

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McGill Creek

On the way to Walmart we decided to go ahead and hike McGill Creek to the falls and back. Another beautiful day and we got to meet Dana a friend of our blog on the trail. Pretty cool!