Armes Gap trail - Frozen Head State Park

I kind of invited myself on a hike with Pete, Lillian and Hix at Frozen Head State Park. I met up with them at the old Brushy Mountain State Prison and followed them up the mountain road to the Armes Gap trailhead. The 4 of us started climbing the old jeep road and took a spur trail on the left to the old prison mine. There are some small buildings still standing, the guard shack has a fence around it. The mine openings are gated. Very cool area to explore. Lillian told us about the history of the mines and how Brushy Mt Prison came to be built.

Back on the jeep road we kept climbing. A pickup truck came up behind us, it was a park Ranger. He didn't offer us a ride, just kept going. Before we got to the top of the mountain, he came back down and stopped to chat. He told us he had spotted a Canada Lily on the jeep road and gave us directions on where to find it. Lillian asked him about the old mining area and if they were going to include it as part of the history when they open the prison as a visitor center and museum. He agreed that it was a good idea. He gave us some info about an old home site on Hwy 62 that may be preserved by the Historical Society of Morgan County. He said good bye and we kept climbing.

When we got to Tub Spring we looked at all the trail junctions and decided to stay on the jeep road. We found one Canada Lily growing right by the side of the road just a little past all the junctions. We walked until it was lunch time and that was at the Coffin Spring trail junction. It looked overgrown, must not get much foot traffic. After lunch we started back the way we came. We took another short spur down to the Panther Branch Rockhouse. Heading back down the jeep road we found a lot of blackberries; that held us up for a while. Back at the trailhead, plans we made to meet up at Sonic in Wartburg. Turtle pecan Master Blast....yum!

After saying goodbye to everyone, I went back to the park and waded in the creek for a little while to cool off and get the dust off my feet. It was a beautiful day with 75 degrees for the high; a cool breeze, and good friends to hike with.

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Pete's Pictures:

Frozen Head - TTA

Camping/Hiking weekend at Frozen Head State Park arranged by Joan and Sara. We had 13 campers- Joan, Sara, Marietta, Richard, Wayne, Linda, Kat, Marcia, Greg, Steve, Cindy, Gary, and me.  I got there after work Friday evening right after most everyone else came off the trail for the day. Greg and Cindy got there after I did.  Kat had a campfire burning and had gathered wood for the weekend. It looked like tent city in the group campsite. Plus two adjoining sites had more tents. I brought veggies and dip to go along with all the other munchies and goodies. Supper was baked and fried chicken, potato salad, slaw, baked beans, macaroni and cheese. Dessert was peanut butter cookies and chocolate cake with a candle for the birthday girl. Sara, Linda and I all have September birthdays. We visited and sat around the campfire. Owls talked to us thru the night.

Saturday dawned clear and sunny. Sherry and Carolyn joined us for the day. The trail for the day was up the Lookout Tower trail to Bird Mountain. We saw Castle Rock, Mushroom Rock and the Retention Pond where we had lunch. Some of our hikers descended on North Old Mac after Castle Rock while the rest continued on the Cumberland Trail. Parts of the trail are overgrown with grass, briers and stinging nettle. We need more folks walking the trail to keep it clean. At Ross Gap we went down a rutted road bed climbing thru downed tree branches. At the end was a creek with really cool water, boots and socks came off and splish splash. A little further down the road was a swimming hole. Gary jumped in and Cindy and I were right behind him. Refreshing! Back at camp, into dry clothes, we went into Wartburg to have dinner at El Patron. The food and service were great. When we left we stopped at a few local stores to find liquid refreshment for the night. After conferring with a local police officer we found what we were looking for without totally incriminating ourselves. Another great campfire and visiting. More owls sang to us. 5 of us used our headlamps to walk to the entrance to an open area to watch the stars. No moon, dark, bright stars, one really good meteor, growling bear???, barred owls, one screech owl, then walked back to camp. Everyone else was already turning in for the night. We turned in too. Really early morn, a great horned owl woke everyone up for a concert. It was so cool.

Sunday morning, we ate and packed up camp. One headed home, 3 were going to check out the park for a while and head home; one was covered with chiggers and suffering, the rest of us drove to the entrance and started the South Old Mac Trail. We hiked up to the junction to North Old Mac and 2 more hikers headed back. The rest of us kept climbing and had lunch at the tower where there was a pile of flowers blooming around the area. 3 hikers started back. Back at the junction the rest of us (4) checked out the Panther Gap Rockhouse. The North Old Mac is a really pretty trail. There was a spur trail out to an overlook with a campsite but no known water source right there. We looked for water as we hiked on down. There were several places where water would be coming down the ridges in wet season, mostly dry today. At the end of the trail, Joan was going to head home, Gary, Cindy and I headed for the swimming hole. We cooled off before the drive home. Middle TN for them, south on 27 for me.

Great weekend in a beautiful park with great friends.    

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Frozen Head II

Day One: 3 Miles
Day Two: 11.3 Miles
Total: 14.3 Miles

After work, Lora and I headed out to Frozen Head for a campout and hike. We planned on hiking the Cumberland trail section of the park. We got packed, stopped for gas and stopped to fill our stomachs. We got to the park just as the Ranger was locking the gate. Thankfully he let us in.

We planned on hiking the two thirds mile to stay the night at Judge Branch campsite. Well, we hiked in and took the first left onto North Old Mac trail. After hiking about a mile we decided to check the map. Yep, wrong trail. So another mile and three quarters night hike and we made it to camp. You can see flowers on a night hike. We had to walk off that dinner anyway and the stars were beautiful. We got the fire going around 10pm. We didn't burn long and after a little cough medicine and listening to the owls, we were ready to call it a night. Sometime in the night we woke and listened to a couple of owls talking back and forth.

We got up the next morning and got breakfast going as we checked out the rest of the campsite. We packed up and headed back to the park office. We knew they were doing a flower hike and was wondering which trail they were hiking. It turned out they were hiking to the falls.

From the park office you have to go across the field and river to start the Cumberland trail loop. Nothing like a good old foot washing. They have applied for the grant to build the bridge and they have it marked where it would be built. We hiked up to Ross Gap and had lunch there. A couple of hunters on four wheelers drove by with a turkey tied on back.

After lunch we hiked to the retention pond and watched the fish and tad poles swimming. The tad poles were large with all four legs and a short tail. We hiked on to see mushroom rock and then on to the overlook. There were many beautiful flowers all along this trail. We crossed over North Bird Mountain trial and took a break at Bird mountain campsite. There is a spring at this campsite, but I don't think you can count on it as it was low already.

We took Lookout Tower trail back to the Big Cove campground. Lookout Tower trail is a dirt service road. When we got to the campground we looked up our TTA friends that were staying the night. We had a good visit with them and then headed back to the house.

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Frozen Head

Day One: 8.3 Miles
I had never been to Frozen Head and wanted to do an exploratory hike to see what all was there for future hikes with my groups. After work I headed to Crossville. I had a wonderful drive to the park through the curves to the mountains.

I was originally going to park at the visitor’s center, but the lady at the desk insisted on me parking at the lot by the ranger’s house. So we started at that trailhead and hiked the Interpretive trail back to Chimney Top trail.

Our first wildlife was toads. We also saw lots of squirrels, a chipmunk, a doe, crawdads, and a bird that we think was laughing at us for most of the trip.

The climb to Chimney Top was a pretty good workout. When we got to the top, we really couldn't decide where the campsite was. There is a sign at the Chimney Top with the elevation. You could see where people have had a campfire by the overhang as well as beside the rock, but no sign or fancy table, which we found at every other site later on. There is no water source at this area.

We continued through low gap and over Little Fork Mountain to Mart Fields. This was another pretty good climb. There is a chimney there in a small grass field before you reach the actual Mart Fields campsite. Marts Fields campsite actually has a table made from a large flat rock put on wooden legs. We didn’t find any water at this site.

From Mart Fields we hiked to Spicewood Trail and then descended to Spicewood Branch campsite where we spent the first night. Spicewood campsite is right on the river, so water is no problem there. As soon as we set up camp and gathered firewood, we started getting a light drizzle. With the leaves on the trees, we could still get washed up and eat dinner. It was getting dark by this time and we called it a night as the rain got harder. Later that night the owls started talking. And they talked all night long. We figured that there were three of them and they all had a lot to say.

Day Two: 9.2 miles
We got a wonderful start to the day including breakfast. We packed up and continued down Spicewood trail. We turned on Judge Branch trail and hiked it to South Old Mac trail. The Judge Branch campsite is actually two large campsites right on the river. This would be a great spot for a group camping area. Judge Branch trail follows the river and then crosses over it and heads uphill to the crossing with South Old Mac trail.

We took South Old Mac trail up Frozen Head to the lookout tower. We did some hiking through the clouds for a good portion of the morning and worked up a sweat climbing. The sun started to break through as we got to the top. We explored Tub Springs Campsite and Tub Spring on the way up. The spring is 200 feet from the camp in a brick structure next to the jeep road. It had plenty of water even as the rivers where short on water.

We had a great time at the lookout tower and also enjoyed some great views. Our views didn’t last long as the clouds came in fast and blocked everything out. I tried to take a picture of the windmills that were on top of another mountain.

We hiked back across Panther Gap heading North on the Lookout Tower trail. Somewhere around Little Fork Mountain we stopped for lunch on the side of the jeep trail. Lookout tower trail is a jeep road.

Our original plan was to hike Coffin Spring trail to North Bird Mountain trail. When we got our permit they notified us that North Bird Mountain trail has been closed for 25 years and they just now got the section from Bird Mountain trail to Bald Knob open. So we hiked to Bird Mountain trail and then got on North Bird Mountain by Bald Knob.

They have a lot of good switchbacks down Bird Mountain and there is water at the creek at the bottom. We then hiked over Jury Ridge and back down to Phillips Creek, which is another good water source. We set up camp here as it was getting late and we had passed another hiker, which told us that there was no water at our intended stop at Bird Mountain campsite.

We set up camp and gathered firewood. It was a good night to dry clothes next to the fire. It was plenty warm so the fire was kept small. We had an owl talk to us, but were much quieter through the night.

Day Three: 8.4 Miles
We woke up to the sound of a turkey perking as it walked around the campsite. Another beautiful morning and we started the climb up Bird Mountain. We got to see a red headed woodpecker fly by. The Cumberland trail crosses the Bird Mountain trail at the top of Bird Mountain. As we stood there, we watched a small woodpecker pecking at a tree. We hiked down the other side to the North Prong campground where we ate lunch at a picnic table. You would be surprised as to what a backpacker can do with a sink at a campground bathroom.

From the campground we hiked the road to Panther Branch trail. There are two waterfalls, the DeBord Falls off the side of the trail and Emory Falls down a half-mile side trail. I would imagine that both of these would be pretty at a time of more water as they were worth the hike now.

The trail goes straight through Panther Branch campsite. They have bench there with a pavilion over it next to the table. The campsite is right on the water. From here you start the climb up Old Mac Mountain. It is a pretty area, but a strenuous hike.

At the top is the North Old Mac Mountain campsite. It is off the trail and there is a boulder that sticks out with a wonderful view. There is no water at this site. We took a good break there. From the campsite we hiked down North Old Mac trail back to the truck. On the way we got to stop and watch a doe wander through the woods.

This is a very beautiful park with a lot of nice trails. It is not a place for beginner hikers as some of the climbs are strenuous.

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